I really appreciate the lunatic + guide. I started a play through of my own a while back but haven’t touched it in quite some time. I really love the advice you give when it comes to strategizing for this outrageous challenge, and I think it’s really helpful for anyone looking to improve their gameplay even in easier games
So in my last attempt, I got semi stuck here as normally, Frederick on fort in Lunatic would tank everything, but Luna+ complicates things a lot But with the even bulkier Lvl 7 Robin with 12 defense (+4 def out of 6 lvl ups), it was a lot easier and even Hawkeye hammer didn't face Robin at all I did semi rig to not see too many Luna enemies, it's a lot better to rig now than to reset after 15 min into a map. (Also got hit by a 2% crit from the Mercenary, but that means 6 dmg instead of 2, lol) Am going into Chapter 2 with Elixir on Fred and a lvl 10 Robin, might probably be the hardest map with the contenders Chapter 5 and 6. (At least even on my first run on Lunatic, Chapter 2 took me the most attempts) Edit: Lvl 10 Robin: 28 hp, 7 str, 8 mag, 12 skl, 13 spd, 5 luck, 14 def, 8 res. Average lvl 10 Robin: 26.2 hp / 10.5 str / 9.05 mag / 9.5 skl / 10.5 spd / 6.5 luck / 12.95 def / 7.15 res Seems like my Robin screwed in offense and luck but blessed in everything else.
Luna+ no grind is still something that not a lot of people are able to do. Even years ago when I was actively playing this game and trying to solve it with Serenes Forest forum members much smarter than me, I can admit I never actually kept to the resources available to a player that just freshly unlocked the mode. (Aka I used the Renown shop with max renown from previous playthroughs) Looking forward to seeing how you tackle guides with this brutal mode.
The meta strategy for the game is very underdeveloped right now, that's a big part of the reason why it hasn't been done much before. There are people smarter than me who have played the game before, but most of them simply didn't try to approach the game seriously. I'm sure someone else could have solved it before I did, if they tried. But they all moved on to Fates and other games 😅
I really love your guides!! I’ve even been watching your saved streams because it’s very exciting to see actual engaging gameplay X3c!! when I first started, I think I went with an IGN strategy that was just “prologue: keep resetting until you get the glass fire tome,” maybe water trick? Then I think it was a whole bunch of turtling until you got to the point where you can buy your previous Robins & use them to sweep the game, it was so boring & tedious I straight up hated it, I can’t remember if I ever completed Lunatic + XD This guide has me incredibly excited to actually replay awakening, I am planning on grinding since I also wanna build/use units I’ve never used before & I was wondering, if you could reclass more than 1 unit, who would they be? Personally I really wanna make Ricken a Cavalier, simply because I like the bonuses & discipline more lol
If you've been watching the streams you might have seen I had one stream where I talked all about grinding, although I ended up not talking too much about it. As for reclassing many units.... well, that gets in a pretty huge discussion! Haha I have played the game both with and without grinding, and I think both styles of play are valid, and they are fun in different ways. Maybe I'll make a video talking about all of the builds I used for my grinding runs. The main thing I learned from playing with grinding is which units and builds work, and then I apply that knowledge to my no-grinding runs so I already know which builds to aim for. Hope that helps? 😹
@ honestly, it kind of does XD My biggest concern is to “soft lock” myself, but i guess if I’m grinding +using a streetpass exploit (for more seals) i could just be worrying myself for nothin lmao Definitely looking forward to your future videos!! For now imma sit in my corner & think over if I want Kellem to be a Lissa replacement or my Thief XD
I restarted my Lunatic Classic run. It was a Fredrick run mostly from the beginning until after chapter 3. I chose Sumia as my second carry marrying them to Fredeick. I leveled those two on the infinite battles. I fed Robin as many kills as possible on two green tiles to get them into a usable state. The path I took with the characters was Fredrick Great Knight level 5 - General. Sumia Pegasus Knight 10 - Dark Flier 15 - Falcon Knight. For Male Robin Tactician 10 - Grandmaster 15 - Thief. I was on chapter 11 at that point. I had allowed several characters to die without restarting in previous chapters due to just reset fatigue. I could have continued playing at that point with my three strong characters. I deleted the file and started over. Reclassing Robin from a level 15 Grandmaster into a Thief made the character weaker. Getting base class abilities out of the way in the earlier levels is the right way to do that. This is a mistake I have made several times in the past.
Yes, I am DEFINITELY planning to talk about this in a later video but I am really, really down on Second Seal usage. You can softlock your run if one of your best combat units gets reset into level 1 in a base class. Heck, even in a context with grinding, it can be EXHAUSTING to level them back up.
These little mental math tricks like the luna calculations ill have to keep in mind. It could help for any fire emblem game where luna procs are a common occurrence like in Heroes. Still barely helps cause you have to do 10 extra calculations on top of that to get the final damage. Stat stacking has balloon so much in that game that the battle forcast cant keep track of all of it and thus will actively lie to you in your face but i digress. Cool vid.
I used to use that strategy too! Honestly it's been a while since I changed over to using the top fort, so I can't even remember the reason why I switched. Probably has to do with the Virion/Sully movement tech 😹
early promoting virion to bow knight is probably the best use case for him. he really likes the speed + movement bonus it gives both him and his pair up partner, and combining that with higher weapon rank bows that he’ll actually be able to use in the midgame lends him some pretty favorable benchmarks. he’ll be carrying over an A-rank from frederick and at least a combined total of B-rank from two or one other support partners as well, which will help immensely. in my experience, virion will eventually fall off this way, because realistically he desperately needs a second seal to keep up, but so, SO many other units benefit way more from one. getting him to 10 in time to use a seal is also sort of questionable in first place, but not unreasonable enough that i think a master seal unfit for the immediate benefit provided. rally skill is also not necessarily a premium given the nature of lunatic+ class routing, but i think having the cheapest and possibly earliest access to it counts for something.
Yeah I've started to prefer Gregor, Lon'qu, Vaike and other units as my bow users. I'll talk about Virion a lot more in my upcoming character specific guide, because I still have a LOT to say about him. But I am worried because I actually loved this guy at first, and thought he was super underrated... and he KINDA is underrated but... still not long term amazing. The more runs I do, the more I see he always falls behind eventually. Which begs the question if you should bother feeding him at all or sake the EXP for Vaike/Lon'qu or someone else.
@@oEllery i don't neccessarily believe falling behind is a bad thing. virion is still useful when you get him, and i wouldn't say having him transition to a more supportive role counts against him. even post promotion, feeding virion isn't a terrible idea, because any extra stats might translate to more pairup bonuses later down the line. and don't forget; he'd still be an 8 move bow unit. that's incredible utility by itself. though, i still think you're right about just benching him when he stops being useful. if you don't have the EXP budget to get him to level 10 in time, he's not worth keeping around.
I remember on a challenge on lunatic I had Virion change to mage and glow up on Mustafa's map. He kept dodging and getting speed. I think I actually capped his speed by the endgame.
I -must- explore the potential of Mage Virion in my upcoming video! However, I'm not a huge fan of Second Seals right now. The more I delve into the EXP formula, the more I really, really appreciate characters who can promote directly into a great Tier 2 Class with a Master Seal ASAP. Even better if they get strong base class skills. Not everyone realizes this is the reason why Tharja is so good, but it's among the reasons why units like her, Henry, and Gregor are strong! I'll talk about it more later 😋
@@oEllery I hardly ever go Tier 1 to Tier 1. I do believe Dark Mage Miriel is better than Tharja though I might be just as fine reclassing her from sage to sorcerer, specially if we wait for tomefaire. Robin is Ok due to veterany and Donnel just needs it. The unit I kinda regret was Lissa to Pegasus knight. In general I don't think it's that bad Tier 1 to Tier 1 as caps are high enough to even do 20 10.
I wanna add here too that if you get unlucky and Fred doesn’t get a strength level up for Chapter 2, do not be discouraged. If you are able to, pass the bronze Lance to him and have him train up his Lance rank to A (should only be about 4-5 combats). This will give him A Rank Lances which boost his Atk by 2 if he is using lances, making up the potential levels of loss strength. This +2 might is essential for killing the Mercenary in Chapter 2 as easily as possible and makes it so you don’t have to rely on dual strikes. What I personally like to do is put Fred on the bottom fort and have him trade with sully so he gets the bronze Lance, then have Virion trade him the elixir then pair up into Sully so that she can move him out of there. He should be in a forest tile during all of this so he’s get +1 defense which is enough to let him live barring some Luna stuff. And again if the axe users have Hawkeye a quick reset can help. Once the Fighters are out of the picture you can use the Bronze Lance to chip everyone and build Lance rank, as long as you get to A Rank Lances you don’t need to worry about strength level ups. The only level ups that should matter are speed as speed inflates very very fast
Interesting, but the Strength isn't for the Mercenary. It's for the Soldiers. Being able to remove them with a single round of combat can massively reduce the amount of pressure on your back line on turn 2, that's why I think the combined Str between Fred and Chrom is so important. You're far more likely to get favorable Turn 2 board states with this set up. I'm not sure if grinding the lance rank would be enough to make up for the difference though.
@@oElleryIt does actually make a difference surprisingly enough. I had 2 runs where I had Fred with B lances and he wasn’t able to ORKO the Mercenary since he didn’t get any strength. The +2 Might is super duper vital not just for the Mercenary but also makes the kill threshold for the soldiers more manageable. Base Frederick has 13 Strength and 26 Attack with the Silver Lance. A Rank Lances boosts that to 28 Attack. Add in Triangle Advantage and this gives Fred 29 Attack against the Mercenary. The Merc has 30 HP and 3 Defense, putting him at 4 HP. If you pair Vaike onto Frederick, he will gain +4 Strength, allowing him to outright kill the Mercs on the map. This also lets him chunk the soldiers for just as much damage, as the +4 Strength gives him an attack of 32 if he has A Rank Lances, letting him do a max (with no strength levels) of 28 Damage to the Soldiers, leaving them at 4 HP. Even if he doesn’t kill, the bonus +2 Defense from Vaike pair up lets him survive for a bit longer if the soldiers don’t roll Luna+. This is assuming you’re unlucky with Fredrick and he gets no strength level up. If he hits level 3 and has gotten 2 Strength levels, you don’t need the Lance Rank. However I think it’s a safe play to go for as it makes chipping everyone down much easier as with the Soldiers being left at 4 HP, the Bronze Sword is enough to pick up a kill on one of them, allowing him to gain Triangle Advantage against the Barbs which will decrease their damage.
There are a few ways to play around the counter. A few options on player phase. Any unit which has range does not get countered. All hits which finish an enemy off do not reflect counter damage. Calculating counter damage + damage inflicted by the enemy is one way to play around the counter. You can bait an enemy into an ideal situation for you. Remember, the counter deals damage based on how much damage you are inflicting at 1 range. So, a bronze sword might be the play in some cases since it has low mt damage. Having an archer might also help in some cases since they cannot take counter damage due to always attacking from 2 ranges. You could also unequip a weapon in some situations to bait an attack on the enemy phase. If you have no weapon, no counter damage on that turn. You could also hope for some RNG by having your character in front unequipped and your pair-up equipped hoping for some damage. A pair-up does not take counter damage.
Chapter 5 is really, really tough! In my opinion it's the hardest chapter in the game. If you can get through it, you can definitely beat the rest of the game. If you don't want to wait for the Chapter 5 video (which is probably still a month away...) You can check out the stream from my Channel Page. I've already streamed the Chapter 5 clear. Good luck 😹
So true. Chapter 3 is not talked about enough, it's honestly brutal. In my run I'm recording off stream I got almost no stats on my Frederick and it forced me to come up with some good strats to improve consistency even with a weak Fred. I'll show them off in the vid 😹
I really appreciate the lunatic + guide. I started a play through of my own a while back but haven’t touched it in quite some time. I really love the advice you give when it comes to strategizing for this outrageous challenge, and I think it’s really helpful for anyone looking to improve their gameplay even in easier games
Thank you! I'm glad it was able to help 😸
So in my last attempt, I got semi stuck here as normally, Frederick on fort in Lunatic would tank everything, but Luna+ complicates things a lot
But with the even bulkier Lvl 7 Robin with 12 defense (+4 def out of 6 lvl ups), it was a lot easier and even Hawkeye hammer didn't face Robin at all
I did semi rig to not see too many Luna enemies, it's a lot better to rig now than to reset after 15 min into a map. (Also got hit by a 2% crit from the Mercenary, but that means 6 dmg instead of 2, lol)
Am going into Chapter 2 with Elixir on Fred and a lvl 10 Robin, might probably be the hardest map with the contenders Chapter 5 and 6.
(At least even on my first run on Lunatic, Chapter 2 took me the most attempts)
Edit:
Lvl 10 Robin: 28 hp, 7 str, 8 mag, 12 skl, 13 spd, 5 luck, 14 def, 8 res.
Average lvl 10 Robin: 26.2 hp / 10.5 str / 9.05 mag / 9.5 skl / 10.5 spd / 6.5 luck / 12.95 def / 7.15 res
Seems like my Robin screwed in offense and luck but blessed in everything else.
Really good video! Looking forward to more of the series!
Thank you ! 😸
Luna+ no grind is still something that not a lot of people are able to do. Even years ago when I was actively playing this game and trying to solve it with Serenes Forest forum members much smarter than me, I can admit I never actually kept to the resources available to a player that just freshly unlocked the mode. (Aka I used the Renown shop with max renown from previous playthroughs)
Looking forward to seeing how you tackle guides with this brutal mode.
The meta strategy for the game is very underdeveloped right now, that's a big part of the reason why it hasn't been done much before. There are people smarter than me who have played the game before, but most of them simply didn't try to approach the game seriously. I'm sure someone else could have solved it before I did, if they tried. But they all moved on to Fates and other games 😅
I really love your guides!! I’ve even been watching your saved streams because it’s very exciting to see actual engaging gameplay X3c!!
when I first started, I think I went with an IGN strategy that was just “prologue: keep resetting until you get the glass fire tome,” maybe water trick? Then I think it was a whole bunch of turtling until you got to the point where you can buy your previous Robins & use them to sweep the game, it was so boring & tedious I straight up hated it, I can’t remember if I ever completed Lunatic + XD
This guide has me incredibly excited to actually replay awakening, I am planning on grinding since I also wanna build/use units I’ve never used before & I was wondering, if you could reclass more than 1 unit, who would they be?
Personally I really wanna make Ricken a Cavalier, simply because I like the bonuses & discipline more lol
If you've been watching the streams you might have seen I had one stream where I talked all about grinding, although I ended up not talking too much about it. As for reclassing many units.... well, that gets in a pretty huge discussion! Haha
I have played the game both with and without grinding, and I think both styles of play are valid, and they are fun in different ways. Maybe I'll make a video talking about all of the builds I used for my grinding runs.
The main thing I learned from playing with grinding is which units and builds work, and then I apply that knowledge to my no-grinding runs so I already know which builds to aim for. Hope that helps? 😹
@ honestly, it kind of does XD
My biggest concern is to “soft lock” myself, but i guess if I’m grinding +using a streetpass exploit (for more seals) i could just be worrying myself for nothin lmao
Definitely looking forward to your future videos!! For now imma sit in my corner & think over if I want Kellem to be a Lissa replacement or my Thief XD
I restarted my Lunatic Classic run. It was a Fredrick run mostly from the beginning until after chapter 3. I chose Sumia as my second carry marrying them to Fredeick. I leveled those two on the infinite battles. I fed Robin as many kills as possible on two green tiles to get them into a usable state. The path I took with the characters was Fredrick Great Knight level 5 - General. Sumia Pegasus Knight 10 - Dark Flier 15 - Falcon Knight. For Male Robin Tactician 10 - Grandmaster 15 - Thief. I was on chapter 11 at that point. I had allowed several characters to die without restarting in previous chapters due to just reset fatigue. I could have continued playing at that point with my three strong characters. I deleted the file and started over. Reclassing Robin from a level 15 Grandmaster into a Thief made the character weaker. Getting base class abilities out of the way in the earlier levels is the right way to do that. This is a mistake I have made several times in the past.
Yes, I am DEFINITELY planning to talk about this in a later video but I am really, really down on Second Seal usage. You can softlock your run if one of your best combat units gets reset into level 1 in a base class. Heck, even in a context with grinding, it can be EXHAUSTING to level them back up.
These little mental math tricks like the luna calculations ill have to keep in mind.
It could help for any fire emblem game where luna procs are a common occurrence like in Heroes.
Still barely helps cause you have to do 10 extra calculations on top of that to get the final damage. Stat stacking has balloon so much in that game that the battle forcast cant keep track of all of it and thus will actively lie to you in your face but i digress.
Cool vid.
I'm not any good at Heroes for the exact reason you described 😹But I think I am pretty decent at this game! Thanks for watching 😊
I actually found myself going for the bottom fort first with Chrom and Fred, then moving to the upper fort after turn 1.
I used to use that strategy too! Honestly it's been a while since I changed over to using the top fort, so I can't even remember the reason why I switched. Probably has to do with the Virion/Sully movement tech 😹
early promoting virion to bow knight is probably the best use case for him. he really likes the speed + movement bonus it gives both him and his pair up partner, and combining that with higher weapon rank bows that he’ll actually be able to use in the midgame lends him some pretty favorable benchmarks. he’ll be carrying over an A-rank from frederick and at least a combined total of B-rank from two or one other support partners as well, which will help immensely.
in my experience, virion will eventually fall off this way, because realistically he desperately needs a second seal to keep up, but so, SO many other units benefit way more from one. getting him to 10 in time to use a seal is also sort of questionable in first place, but not unreasonable enough that i think a master seal unfit for the immediate benefit provided.
rally skill is also not necessarily a premium given the nature of lunatic+ class routing, but i think having the cheapest and possibly earliest access to it counts for something.
Yeah I've started to prefer Gregor, Lon'qu, Vaike and other units as my bow users. I'll talk about Virion a lot more in my upcoming character specific guide, because I still have a LOT to say about him. But I am worried because I actually loved this guy at first, and thought he was super underrated... and he KINDA is underrated but... still not long term amazing. The more runs I do, the more I see he always falls behind eventually. Which begs the question if you should bother feeding him at all or sake the EXP for Vaike/Lon'qu or someone else.
@@oEllery i don't neccessarily believe falling behind is a bad thing. virion is still useful when you get him, and i wouldn't say having him transition to a more supportive role counts against him. even post promotion, feeding virion isn't a terrible idea, because any extra stats might translate to more pairup bonuses later down the line. and don't forget; he'd still be an 8 move bow unit. that's incredible utility by itself.
though, i still think you're right about just benching him when he stops being useful. if you don't have the EXP budget to get him to level 10 in time, he's not worth keeping around.
I remember on a challenge on lunatic I had Virion change to mage and glow up on Mustafa's map. He kept dodging and getting speed.
I think I actually capped his speed by the endgame.
I -must- explore the potential of Mage Virion in my upcoming video! However, I'm not a huge fan of Second Seals right now. The more I delve into the EXP formula, the more I really, really appreciate characters who can promote directly into a great Tier 2 Class with a Master Seal ASAP. Even better if they get strong base class skills.
Not everyone realizes this is the reason why Tharja is so good, but it's among the reasons why units like her, Henry, and Gregor are strong! I'll talk about it more later 😋
@@oEllery I hardly ever go Tier 1 to Tier 1. I do believe Dark Mage Miriel is better than Tharja though I might be just as fine reclassing her from sage to sorcerer, specially if we wait for tomefaire. Robin is Ok due to veterany and Donnel just needs it.
The unit I kinda regret was Lissa to Pegasus knight.
In general I don't think it's that bad Tier 1 to Tier 1 as caps are high enough to even do 20 10.
Zeal is not Gamble.
You're right! I can't believe I missed that 😹
I wanna add here too that if you get unlucky and Fred doesn’t get a strength level up for Chapter 2, do not be discouraged. If you are able to, pass the bronze Lance to him and have him train up his Lance rank to A (should only be about 4-5 combats). This will give him A Rank Lances which boost his Atk by 2 if he is using lances, making up the potential levels of loss strength. This +2 might is essential for killing the Mercenary in Chapter 2 as easily as possible and makes it so you don’t have to rely on dual strikes. What I personally like to do is put Fred on the bottom fort and have him trade with sully so he gets the bronze Lance, then have Virion trade him the elixir then pair up into Sully so that she can move him out of there. He should be in a forest tile during all of this so he’s get +1 defense which is enough to let him live barring some Luna stuff. And again if the axe users have Hawkeye a quick reset can help. Once the Fighters are out of the picture you can use the Bronze Lance to chip everyone and build Lance rank, as long as you get to A Rank Lances you don’t need to worry about strength level ups. The only level ups that should matter are speed as speed inflates very very fast
Interesting, but the Strength isn't for the Mercenary. It's for the Soldiers. Being able to remove them with a single round of combat can massively reduce the amount of pressure on your back line on turn 2, that's why I think the combined Str between Fred and Chrom is so important. You're far more likely to get favorable Turn 2 board states with this set up. I'm not sure if grinding the lance rank would be enough to make up for the difference though.
@@oElleryIt does actually make a difference surprisingly enough. I had 2 runs where I had Fred with B lances and he wasn’t able to ORKO the Mercenary since he didn’t get any strength. The +2 Might is super duper vital not just for the Mercenary but also makes the kill threshold for the soldiers more manageable.
Base Frederick has 13 Strength and 26 Attack with the Silver Lance. A Rank Lances boosts that to 28 Attack. Add in Triangle Advantage and this gives Fred 29 Attack against the Mercenary. The Merc has 30 HP and 3 Defense, putting him at 4 HP. If you pair Vaike onto Frederick, he will gain +4 Strength, allowing him to outright kill the Mercs on the map. This also lets him chunk the soldiers for just as much damage, as the +4 Strength gives him an attack of 32 if he has A Rank Lances, letting him do a max (with no strength levels) of 28 Damage to the Soldiers, leaving them at 4 HP. Even if he doesn’t kill, the bonus +2 Defense from Vaike pair up lets him survive for a bit longer if the soldiers don’t roll Luna+.
This is assuming you’re unlucky with Fredrick and he gets no strength level up. If he hits level 3 and has gotten 2 Strength levels, you don’t need the Lance Rank. However I think it’s a safe play to go for as it makes chipping everyone down much easier as with the Soldiers being left at 4 HP, the Bronze Sword is enough to pick up a kill on one of them, allowing him to gain Triangle Advantage against the Barbs which will decrease their damage.
I got to chapter 5 and I got donnel to level 8, but now everyone keeps dying to counter...
There are a few ways to play around the counter. A few options on player phase. Any unit which has range does not get countered. All hits which finish an enemy off do not reflect counter damage. Calculating counter damage + damage inflicted by the enemy is one way to play around the counter. You can bait an enemy into an ideal situation for you. Remember, the counter deals damage based on how much damage you are inflicting at 1 range. So, a bronze sword might be the play in some cases since it has low mt damage. Having an archer might also help in some cases since they cannot take counter damage due to always attacking from 2 ranges. You could also unequip a weapon in some situations to bait an attack on the enemy phase. If you have no weapon, no counter damage on that turn. You could also hope for some RNG by having your character in front unequipped and your pair-up equipped hoping for some damage. A pair-up does not take counter damage.
Chapter 5 is really, really tough! In my opinion it's the hardest chapter in the game. If you can get through it, you can definitely beat the rest of the game.
If you don't want to wait for the Chapter 5 video (which is probably still a month away...) You can check out the stream from my Channel Page. I've already streamed the Chapter 5 clear.
Good luck 😹
Dude for me chapter 3 took me over a year to beat cuse I keep getting fuck by the RNG lol
So true. Chapter 3 is not talked about enough, it's honestly brutal. In my run I'm recording off stream I got almost no stats on my Frederick and it forced me to come up with some good strats to improve consistency even with a weak Fred. I'll show them off in the vid 😹
Well designed games don't make you soft reset for RNG.