Feral's Guide to H5 Mode for Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (DS)
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Introduction...................................................[FG01]
Things to Know
Classes & Reclassing...........................................[FG02]
Recommended Party..............................................[FG03]
Basic Techniques...............................................[FG04]
General Tips...................................................[FG05]
The Walkthrough
Chapter 1: Marth Embarks.......................................[FG06]
Chapter 2: The Pirates of Galder...............................[FG07]
Chapter 3: A Brush in the Teeth................................[FG08]
Chapter 4: Battle in the Lea...................................[FG09]
Chapter 5: Champions of Aurelis................................[FG10]
Chapter 6: Fire Emblem.........................................[FG11]
Chapter 6X: In War's Grip......................................[FG12]
Chapter 7: Lefcandith Gauntlet.................................[FG13]
Chapter 8: Port Warren.........................................[FG14]
Chapter 9: The Pyrathi Dragon..................................[FG15]
Chapter 10: Princess Minerva...................................[FG16]
Chapter 11: Knorda Market......................................[FG17]
Chapter 12: The Ageless Palace.................................[FG18]
Chapter 12X: A Traitor's Worth.................................[FG19]
Chapter 13: The Wooden Cavalry.................................[FG20]
Chapter 14: Land of Sorrow.....................................[FG21]
Chapter 15: An Oasis of Magic..................................[FG22]
Chapter 16: The Battle for Altea...............................[FG23]
Chapter 17: Star and Savior....................................[FG24]
Chapter 17X: Helena Castle.....................................[FG25]
Intermission: A Quick Status Check.............................[FG26]
Chapter 18: The Sable Order....................................[FG27]
Chapter 19: Manakete Princess..................................[FG28]
Chapter 20: Camus the Sable....................................[FG29]
Chapter 20X: The Lair of Fire..................................[FG30]
Chapter 21: Clash in Macedon...................................[FG31]
Chapter 22: A Knight-Filled Sky................................[FG32]
Chapter 23: Dark Pontifex......................................[FG33]
Chapter 24: The Dragonkin Realm................................[FG34]
Chapter 24X: The Alterspire....................................[FG35]
Chapter 25: Chosen By Fate.....................................[FG36]
The Small Print................................................[FG37]
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INTRODUCTION [FG01]
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This guide is intended for people who like a challenge, or are looking
to create a more challenging experience but are unsure of their
capability to do so. While designed for H5 Mode, information included
herein may help people who are having problems with any Hard difficulty.
Why play hard difficulties? Well, for fun, of course. If you're like me
then you started playing turn based strategy games for a more brain
stimulating video game experience. As they become easier, they also
become less stimulating. So crank up that difficulty and enhance your
gaming experience.
Let's take a look at the difficulty of FE: SD. I generally consider Fire
Emblem games to be one of the hardest turn based strategy franchises;
this is simply because one terrible mistake can result in the failure of
a chapter. With their fairly new five star difficulty rating system,
Fire Emblem games have reached a new level of difficulty, as I'd rate H3
as being equal to the standard hard difficulty in older FE games.
Granted, the game gets easier the further you get in due to it's RPG
elements. If you're playing the beginning of a Hard mode and think it's
too much, just remember that by chapter five most of the brutality will
be lessened. Also, the new in-battle save system lessens the challenge
of the game considerably. Regardless, FE: SD on any hard setting can be
a fair challenge.
Obviously, hard difficulty isn't for everyone. If you're new to turn
based strategy games or the Fire Emblem franchise you might want to
avoid playing on a hard setting until you're more familiar with the way
things work. Likewise, if you prefer a casual gaming experience then
you'll want to skip the hard difficulties. If you're still game then
read on.
This guide will not be a step-by-step walkthrough for the game. It will,
hopefully, give you some ideas and basic information to help you win a
battle or battles. Rarely will I say something like: Put Character X on
this square, and Character Y on this square. Also, remember that my
advice will not always help you. For example, I might like to have
several promoted units capable of using bows while you do not, thus if I
recommend putting three bow users at three general locations and you
don't have three of them then my advice won't help you any. I will try
my best to provide you with all the options I consider viable in any
situation, but there are no guarantees that I will be able to do so.
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CLASSES & RECLASSING [FG02]
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When playing on H5 difficulty you should definitely utilize the
usefullness of reclassing units. In my opinion, many characters aren't
even that great until they've been reclassed. Depending on how adamant
you are about your level building then you may reclass certain units
several times before they even come to promotion.
When deciding whether a unit is worth using or not be sure to check out
any possibilities for their reclassing. An example would be Cord, who
begins as a sub-par fighter. After reclassing Cord into a hunter and
obtaining the same level that Castor has (Castor is naturally a hunter),
Cord had 2 more strength and speed, 5 more skill, 3 more luck, and 1
more defense, at the low expense of having 2 less HP. While levelling
Cord as a hunter he also got great levels, leaving him with high amounts
of strength, skill and speed. By simply reclassing him to a pirate for a
few levels he accumulated more defense and HP. Finally, after molding
Cord into such a character I promoted him into a Berserker, this takes
advantage of his high speed (which Berserkers don't have naturally),
skill and strength.
Obviously, there are countless possibilities of how to build your
characters' levels when considering reclassing. Many classes are good
for rounding your unit's stats in a specific way, but beware of a few
classes that are dismal holes of nearly no stat gains. Classes I would
avoid using to level are Knight, Cleric/Curate, and Pegasus Knight.
There are exceptions to these rules, as any rules have exceptions. Caeda
gets fair levels as a Pegasus Knight, and using a Cleric/Curate can be a
decent way to level some of the casters in the game (while not providing
the greatest levels it will at least provide easy and steady levels).
Following are just a few notes on classes I used to gain specific stats.
Hunters generally gain decent strength and speed, and a lot of skill.
Cavaliers are good for gaining HP and defense, while gaining otherwise
rounded stats. Mercenaries gain good amounts of skill. Pegasus Knights
gain excessive amounts of skill, speed and usually luck. Fighters
usually gain a good amount of strength. A special note on Archers is
that they are the best class to level up a character who plans on being
a sniper; this is because promoting to a sniper will gain you the speed
and skill you might be lacking from your Archer levels, while still
allowing you to gain a decent amount of HP, strength and defense as an
Archer.
Those are just my opinions. Give them a try or don't, that's entirely up
to you.
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RECOMMENDED PARTY [FG03]
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As is usual for a Fire Emblem game, it's hard to even recommend a party
as the random nature of stat gains can make any character either supreme
or terrible. In this game it seems even harder when you consider
reclassing. I've had characters who were absolutely terrible when
levelling as one class, and then got great levels when they were a
different class. Ignore my advice if you already have a preferred party,
or if one of the characters I recommend is not turning out so well for
you.
Below I will list the parties I used for each time I played this game.
Any classes I list in paranthesis are the classes I used for levelling
my characters, as well as the final class I promoted them into. If there
is an asterisk next to a class it means that I was only the marked class
for a few turns; thus, any class not marked with an asterisk is the
class which I gained the majority of my levels with. Also, I will give a
brief description of how each of these characters turned out for me and
my opinion on whether they ended up being worthwhile or not, as well as
ways I could have done things differently in order to make them a better
character. I hope you find this helpful.
-||- My H3 Party -||-
Marth: Obviously, you're forced to use Marth. Be sure to get him levels
early in the game, or it will become a problem later. He was level 4 on
my file until about chapter 10, which made it difficult to get him
levels and I ultimately had to do it in the Arena. Marth can get to
level 30, but never promotes. Even so, his levels are great, netting him
a lot of strength, speed and luck, as well as a fair amount of HP, skill
and defense.
Julian: What I would say about Julian is the same as what I said about
Marth. Make sure to level him early. Julian ends up with tons of
strength and defense for a thief, as well as the expectedly exuberant
amount of skill, speed and luck. His HP are fairly lacking, so beware of
that.
Caeda (Pegasus Knight => Dracoknight): Caeda can be truly supreme as
long as you grab her a couple of cherry picked levels to improve her
strength. She will probably max out her speed and luck well before
reaching level 20, and being able to use the Wing Spear helps kill a lot
of enemies. It's somewhat risky, but I used her to take out archers
quite a bit, so long as they were isolated from other archers. Caeda
gains a lot of skill, speed and luck. Her HP are dangerously low, but
promoting her into a Dracoknight will take care of most HP, strength and
defense issues.
Ogma (Fighter/Pirate* => Hero): Ogma looked pretty terrible to me at
first, as he got a bunch of terrible levels until about level 8. I used
him mainly as a fighter, but later on I switched him to a pirate in
hopes of gaining speed. Ultimately, he never got that speed, which is
why he ended up as my hero. Ogma gained a lot of strength, but in
hindsight he wasn't very well rounded. Even so, the benefits of
promoting to a hero nullified all his drawbacks, and he already had good
sword proficiency from starting as a mercenary.
Bord (Mercenary/Fighter => Berserker): Bord, or as I called him most of
the time, Bord the Miserable Failure. If you have an important task that
needs to be done with a fair amount of risk, don't send Bord. If you're
like me, he'll fail you time and time again. His levels were very
sub-par, and I had to dump three speed wings into him just to make him
capable of surviving later on. Promoting him into a berserker didn't
help with that problem, but he looked really swell as a hero (21
strength, skill and speed, as well as 11 defense as a level 1 hero). He
was pretty disappointing, and I wouldn't recommend him.
Cord (Hunter => Horseman): I switched Cord to a hunter right away and
watched him turn into a certifiable demon. Lots of strength, good speed
and decent skill. Beware that he'll have close to no HP as well as
defense (I think he had 24 HP and 5 defense right before I promoted
him). Regardless, when he shot something it usually died, which is what
I look for in an archer.
Linde (Cleric/Mage* => Sage): Because she was way behind in levels, I
mostly used Linde as a cleric to level her quickly. She got extremely
terrible levels as a cleric, and I doubted whether she'd make the final
cut. The only thing she got in abundance as a cleric was magic, reaching
level 20 with about 9 or 10, which she gains 2 on when she reclasses
into a mage. This meant her magic stat was equal to Merric's, even
though he had a promotion and 7 levels on her. Once she became a sage
she transformed into a total monster, destroying almost any enemy she
attacked. She lacked speed until she was a sage, then gained an ample
amount. Oh yeah, beware of her dangerously low defense, which was 4 at
endgame.
Navarre (Cavalier/Myrmidon => Swordmaster): This guy looked great when I
got him, then didn't gain strength for the first three levels I got him,
so I switched him over to a cavalier. He gained good strength and
defense for several levels before I switched him back to a myrmidon to
get his speed back up to par. Ultimately, he was a devastating
swordmaster, having good HP, strength, skill, speed, luck and average
defense.
Abel (Archer => Sniper): Wow, talk about defense. This guy had no speed
at all, allowing almost any enemy to strike him twice if they got a
chance. This problem was fixed when he promoted into a sniper. By
endgame Abel as a sniper was one of my most reliable killers, which was
great since he could use a longbow. He could also take a good bump or
three, as he had decent defense and a lot of HP.
Hardin (Cavalier/Myrmidon => Paladin): As this guy had the sweetest face
art (in my opinion) I was pretty disappointed with him by endgame. He
ended up being a really round character, which in most games I would
like, but he did me little good in the end. Half of this problem was
that he was a paladin, since he would have made a supreme swordmaster. I
think my problems with him were due to having him as a myrmidon for too
long, as he had very low defense and HP for a paladin. Still, being
mobile and having a versatile arrangement of weapons made him good for
killing most averagely powerful enemies, his drawback was being
ineffective against any elite units who are difficult to engage (some
dracoknights, as well as generals and such).
Merric (Mage/Cleric* => Sage): Welcome to the slaughter. Merric, for me,
was a total demon. Lots of skill, speed and defense offset his lack of a
magic stat. I mostly used the fire spell with him the entire game, even
with his low magic stat, and it was good enough to kill most enemies. I
also used him to kill any hordes of mages and knights. He usually
wouldn't take damage from magic because of his resistance, and was so
quick knights couldn't usually hit him. I burnt up my Excalibur early on
because of some nasty situations I was in, and I'd advise you to try and
keep it fresh as long as possible. Don't forget it's great at killing
winged enemies though, allowing Merric to fight off an army of winged
enemies single-handedly.
Barst (Fighter/Pirate*/Hunter* => Warrior): I actually used Barst as a
fighter up to level 14ish. He was the first in my party to use the arena
with the purpose of being able to kill bosses (since they usually have
spears). With a custom axe that cost 10 G's, Barst pulled my party
through more hard times than anyone else. He was a pillar for my army
for the first half of the game, and remained good until the end, no
matter what I used him as. He gained outrageous amounts of strength,
speed and HP.
-||- My H5 Party -||-
Marth: Marth turned out great, again. Even better than on my first play
through. He was almost maxed out on every stat (save magic and
resistance), and by using permanent stat boosting items before the final
battle he actually was maxed out on every stat but magic and resistance.
Julian: Julian didn't turn out quite as good as my first play through.
Still, he had good strength and defense for a thief. While having less
skill and speed than I desired he made up for it by having considerably
better HP than I expected.
Caeda (Pegasus Knight/Myrmidon* => Falcoknight): Caeda was a veritable
demon. I switched her to a Myrmidon to get some sword proficiency before
promoting her to a Falcoknight. Levels gained as a Myrmidon were only as
much of a mistake as making her into a Falcoknight. I recommend
promoting Caeda into a Dracoknight, as it helps with her lack of
strength, defense and HP. The Falcoknight provides little or no benefit.
Ogma (Fighter/Mercenary => Hero): Gaining nearly equal levels as a
fighter and a mercenary left Ogma with a lot of strength, skill and HP.
Ultimately he was turned into a Hero because of his lack of speed. As
any other class his speed would have been so bad I would consider him
unusable, and even as a Hero (level 11 Hero, nonetheless) he was sorely
lacking competence in the final battle. Seeing as Ogma lacked speed both
times I used him, I would consider passing up Ogma if I ever play this
game in the future.
Barst (Fighter/Hunter => Warrior): While not gaining as much speed as my
first play through, Barst still turned out to be a great character. Well
rounded (save defense) with an abundance of strength meant whether
shooting a bow or hacking enemies up with an axe he was a certifiable
killing machine.
Cord (Hunter/Pirate* => Berserker): As a hunter Cord gains outrageous
amounts of speed and a decent amount of strength; however, he gains
close to no HP and defense. I recommend reclassing him for some time to
gain better HP and defense, which was mainly the purpose of my changing
him to a pirate. Upon promoting him to a Berserker he was a force to be
reckoned with offensively, but was fairly susceptible to dying with his
combination of low defense and HP.
Darros (Mercenary/Hunter* => Horseman): I used Darros instead of Bord,
and was equally disappointed. Darros had a serious problem gaining speed
and skill, which left him at a great disadvantage. I ended up promoting
him to a Horseman because of his proficiency with swords and bows, but
he would have made one hell of a Hero. Towards his last levels he gained
as a Horseman he gained defense regularly, but it never made up for his
total lack of speed. You might consider passing on Darros unless you
plan on making him a Hero.
Hardin (Cavalier => Paladin): Wow. Hardin turned out to be one of my
best characters. With over 20 strength, skill and speed and nearly 20
defense he was very well rounded and very capable. Boasting a decent
magic resistance was also a nice plus. You might want to try Hardin out
as a cavalier, if you're lucky then he'll turn out to be half the demon
he was for me.
Abel (Archer/Cavalier* => Sniper): Abel gained a little less HP and
defense than when I played the first time; hence my reclassing him into
a cavalier for a few levels. Yet again he was one of my most reliable
killers. Toting high strength, outrageous amounts of skill and speed and
decent HP and defense, Abel was unstoppable. Throw in the advantage of
being able to use a longbow (which killed almost anyone he attacked in
one turn from three squares away) and you have one of the best
characters in the game. I even forged him a special longbow to help with
the grueling final battle, it was totally worth it.
Athena (Myrmidon/Pegasus Knight* => Swordmaster): I opted to use Athena
rather than Navarre on this play through. I was glad I did. Athena
gained good levels as a Myrmidon, but when I switched her to a Pegasus
Knight for only three or four levels she gained excellent levels
(regularly gaining strength, skill, speed and defense). For a
swordmaster, Athena had really nice HP, strength and defense.
Merric (Mage => Sage): Merric, yet again, was a master of killing with
magic. Once again he gained great HP, skill, speed, luck and a decent
amount of defense (for a mage). His magic didn't gain too great until he
was promoted into a Sage, but in the end it sky-rocketed. His only
drawback this time through was that he had low resistance, which is a
result of spending no time as a Curate.
Linde (Cleric => Sage): I used Linde as a cleric out of the necessity of
gaining levels quickly. She turned out pretty terrible, really. Towards
the end of the game she was only worth using as a designated healer. She
didn't gain anything that was good, except for magic. I'd be a liar if I
called her anything but terrible for this play through. Chances are that
I would abandon using her next time I play.
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BASIC TECHNIQUES [FG04]
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These are techniques I use in pretty much any turn-based strategy games
I play. I never named them until now, but I guess these are the names
they get. If you become familiar with these techniques you shouldn't
have many problems not only in FE games, but in most turn-based strategy
games.
BAITING - Baiting is the most obvious, self-explanatory and easy
technique I use. Either place your unit at the end of an enemy's
attacking range or just out of it. Naturally, they will advance towards
you and any weaker units you have waiting nearby can get first strike on
the enemy. When baiting the enemy be mindful of what weapon you have
equipped, as sometimes it's unavoidable to bait several enemies. Even if
you choose a good chokepoint to lure them into (so that your bait can't
be attacked by multiple enemies at once) you might kill yourself by
having the wrong weapon equipped. An example of this mistake is if
you're baiting a squad of cavalry into a chokepoint with Marth. If Marth
has an iron sword equipped he might counterattack and leave his
assailant alive, effectively making all enemies behind him unable to
attack. If you accidentally have a Rapier equipped you might kill the
first assailant, allowing the second to attack you as well. If you kill
the second as well, then more enemies will continue to attack Marth
without giving you a chance to heal him. Keep this in mind, as it's very
important. Another thing to consider when baiting is whether you even
want to counterattack or not. You can either use a bowman of any sort to
avoid counterattacking or use Marth since you can interact with the
convoy and do other actions in the same turn (put all his weapons in the
convoy when baiting, then retrieve them when you are about to attack).
Later on, when some units are promoted and you're working on getting
others promoted, baiting without counterattacking is a good thing to do
with strong promoted units (just don't bring any weapons with them and
use them solely for baiting).
FEINTING - While baiting is designed to pull the enemy to your current
location, feinting is something like feigning a retreat. Once the enemy
is baited they will continue to chase you, thus allowing you to lead
them wherever you want. This is what I call feinting. Only defensively
strong characters or those with a great amount of movement are good for
feinting. Also note that it's harder to safely feint enemies who can
move far, as they can surround you and leave you dead in the water. I
mainly use feinting for bringing the enemy into a V shaped defensive
line I've formed, which I usually call a pocket. This allows several of
your units to attack the enemy in one turn, which can help to take out
tough enemies or can also be used to get EXP for some of your team
members who are falling behind the others.
SHIFTING - Shifting is what I call, basically, using a reserve. Once
you've formed a line, or picked an easy place to fight with natural
defenses, you simply drop your wounded units back and replace them (in
the same turn) with fully healthy units. This serves many purposes.
Wounded units can easily die, and no one likes that. Also, by utilizing
shifting you can always keep your healer in a safe position.
JACKHAMMERING - Jackhammering is for breaking through chokepoints in
order to fight in a more open area. It can be very powerful, or very
risky. The most ideal way to jackhammer is obviously to position a tank
in the front, a caster behind them, and an archer with a longbow third
in line. Additionally, you might want another tank so that you can shift
them and keep them tip-top. Why would you want to jackhammer, you ask?
There are plenty of reasons. One great example is in order to kill a
healer who is out of your reach, other reasons include battling enemies
with superior mobility to you (dracoknights or pirates who can both move
over water will make your bridge chokepoint really just a place for
enemies to concentrate their attacks on you, giving them the advantage),
or even just so you can sit on a fortress and prevent the enemy from
receiving reinforcements.
FORMING A LINE - Forming a line is a very basic maneuver with an obvious
purpose: to avoid being surrounded and to protect weaker units behind
your line. Forming a line is best done in an area where the ends of your
line will meet up with natural defenses. Most of the time you will want
a straight line so that each member of the line will be attacked the
minimal amount of times. There are occassions though where you'll want a
V shaped line (convex or concave) and even situations where you'll want
a wavy or curled line (really more of an open circle). It's hard to
describe why you'd want to use all these variations on your line, but
I'll at least tell you that you'd want a curled line when facing enemies
with superior movement (like dracoknights).
CHOKEPOINT DEFENSE - Find a good chokepoint (a bridge is a good example)
and stick a tank in it. You might want to keep a reserve nearby as well
as a healer. Two man armies are great for this. The best chokepoints are
ones that are near a fortress. A good thing to keep in mind when using
chokepoints is as follows: When using a bridge you'll want to avoid
actually positioning yourself on the bridge. Instead you should place
yourself at the bridge's exit. If you're on the bridge you might be able
to be attacked by one melee assailant and three ranged attackers, while
being at the bridge's exit forces your enemies to line up, usually
resulting in being hit twice at the most. Also remember that bridge
chokepoints aren't effective when facing fliers or pirates (as well as
other classes that can travel on water), and that almost any chokepoint
can be breached by fliers.
SURROUNDING - The purpose of this is self-explanatory. You'll prevent
the enemy from moving, and with archers you will also prevent them from
being able to attack at all.
NATURAL DEFENSES - Natural defenses are things like rivers, beds of
water, mountain ranges or forests, as well as many other things. These
types of terrain will either prevent or slow enemy movement, and in some
cases you can actually stand on terrain likes mountains to gain a
natural bonus (20 Avoid for being on a mountain). Cavalry can't pass
over mountains and have terrible movement when passing through forests.
Some classes aren't affected by terrain, so beware of that. While walls
in a castle keep aren't technically natural defenses, I consider them to
be in this game. So positioning yourself in a corner will make the enemy
unable to attack you from all directions. There are plenty of ways to
utilize natural defenses. Just use your thinking box and you'll come up
with some great ways. Keep in mind though, if you're buried in a forest
and are forced to retreat the natural defenses you chose will actually
impede your retreat (except with certain classes).
ATTACK VS. COUNTERATTACK - Sometimes you might wonder, "Maybe it's
better if I let him hit me first?" Sometimes you'll be right. There are
a lot of advantages to having first strike, but almost as many
advantages to letting the enemy strike you first. If you get two attacks
on your enemy to their one but they'll kill you in two strikes and it'll
take you three to kill them, then this is a good time to let them strike
first. They'll strike you once, you'll get two counterattacks, and then
you'll get an opportunity to attack them next turn. There's your three
strikes to kill the enemy, while only allowing him one strike to hit you
with. Other good times to let the enemy strike first usually deal with
keeping a healer safe, or setting up an enemy so that he can be killed
by a weaker member of your party if they're falling behind on EXP.
TWO MAN ARMY - In most FE games you can have a one man army no problem,
but in FE: SD it's not safe to use a one man army on almost any Hard
Mode. One group of enemy reinforcements can take out your one man army,
or sometimes an enemy that is present if you overlooked their weapon.
Other times, just having plain old bad luck will make your one man army
a corpse. This is why I recommend the two man army if you have two
units strong enough, or fitting enough for a particular situation. A
good example of using what I call the two man army is sending two strong
axe users to stop a cavalry charge in a chokepoint, assuming the enemy
cavalry is wielding mostly spears. There are plenty of instances where
you'll probably want to use a two man army, and countless combinations
of classes to make reliable two man armies. Obviously, it's best to have
a promoted caster in your two man army, as they'll be able to both kill
enemies, heal their partner and even do things like use barrier or warp
staves to help in unexpected situations.
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GENERAL TIPS [FG05]
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Cherry Picking Levels - Every now and then (or very often, if you prefer
it) you'll start a chapter with a character who has something like 93
experience. This means the next action they take, regardless of what it
is, will get them a level. This can also occur if you choose to save in
battle at the proper time. You might consider taking that character's
action immediately and resetting the game until they get a level with a
certain stat they are lacking. A good example of this is Caeda as a
pegasus knight, who lacks three things that are needed: HP, Strength,
and Defense. Which characters need a cherry picked level here and there
will differ, depending on what kind of final crew you want to have
assembled. How often you cherry pick levels is up to your discretion,
but I recommend not overdoing it, otherwise Hard mode won't be hard, and
you'll have negated the entire purpose of playing it.
Easy Levels - Bosses are the very essence of easy levels, especially
those who are knights, generals or even cavaliers and paladins. Their
high defense and ability to heal every turn means that you can beat on
them with your weakest weapons for a long time, milking them for
experience and weapon proficiency. This is a good way to catch up on
experience for those characters who are falling behind. Obviously, it's
best if you can attack from a distance and the enemy can't. You should
also realize that even if you hit the enemy and deal no damage (because
of their defense) you will still gain weapon proficiency but no
experience. The only catch to this is that your weapons will eventually
break, which means you're trading money for experience/proficiency.
Arena Business - While the arena is normally a good place to get
experience, proficiency and money, it is not so great on H5 mode. You
can do the arena, sure, but whether you'll win more often than lose is
hard to say. On H5 you will face very powerful enemies here, who often
have a chance to critical you or can even be promoted well before you
are. Almost any time I went to the arena in H5 I ended up nearly dying
and losing about 5 grand before quitting. If you still want to give it
a try then make sure you save beforehand, and use your most capable
units. Even so, I wouldn't recommend it.
Special Weapons - Use them. Whether they're Killer weapons, Ridersbanes,
Hammers or whatever, they won't do you any good unless you use them.
Most of these weapons will last a long time, since they're only good
against a certain class. Besides, by the end of the game you'll have
plenty of opportunities to buy or loot a lot of special weapons. So
seriously, burn those things like there is no tomorrow. There are a few
special weapons that can't be replaced (Parthia, Hauteclere, Excalibur,
Aura and several others), which I recommend you use sparingly. Still use
them though, since there's no point in having them if you don't use
them.
More Units VS. Less Units - Fire Emblem is not a game where you'll want
to battle enemies with numbers. By this I mean that one elite unit is
worth ten weak units. You can choose to roll around with as many units
as you want or as few as you think can handle the situation, but I
recommend using about twelve units for the entire game. Having less
units means they'll each get more experience and can be much better
armed. It's best if you figure out which units you'll be using for the
rest of the game as early as possible, for many obvious reasons. Also,
because of how Intelligent Systems did their gaiden chapters, having a
squad of about twelve units will mean you'll be getting generic fodder
troops for almost every battle, in addition to being able to get extra
loot, experience, and recruits from gaiden chapters. The bottom line: A
small elite group can withstand much more wear and tear than a bunch of
ill equipped rookies.
Sacrificial Lambs - As mentioned in the last paragraph, you'll get
plenty of generic fodder troops to sacrifice in combat when things get
hairy (assuming you use a small amount of units for the duration of the
game). Make sure you use your sacrificial units at a good time, don't
just throw them away. Even Sun Tzu understood the great value of a
sacrifice in combat, which says a lot since his book is sadly over-
rated. In addition to generic units, you can also use new recruits as
sacrifices in the heat of battle. Not only will you get to sacrifice
them to make things easier, you will also get to keep any equipment they
come with. It's a good deal.
Master Seals - Master Seals are few and far between. When using a small
group of units you will be gaining experience faster than usual, which
means you'll need your Master Seals earlier in the game. Since most of
them are obtained later in the game you'll benefit greatly from having
Wi-Fi access to buy Master Seals. They're available at the Wi-Fi shop on
any day of the month ending with the number 5 (the 5th, 15th, and 25th),
cost 2500 gold and 15 are available to be bought. Obviously, this isn't
the most convenient thing, but if at all possible you should utilize
this, otherwise you'll have a lot of level 20 units flushing your
experience down the toilet. Master Seals that are obtained naturally
through the course of the game are listed below with their respective
chapters. Any chapter that denotes '(X2)' generally means one is
obtained from a corpse, while another is looted from a treasure chest.
On Chapter 23 you'll have access to a Secret Shop (assuming you have the
Gold Card, for more information check OboeDude's FAQ) which has 3 Master
Seals available for purchase. The following is the aforementioned list:
Chapter 10, Chapter 12 (X2), Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter
19 (X2), Chapter 21, Chapter 23 (X2) [SS X3].
Wi-Fi Shop & Secret Shops - OboeDude's FAQ has a complete list of items
that are available through the Wi-Fi shop as well as the Secret Shops
and their locations. Rather than posting what he's already posted, I'll
simply recommend you to his FAQ. In his index is a shortcut to both
areas of his FAQ, and the information is easily understood. Check it out
if you want to know more.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 1: MARTH EMBARKS [FG06]
========================================================================
You start off on a small island which is being assaulted by a group of
pirates. Note the capabilities of all your party members, which includes
two cavaliers, a paladin, pagasus knight, archer, knight and Marth. Know
now that the paladin is a good unit to sacrifice on this chapter if
losing a unit is unavoidable, as he's already promoted and isn't good at
all. Beware that the pirates can cross the water, though it takes them a
short while. Also keep in mind that the enemy won't receive
reinforcements during this battle. What you see is what you get. Also
note that the nearest village to you gets you 10 grand, and the village
to the west is where you can recruit the first healer in the game.
You have two basic options in my opinion. The first is to stick around
the destroyed village where you start and try to defend that area while
the pirates make their way across the water straight to the west. The
other option is to head past all the houses to the fortress on the top
of the island and try to defend that area. It's easier to defend near
the destroyed village, but either can be successfully done. If you go
with the northern fortress, then you'll probably have to sacrifice a
unit, and it will be considerably harder.
I'll cover defending the destroyed village. You'll be using the fortress
behind you as your healing spot. Drop anyone who is too wounded to fight
back here and try to obstruct the pirates' advance with your healthy
units. You'll be doing quite a bit of shifting in this area, as well as
throughout all of H5 mode, so get used to this procedure. I'll just
refer to it as 'shifting' from here on out. You'll notice the unpassable
area of the destroyed village, denoted as a fence in the terrain box.
Basically, you'll want to have a tank (someone with high defense) stand
above this point and one square east of it, as well as another tank one
square south of it and east. This will make it so you can only be
attacked by one enemy at a time for most the battle. Be sure to be using
your archer and Abel's javelin for ranged attacks, focusing your damage
to defeat a single enemy quickly, rather than damaging a few enemies and
leaving them alive. Also, try to hit the enemy first with the paladin,
who should be using his silver spear to do massive damage. And finally,
don't forget to utilize your knight's high defense by putting him in
harm's way whenever someone needs to be in such a situation. After some
time you'll have stopped the enemy advance, leaving only six roaming
enemies, and the stationary boss.
Take this little break to heal up all your units on the fortress. Yes,
this takes a lot of turns and isn't fun, but it's necessary, as the
first chapter is arguably the hardest chapter in the game. Also, you'll
probably want to collect your 10 grand from the nearest village now, and
spend the first 2250 on three javelins, subsequently handing them out to
the pegasus knight, paladin and knight. You might also want to grab an
iron lance for Caeda. After you finish regrouping, go ahead and advance,
killing the next two pirates near the northern fortress. The enemy
archer will start his approach, just jam your paladin in his throat
until you have ample time to draw the archer to a point where you'll
have first strike. Be cautious with the archer, though, since he has
high speed and can instantly kill many members of your party. Once he's
close enough just surround him and chop him up. Do not put anyone in his
attack range, though.
Next you'll clean the last three roaming pirates. I recommend using
Jagen or Draug as a tank, then pummeling the pirates with javelins and
your archer. Either way, with your collective and healthy forces this
should be a joke. Rip them up, visit the town to recruit Wrys, your
healer, and get all patched up and ready to fight the boss.
Bosses early on, before you get Merric or another good boss killer, are
the trickiest part of hard difficulty. Be prepared for a long, slow
battle against this guy. Since he has no ranged weapon, you'll want to
toss javelins at him non-stop and shoot at him with your archer over and
over and over. Hopefully you'll be lucky enough to hit him often enough
where he won't heal all his HP during his turn. Keep whittling him down
like this until he's dead, or close enough to dead where you can send
someone in to finish him with a sword. Make sure you have 100% accuracy
if you're gonna finish him with a sword, because if you miss you'll
probably die. The boss heals about 6 HP every turn, so you'll have to be
lucky enough to do more damage than that, and lucky enough to do it
regularly.
The alternate way to kill him is to set someone next to him with their
best weapon equipped, like Jagen with his silver spear. Don't ever
actually attack, just try to damage the boss with your counters. When
Jagen gets hit, Wrys won't be able to heal him enough in one turn, so
he'll have to move one square back and hit the boss with a javelin while
Wrys heals him. Just repeat this over and over and you should eventually
kill the boss. Don't forget to equip the silver spear everytime you move
in, and beware that Jagen has a good chance of being killed, as if the
enemy criticals that will be Jagen's end. It's tedious and terrible,
yes. This was a big turn-off for me when playing H3 on my first play-
through, but after you get a mage or other boss killer this won't be a
problem anymore. Regardless, seize the castle when the boss is dead and
progress to Chapter 2.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 2: THE PIRATES OF GALDER [FG07]
========================================================================
When the chapter starts you'll be gifted a mercenary, and three
fighters. Give them a look and check out the map. There are a couple
thieves, a couple cavaliers, a handful of hunters and several pirates.
You can recruit the pirate Darros with Marth, the hunter Castor with
Caeda, and visit the village to get 5000 gold. As you might notice,
there is a save point available, which I recommend using either about
half way through the battle, or after all the roaming enemies are dead.
You might also notice that this boss has a handaxe, which can attack two
squares away, making him much more formidable than the previous boss.
To start, you'll probably want to clear off the northeast part of the
map where the two thieves are. Jamming Barst into the chokepoint is a
good move. You'll probably want to stick Ogma on the northernmost bridge
leading west as well. Just start jackhammering both of these areas.
'Jackhammering' is another term I will be referencing through this
guide; when I say to jackhammer an area, that means you should be
killing enemies and advancing through a chokepoint while shifting
healthy units with wounded ones until you eventually break through the
chokepoint, whether you kill all the enemies or not by the time you're
done jackhammering doesn't matter. The purpose of this is to make your
way to a more open area where you can defeat the opposition through
strength in numbers. Watch out for pirates movement through water, if
you don't pay attention you might lose someone important, like your
healer. Just make sure no one goes across the bridges that lead west,
otherwise the enemy hunters and a few pirates will charge, making things
more difficult for you. Once you're finished with the northeast island
you'll probably have Darros to help with the battle. Regroup before
moving west.
On the island just west of where you started you'll trigger the enemies'
advance. Make sure you make a pocket for them to end up in, then
surround them and cut them down with whoever you prefer. By making a
pocket, I mean to move your units just out of the enemy's range so they
advance to you and end up a square or two away, near the center of your
army's mass. I'll refer to this later as 'feinting'. After a few dead
enemies and a chance to recruit Castor, the enemy should be waiting for
your next advance.
Head onto the next island and lure the enemy by either getting just
outside of their attack range, or sending a tank at the very edge of
their attack range. I will later refer to this as 'baiting' the enemy.
Once you bait them, surround and slaughter them. Be mindful of the
movement range of any enemies who aren't advancing and be sure to not
get into them. Between your two bowmen and many members who can launch a
javelin you shouldn't have any problems cleaning up the rest of the
roaming enemies on this map. Just keep baiting them and surrounding
them.
I recommend saving either before you kill the last few roaming enemies,
or right before you engage the boss. Regardless, clean up everything but
the boss, save it whenever you deem appropriate, visit the armory and
the village and then regroup. I chose to save right before the boss. Now
that it's been saved, you really have nothing to worry about at all.
Just hammer that boss down into the ground, utilizing counterattacking
and hope for a critical. Once you're finished seize the castle and head
to Chapter 3.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 3: A BRUSH IN THE TEETH [FG08]
========================================================================
Alright, you've got your main group of enemies near the castle to the
west and a secondary group of enemies north of where you start, near
Julian and Lena. Note that Navarre is in the northern group, and can be
recruited by Caeda. Take a look at Lena and Julian, since you'll be
controlling them from here on out, and probably using at least Julian
for the rest of the game. Note that the village near your starting
position contains a Devil Axe.
First you'll want to pick out an easily defensible position on the
western front. I recommend the fortress right below the village. Be
mindful of who you send west, as you'll want to divide your forces to
fight on two fronts simultaneously. I recommend trying to be fair with
your division of arms, having a bowman on each front and splitting other
weapon types similarly. Keep in mind that you'll have Julian and Navarre
as swordsmen, though they are defensively and offensively weak (unless
you're lucky). At any rate, start setting up shop and begin moving
Julian and Lena down to the fortress south of them, as this is where
you'll want to mass them with the rest of the eastern division.
Cleaning up each front is just a matter of dividing your troops
appropriately. I had an oversight and sent Draug to the wrong front, and
halfway through had to send him west, but it didn't end up being a
problem. Just stay organized, or you might have to sacrifice someone
like I did. If you do have to sacrifice someone then you have plenty of
people who are good to sacrifice. I would try and pick either Cain,
Draug, Lena/Wrys, Darros, Gordin or Castor (or Jagen, if he's still
around). I chose Lena, since I plan to use two casters you get later,
you might not want to sacrifice Lena if it comes to it though, since
she's the only person who can use the Hammerne staff you get near the
end of the game, and she is required to recruit Matthis (a cavalier in
Chapter 4). I don't care about Hammerne or Matthis though, so she's a
good choice for me.
Regardless, once everything is cleaned up and the enemy stops their
advance, send up however many necessary units to take out the stray
bowman in the northern area and have the rest of your units regroup near
the central south save point. I chose to save at this point. This is a
good time to visit the village and get your Devil Axe.
Once you've regrouped, go ahead and make your next push to the western
fortress that lies in a chokepoint, right above the next save point. I
chose to bait the bowmen with Marth, where I had my army assembled and
took them out with minimal effort. I would guess that it's the best
method, but there are plenty of ways to clean up the rest of the roaming
chumps. At any rate, kill the bowmen and wipe out the last two however
you see fit. I recommend baiting them or putting a strong swordsman on
the fortress and killing them with an archer's support.
You're on the last stretch now. You can check out the armory in the
northwest (quickest if done with Caeda) if you so desire, and then gear
up for the boss, who has a handaxe like the last fella. If you've gotten
a good amount of levels for Marth he's a great guy to take this boss
out. I hope you have some charges left on your heal spell or chances are
that you'll be fighting a long battle of attrition.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 4: BATTLE IN THE LEA [FG09]
========================================================================
You'll finally have access to your battle preparations screen before
this battle. This also means you'll be able to stock up on heal staves
and any other equipment you might be in dire need of. Pick whatever
units you like and make sure to do your shopping, as well as rearrange
your army however you prefer. When you're finished check out the
battlefield to find a group of fighters and an archer to the northeast, </pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
some randomly scattered enemies elsewhere, and the enemy's main force in
the northwest corner. As I mentioned last chapter, you can recruit
Matthis the cavalier by talking to him with Lena. Otherwise you get
Merric the mage from the southern village and 5,000 gold from the
village near the arena.
If you plan to reclass anyone, now would be the best time since they're
still low level and probably don't have too much invested into their
current class. I recommend switching Abel into an Archer. Both he and
Gordin were level 5 for me and the difference is that Abel has 3 more
strength, 5 more skill, 1 more speed, 2 less luck, 1 less defense, and
the same HP. I reclassed several others, but another worth pointing out
is Cord, who I reclassed into a hunter. Compared to Castor (again,
they're the same level), Cord has 2 more strength and speed, 5 more
skill, 3 more luck, 1 more defense, and only 2 less HP. The only person
in the whole game who I don't recommend reclassing is Caeda.
Finally, the last things you might want to do before battle is buy a
Fire spell (for Merric) and forge a weapon. I always recommend forging
an iron weapon that has full durability so you get the most out of your
money. For about 12 G's you can make a sword with 15 Mt, 100 Hit, 0
Critical and 1 weight. For an additional 5 grand you can slap 20
critical onto that. With the critical or not it's already better than a
silver sword, and has twice as many uses. Since Silver Swords cost about
1,500 gold it'll cost you about four times as much (since two Silver
Swords makes 40 uses) to make a weapon like this, which is better than a
Silver Sword. Regardless of whether you forge or not, try to leave
yourself 5-10 grand to spend at the arena if you want to make some dough
or level a reliable character up a bit.
Alright, anyway, on to the battle. First and foremost you probably want
to take out the thief to the west with whoever is available. Send Caeda
and a cavalier towards the bridge to your west to cut the other thief
off before he crosses the bridge as well. At the same time you should be
taking out the fighters and archer on the east side of the map, this is
easily done if you let them get somewhat into an open area by feinting.
Hit them hard though, since you want to kill them fast enough to remass
your troops in time for the cavalry charge.
When the charge comes your cavalier and Caeda might not be back yet. You
can either risk the cavalier's death by heading straight back to your
army, or ensure safety by going all the way around the northern side of
the lake. Caeda can just fly over the lake to join your army. At any
rate, you might want to form a line so as to shelter your weaker troops
behind it. Whenever forming a line be sure that it's a solid, straight
line; this ensures that each unit in the line can only be attacked from
one side, which usually means they can only be attacked once (unless, of
course, there are ranged attackers assaulting you). I sacrificed my
cavalier instead (secret chapters are coming up in a couple chapters,
plus sacrificing the cavalier breaks the cavalry charge into two weak
waves rather than one strong wave).
Once the cavalry is dead you should be pretty much home free for this
chapter. When you approach the two archers by the knight they'll come
and attack you if you bait them, while the knight remains to guard the
bridge. Beware of the horsemen who are still north of the river, though,
since they're technically a promoted unit even if they are really weak.
In case you haven't been using Caeda's Wing Spear (which you should use
it whenever you can, since you can buy these at many shops in this
game), just yank that out of your happy bag and whack the knight or
either horseman with it. Caeda can easily devastate any of these enemies
as long as you take out the two archers first. Don't forget that Marth
also has his Rapier, which serves the same purpose as the Wing Spear.
After you clean up the rest of the roaming enemies make sure to get your
5 G's and Merric from the villages. If you're going to do the arena be
careful, or save it in one of the two save spots (if you haven't used
them yet) before you start. Give Merric a Fire spell (try to keep his
Excalibur pristine) and start whacking away at the boss while you do
your arena business, if you're doing any. Once he's dead seize the
castle and you're on to Chapter 5.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 5: CHAMPIONS OF AURELIS [FG10]
========================================================================
For preparations I would recommend bringing the Ridersbane which you got
on the last map if you have a spear user other than Caeda, or if Caeda's
Wing Spear has broken already. Other than that I can't say much. By now
I've already cut my crew down to 11 members, so I have only Caeda who
uses spears. If you're like me, you could always fly the Ridersbane over
to Hardin. Anyway, it doesn't really matter. Just make sure you bring a
mage and a healer.
After you've prepared and looked over the map go ahead and start the
battle. You'll get three extra cavaliers and two horsemen when the
battle starts. They'll be cut off from your main forces and you'll have
two options for them: Have them fight their way to your main force; or
have them hide in a corner (the one east of them by the river) and wait
for you to save them. Choosing the former usually results in their total
annihilation, the latter is byfar the better of the two. Of course,
choosing the latter also means the whole enemy's main force will advance
directly towards your main army. I like that.
Now, you should know that the village to your north only has a
Firestone, which is a weapon for the Manakete class. It's not worth any
money either, so if that doesn't concern you then don't rush yourself to
kill the enemy thieves. Otherwise you can recruit Wendell the Sage by
speaking to him with Marth. Even if you don't want Wendell, recruiting
him is more useful than killing him for many reasons, even if he dies in
the ensuing battle.
There's not a whole lot to say about this chapter if you choose to have
Hardin and his comrades hide in a corner. Just clear the enemies out of
the northeast before confronting those coming from the west. You can
bait the riders seperate from the rest. Following their demise, baiting
the pegasus knight will result in baiting Wendell and the archer as
well. It shouldn't take more than two or three turns to clean them all
and focus on choking the western enemies out at the bridges.
If you have a pirate or a pegasus knight present, or Julian has enough
levels you can devastate the enemies while using the southern bridge as
a chokepoint. Meanwhile you can have anyone with good movement looping
around the northern bridge to pincer the enemy as well. Also, if you
start sending Hardin and his men north they can assist you at the bridge
area. Do note that moving Hardin's group north will cause some enemies
to advance who weren't previously advancing. Regardless, the bridge will
be clean right quick and you can mop up whatever's left; it shouldn't be
much.
Depending on how long this battle took you in terms of turns, enemy
reinforcements might appear on the fortresses surrounding the castle
you're seizing. It didn't take me that long either time I fought it, so
I can't really tell you anything about that. If you're nearing ten turns
in this battle then the referenced reinforcements will probably be
showing up soon. That's my guess. Once the enemies are dead just whack
the boss with a mage like Merric, or Merric and Wendell if he's still
around. The boss should be dead in no time and you can seize the castle,
moving on to Chapter 6.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 6: FIRE EMBLEM [FG11]
========================================================================
Note that all the enemy casters here have Elfire, which is painful. Also
there is a cavalier in the northeast with a silver spear. Other than
that the enemies have pretty standard equipment. I should mention the
armory, which can easily be overlooked; it's right outside the southern
entrance to the keep. Rickard the thief can be recruited by talking to
him with Marth, so grab him if you want him. Now, it's doubtful you'll
be able to get all the treasure chests in this map. So long as you
advance as quickly as possible you won't lose any, which is tricky.
Either way, don't sweat it if a thief makes off with the Killer Edge,
there are plenty of those in this game. Don't let the thief with the
Seraph Robe get away though.
Start off by advancing past the first save point, grabbing the chest
(Bullion [S]) if it's convenient for you. Now you're gonna get a lot of
enemies jammed up into this hallway, trying to impede your procurement
of the thieves' goodies. You want to wipe out every enemy here in one or
two turns. Be mindful of the archers who will kill Caeda if she's on the
northern side of the hallway, or if you don't manage to block the door
with someone very sturdy. The Rapier and Wing Spear will probably see a
lot of action here, or you can use a Hammer for smashing those knights
up, Merric works too. I ended up spending two or three charges of
Excalibur here, but that's the way it goes.
Once the hallway is clear you'll have a couple cavaliers and two archers
left probably, in the room north of the hallway. At this point one of
the thieves should have just grabbed the Killer Edge. If you're hellbent
on getting that weapon know that you still have a chance, so long as you
have a cavalier near the doorway. Smash out anything in the room north
of you (avoid using your cavalier or Caeda if you want that Killer Edge)
and then you can worry about collecting your booty from the thieves. The
enemy advance should stop after you clean the room with the two
cavaliers and archers, so take this breather to go around and whack
whatever thieves haven't died yet. You might want to save it, that's
your call.
The next little push isn't bad at all. It's just a knight and two
archers. Plenty of easy ways to take out the knight (Hammer, Wing Spear,
Rapier, Magic), and just chop those archers up. If you want you can bait
them; in fact, you can bait almost all three of them seperate from each
other if you want.
Assaulting the throne room can be risky, especially if you don't have a
tank strong enough to take the attack of the knight and an archer when
you try to bait them. If you can bait them then it's a piece of cake. If
you can't bait them, then make sure you line your units up carefully
before making the charge. Keep in mind you'll have to take out a knight,
two archers and a caster. I can't tell you exactly what to do since your
party is probably much different than mine, and even if I could I
wouldn't want to, what's the point of playing a game if you're doing
exactly what someone tells you? I recommend Caeda for killing the
caster, though, since Merric probably can't move far enough. Other than
that, you'll have to figure it out.
Taking out the boss is easy peasy. Anything ranged will rub him out in
due time. Seize the throne and you'll either be going to the gaiden
Chapter 6X, or Chapter 7 [FG13].
========================================================================
CHAPTER 6X: IN WAR'S GRIP [FG12]
========================================================================
Check out the map to find just a couple fellas with Armorslayers,
everything else is standard. Should be an easy battle. Note the village
in the northwest corner, which houses Athena the myrmidon. Also keep in
mind that most these enemies are pirates, who can cross the water.
The first task is to stop the enemy charge, which includes several
pirates and a couple mercenaries. Obviously, the best place to halt
their charge is on the two nearest fortresses. Be sure to utilize
Caeda's mobility, as she can fly over the mountains. Just shift on the
fortresses and it shouldn't be a problem. As a side note, I find gaiden
chapters to be good places to get weaker units some levels. After a few
turns everything should be cleaned up, and you can either choose to head
over the islands towards the enemy castle, or to head around the north
side. I chose to divide my army into two groups and assault both
simultaneously.
For the northern front, I sent Marth, Caeda, an axeman, hunter, and my
healer. Everyone else went along the southern route. A few enemies on
the north will advance towards you when you get close, just take them
out and wait until your southern forces secure the island with a
savepoint on it. The save island is easy enough, just one archer to take
out. Once they're finished, advance your northern division to secure the
village. You should have something like two axemen left to take out,
which shouldn't be a problem at all. You'll probably want to bait them,
since you might not be able to move far enough to get adjacent to them.
They're not much to worry about, either way.
Now, from here you can do a few different things. Make the final push
with either of your fronts, both your fronts, or bait the occupants of
the last island with either or both fronts at the same time. I baited
the archer to my north group, and the mercenary to my southern group.
Then I baited the mage north, and the archer south. Easy enough. Now
you're all ready to wipe out the boss. He's a chump, so be sure to laugh
at him while he dies. A sorely disappointing chapter.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 7: LEFCANDITH GAUNTLET [FG13]
========================================================================
It's a tall, skinny map. No doubt you'll notice Minerva and her crew,
and an archer with a longbow. Those are the only real threats here. Of
course, Minerva and her pegasus knights won't do much to stop you as
they leave a few turns in. Alternatively, you can smoke Minerva and send
them packing early. The village through the gate is where you'll recruit
Bantu, the first Manakete you get. I find Manakete's to be pretty
worthless, but that's your call. Keep in mind that you have to have
Bantu in your party to recruit a Manakete you get much much later in the
game, though she's just about as worthless as old Bantu.
The hardest part of this map is when the reinforcements come, but don't
worry about that yet. Just remember not to go past the southern save
point until everything north of it is cleaned up. Firstly you'll want to
do one of two things: Clean up the area around the village while killing
off the charge of the fliers, or wait to crush the fliers without
cleaning the village area yet. I chose to take them both out at the same
time. I had a couple units I wanted to die, so I gave one a key and had
him open up the gate to the archers and mercenaries. Once my unit was
dead the enemies wouldn't come out unless baited, so I baited them with
a tough unit. I used my second sacrifice to bring the fliers to me
without consequence. All in all, if you have a couple archers and Merric
still has his Excalibur you can wipe out all the fliers in one turn,
leaving the rest of your army to take out any ground units that are
nearby. It shouldn't take more than three or four turns to clean all of
this up. Additionally, I took out Minerva for some extra experience.
After all of that is cleaned up, go ahead and recruit Bantu from the
village and head on to the southern save point. Now, to make this as
easy as possible, you'll want to move Caeda all the way to the western
side of the map, lined up with the save point. Move a cavalier (if you
have one) close enough to the nearest fortress so that you can move onto
it in one turn. Whenever ready, you'll want to send Caeda down onto the
fortress below her and have the cavalier move onto the fortress below
him. From this point on, a cavalier will spawn from the two remaining
fortresses and assault you two turns in a row, then you get a break.
Ultimately, you want to shift someone else into the cavalier and Caeda's
positions, while the cavalier heads to the eastern fortress to block it
and Caeda heads to the southern fortress to block it. Keep in mind
you'll have to take out the two knights who are near the enemy castle
while you do this.
Alternately, you can just kill all the reinforcements for experience,
but beware that the cavalier who comes from the western fortress comes
out with a Ridersbane everytime. I recommend forming an arched line
between the mountains and shifting. A lot of reinforcements are spawned,
I can't remember how many, but you'll be killing them for quite some
time. Don't get eager if they don't spawn a turn, because after every
two spawns they give you a free turn. Remember that, otherwise you might
pull the knights just to see four new cavaliers spawn and attack you the
following turn.
Once you've finished with the reinforcements, or blocked them all off,
it's just a matter of killing the boss. Whack him with magic and
whatever other ranged attacks will deal damage and that's that.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 8: PORT WARREN [FG14]
========================================================================
Take a look around, like usual, to note the weakness of the enemy
assaulting forces as well as Roger the knight who can be recruited by
Caeda. You'll also notice a nice little town with a couple vendors and
some armories, as well as an arena. You can get a Wing Spear and a
Rapier here, so I suggest doing that. Also, once you start the battle
you will receive two new reinforcements, Radd the myrmidon and Caesar
the mercenary.
Upon starting, as you advance north, four cavaliers with swords and a
couple knights and archers will advance to meet you. You can choke them
out around the forest between the mountains just east of the houses.
Roger is one of the advancing knights, so feel free to recruit him with
Caeda if you so desire. Otherwise be mindful of circling around the
enemies, as you will likely end up in range of the horsemen to the
north. Which are the next immediate threat.
When the horsemen start advancing (hopefully everything has been cleaned
up to this point) you can choke them out between the peaks. Do note that
horsemen can pass over mountains though. Regardless, this will be the
trickiest part of the map, as these horsemen have high speed and great
mobility. If you can jackhammer them and surround them it's a decent
thing to do, though maybe not the best. Depending on how the enemies
line up you'll have to do whatever is fitting. At any rate, this would
be a good place to sacrifice units you don't plan on using (I sacrificed
Caesar, Radd and Roger here). Note that if you head too far north
reinforcements will begin to pour out of the northwestern fortresses.
Likewise, if you split your army and send a few people east you will
trigger the advance of the remaining archers and knights.
Once you've either killed all the reinforcements or occupied their
fortresses, begin taking out the remaining knights and archers (if you
haven't done so already). This is nothing compared to what you just did;
even so, don't underestimate the enemy as they'll be receiving
reinforcements as well. Two enemies at a time shouldn't trouble you much
though. Just block off these fortresses as well, or kill all the
reinforcements for experience.
Now you get a break. You can do some shopping if you haven't already,
fight in the arena if you desire, and head over to kill the boss. If you
still have Merric as a mage he won't be a problem. A few whacks and
that'll be the end of this chapter.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 9: THE PYRATHI DRAGON [FG15]
========================================================================
Okay, this chapter is kind of nasty. Lots of enemies, but none of them
are very well armed. Still, the layout of the map makes things
inconvenient at the least. In addition, you'll probably want to grab all
the treasure chests, which makes things a little more complicated. Be
forewarned that after you advance to a certain point the enemy will
begin receiving reinforcement pirates on the fortresses on the southern
side of the map. The village to the east yields Jeorge the sniper, the
southeastern treasure has a Wyrmslayer and the other two treasures have
a Goddess Icon and Bullion (M).
I recommend sending a small detachment to the east, and moving your main
army directly to the enemy castle. I sent Marth, a generic healer, and
Caeda as my detachment (which includes Jeorge, as he's recruited along
the way). Basically, you want to beat the first thief to the village to
recruit Jeorge, then send Caeda down to kill the other thief and grab
the treasure chest. When killing the second thief, you can allow him to
unlock both the door and treasure chest for you, then take the loot from
his corpse. Otherwise use a master key, or whatever. After you get your
treasure, send your detachment all the way back around the island's
northeast route, massing them up with your main force.
Meanwhile, your main force should be fighting in the field just south of
the two other treasures. Watch out for the pirate who comes along with a
demon axe, as well as the range of the caster and archer to your west
(across the bridge). It's pretty hairy around here, so using your
sacrifice units here wouldn't be a bad idea. Most the roaming enemies
should head for your main force, but it's not guaranteed. It's also
highly likely that your detachment will trigger the enemy reinforcements
to start flooding the map. Don't worry about advancing and choking out
their fortresses, just focus on killing the reinforcements as they come
to you.
Now, from this point the battle can play out a lot of different ways,
depending on how you prefer to handle the situation. I drew a lot of
attention in the southeast corner, which I pulled all the way around the
northeast and eventually to the center where my main force was waiting.
By the time the detachment got there my main force had killed everything
on the map except for a hunter. Once the group of enemies chasing my
detachment was dispatched it was a simple little hop over to the hunter
and the boss. If you're having problems you could try that, but it was
not a good strategy, even if it did work.
I believe this is the first Manakete boss you'll be facing. I'd say to
not be intimidated, but if you looked at his stats I doubt you would
have been intimidated. He's weak, like most Manakete, and will die
easily enough since he has no ranged attack. The firestone he's holding
basically means he's a physically based enemy (as opposed to magically
based), so theoretically he should be very resistant to physical damage,
but he's not. Take him out with whatever and head to Chapter 10.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 10: PRINCESS MINERVA [FG16]
========================================================================
Looking over the arms of the enemies it looks to be a fun battle. Lots
of silver weapons and several forged weapons among them. Note the
vendors and armories on the western side of the map, as well as Maria
the cleric who can be recruited by Marth. Additionally, once Maria is
recruited you can also recruit Minerva the dracoknight by talking to her
with either Maria or Marth. Minerva is required to recruit three pegasus
knights you'll encounter later; however, I believe you can still recruit
all three of them even if you recruit Minerva just to have her suicide
(which isn't a bad plan, since her stats are terrible for a promoted
unit).
My strategy here will be to make my way into the structure, and utilize
it's defenses to defeat the enemy army. You could also choose to engage
them in the open field, but that will be more difficult and
disorganized. Either way, you'll need a fast unit on your front line in
order to secure both of the treasures (a Levin Sword and a Physic staff)
on this map. Around turn 6 or 7 the enemy will receive reinforcements in
mass, who all come with silver weapons.
First of all, you need to get inside the structure. Along the way you'll
have to engage at least the four nearest cavaliers. I had a couple
sacrifice units, which I used immediately for this purpose. Make sure
you kill all four of them before heading inside. It's best if you stay
near the entrance while you do this. Additionally, if you want that
Levin Sword you should send someone (or a couple units) capable of
killing one or two knights and a thief up to get it.
After the cavaliers are dead and you've secured your Levin Sword, make
your way into the structure. Some units might not be able to make it, so
hopefully they're tough enough to withstand those two brutal
dracoknights. If you still have Excalibur this isn't a bad place to
spend a couple charges, otherwise use some bowmen to wipe out the
incoming fliers. By the time you wipe out the fliers the enemy will
probably have their reinforcements coming in by the droves. Get yourself
situated inside the structure and get ready to repel the reinforcements.
It's best if you can clear out the knight west of the stairs and the
three bowmen just northwest of him before things get messy, that way
you'll have extra room to shift, as well as the option of using ranged
units to hit the chokepoint from the west.
For defeating the reinforcements you should either consider choking them
up in the narrow entrance, or making a pocket in the entrance room. I
think the chokepoint is wiser, as these enemies are no typical
weaklings. Make sure to stay on top of your healing. Spare no tricks
here, it's best to wipe out the assailants before more reinforcements
stack up on the already large pile of potential corpses. If you have a
cavalier near the entrance before the reinforcements are close enough to
cut you off then saving isn't a bad idea, since this will be the bulk
(not to mention the nastiest part) of this battle byfar.
Through the course of killing the reinforcements I realized I hadn't
enough Mend charges, and I was negligent when it came to buying Heal
staves, leaving me with 4 Mend charges and 16 Heals. I ended up having
to recruit Maria and taking her Heal, then warping a small detachment
outside (near the shops) to double stuff the enemies. My detachment was
Marth, Caeda and Merric, which Minerva joined before I engaged the enemy
from their rear. Because of my poor planning I ended up using the Physic
I looted and most of what was left of my Warp staff. Hopefully you won't
ever make a mistake that terrible. Regardless, it was tooth and nail for
a while, but in the end I had enough to finish off the reinforcements.
If you end up in a bind like I did you could always warp a caster (like
Merric) and Marth out of the structure and near the boss to kill him,
then seize the castle and complete the chapter without killing the
reinforcements.
At any rate, once the reinforcements are dead, you can either exit the
structure through the south or by heading out of the northern door. Make
sure you kill the hero just above the structure and get his Master Seal
before you kill the boss and finish the chapter. Careful with the hero
though, since he's a real killer. Also, beware of the boss' javelin,
which is forged and nearly as strong as his silver spear. It's best if
you can move someone next to him in order to counter him, in which case
he'll switch to his silver spear (don't forget his spear does more
damage than his javelin) and you can nail him with some ranged attacks.
You'll probably want to kill him in one turn though, just to be safe use
anything and everything you can.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 11: KNORDA MARKET [FG17]
========================================================================
Looks like another fun one here. Lots of silver weapons, a killer bow,
and some forged javelins. The enemy is split into two groups: the
mercenaries surrounding the village and the enemies main force in the
northwest. You'll notice Khozen the Manakete and Jake the ballistician.
I'm not sure who recruits Khozen, as I never had any interest in
recruiting him, though he looks to be one of the best Manakete in the
game based on his stats. I don't know who can recruit Jake, either. You
can check someone else's FAQ to figure that out, no doubt. You might
want to check out the shops or the arena, and recruit Linde the mage
from the village.
First of all, start making your way northeast, with the objective of
taking out the mercenaries surrounding the village. The two pegasus
knights will start moving in on you from the northwest, either form a
line or let them take out a couple sacrificial units if you have any.
They'll preempt you and there isn't anything you can do about it, so
just make sure they can only hit people that will survive or are
unimportant. If you have a couple archers they won't set you back much.
Just keep in mind the range of the ballistae (they're inaccurate, but if
you have luck like mine they'll hit you 90% of the time) near the enemy
castle.
As long as you kept advancing while killing the pegasus knights you
shouldn't have a problem stopping the thief. From there taking out the
mercenaries isn't too bad. They're spaced apart too far to mob you, so
you can kill them by the doubles or triples. Once you're finished check
out the shops and recruit Linde if you want, then you're onto the main
assault.
You'll want to position yourself just outside of the ballista's range,
then head in with two cavaliers probably. Otherwise just move anyone
with high defense through it's range, chances are the ballista will
miss. You might consider saving it before killing the ballista, as
you'll be facing a killer bow right afterwards. Either way, watch out
for Khozen the manakete, as he can brutalize many members of your party
with ease. If Marth is high level with a Wyrmslayer then he's a good
candidate for taking out or baiting Khozen. Note that Khozen won't move
until you get within attacking range. The cavaliers shouldn't pose a
problem. As long as you can take out the sniper and manakete it should
be an easy push. The boss is slow, but strong. So almost any fast
character can counter him to start the battle. In my case I hit him with
Marth's Rapier, which killed him in one turn.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 12: THE AGELESS PALACE [FG18]
========================================================================
From the looks of things, it seems like it'll be silver and forged
weapons for the rest of the game on H5. There's a lot of loot to grab
from both corpses and treasure chests. There's also an armory in the
southeast corner of the map, in case you didn't notice it. Finally, you
should realize that you can only bring 11 units, mainly because of some
prisoners you will get to control from the get-go.
Firstly, you'll want to take out the two knights and two thieves. If
you're concerned with saving Midia and her allies then you might want to
forego the killing of the thieves, and concentrate on getting to the
northwest corner as soon as possible. Regardless, I decided it was only
important for Midia to survive on my file (as you'll probably want her
around for Chapter 13), and since there are two spaces in the cell that
can't be attacked I just moved her to one of them.
After you've taken out the knights and thieves keep making your way
northwest, and note that the enemy's main charge will begin soon. I
chose to bait the caster with a thunder and bolganone with Merric, and
kill the knight blocking the path to the cell with two cavaliers'
javelins. By now, you should notice the enemy reinforcements (two
cavaliers and a horseman) approaching your rear. In addition, you'll
have two remaining archers by the cell and probably two mages coming at
you from the south.
I chose to take out the casters immediately, then sent the bulk of my
forces to crush the enemy reinforcements. The enemy archers chose to not
advance, while I noticed a paladin and a couple cavaliers advancing on
the south (coming from the southeast corner, where the armory is). Which
means all your enemies are cavalry of some sort. You know the routine,
Rapier, Wing Spear, Ridersbane... any of those will make quick work of
all these enemies. Additionally, by this time I had purchased a Poleax
from the online Wi-Fi Shop, which helped speed up the process. The
reinforcements keep coming for a few turns, but eventually you'll have
killed all they sent. You probably want to fight them around the pillars
in the entrance room, or choke them out at either of the two good
chokepoints (which by now you should know where they are).
Finally it's time to head south and clean up what's left, which isn't
much. The general in the treasure room won't advance to you even if
you're in his attack range, so it's best to take him out with a fast
unit in one turn without taking any damage. I hit him with magic first,
wounding him and finished him off with Marth. You should have noticed
this already, but whoever finishes him (unless you can kill him in one
hit from a distance) will be shot by the sniper on the other side of the
door.
I then sent Marth over with a Wyrmslayer to kill the Manakete, which he
did in one turn thanks to a critical. After that, the sniper is the last
enemy left besides the boss. It's best if you can open the door above
him and move someone in to hit him with melee, then hit him from the
other side of the pillar wall with someone else. Merric wasn't fast
enough to safely attack the sniper, and I would have lost a unit here if
I wasn't lucky (my axeman got a critical with his handaxe). Hopefully
your caster will have gotten more speed than mine, as that helps.
Otherwise a Wo Dao or Killer anything would be a nice thing to hit him
with from the north side. Either way, you can always save it first just
in case.
Taking out the boss is easy, since you have a whole army to do it. Just
make sure you kill him in one turn. It works best if you take out the
healers surrounding him before you start in on him. I was impatient and
didn't kill the healers first, but the boss went down in one turn
anyway. He's pretty weak, since his HP are so low and he has no defense.
Just note his speed, as he's very fast and kills slow units with ease.
After it's all said and done go ahead and finish looting the map (if you
haven't already) and check out the armory before you leave. Upon seizing
the throne you are presented with Parthia, a powerful but disappointing
bow.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 12X: A TRAITOR'S WORTH [FG19]
========================================================================
Well, this should be a joke compared to just about anything else you've
done lately. Mostly cavaliers and knights, there is only one person here
with a silver weapon. The mages will probably be the biggest threat,
having Elfire tomes. You can recruit Horace by simply not killing him
and completing the chapter. Otherwise note the two villages, the
southernmost one housing a Killer Lance and the northern one yielding a
Blizzard tome.
I used a small detachment to head up the east side. I planned on heading
all the way up the east side with my detachment, but enemy
reinforcements made me reconsider. If you can clear off the island with
a savepoint, and clean the east up to the first village as soon as
possible you'll be in good shape. Keep in mind that pirates will begin
coming in from the fortresses along the western side, and soon after
cavaliers will begin coming in from the fortress on the south end of the
eastern side.
Once the reinforcements began coming in mass, I pulled back to the
starting position where I regrouped my entire army. From there I fought
the reinforcements until they were all defeated. You'll have a lot of
forest to use to your advantage, and the long trek the pirates will be
forced to travel will probably space them out a little so you shouldn't
have to deal with more than two or three at a time. Even though they can
cross the river it will eat up a lot of their movement, allowing you to
form and hold a line with ease, which gives your healer a considerable
amount of room to work. After a few turns the reinforcements should be
done for.
Now there's really just the forces near Horace, a stray sniper and
manakete. I sent my whole force north over the islands to face what
remained of the enemy. Horace's group won't advance until you get very
close to them, so you should have a good opportunity to form a line
across the island. After they take the initiative you can probably wipe
out his whole crew in a turn; two at the most. From here you can bait
the archer to the north and easily take out the immobile knight just
across the bridge. This leaves just the sniper, manakete and boss.
If Marth is an adequate level I'd choose him for taking out the
manakete, otherwise him and a group of several others who can attack
from a distance. The sniper is also quick, so you'll probably want to
rush him with cavaliers and pegasus knights, or whatever can move far
enough to surround him without being attacked. Otherwise just bait him
with a quick tank, then surround and slaughter. After those two are
dead, visit the last village and kill that chump of a boss.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 13: THE WOODEN CAVALRY [FG20]
========================================================================
Welcome to the lamest battle I've seen in any Fire Emblem game. This is
the battle where I mentioned you might need Midia for, as she recruits
Astram the hero. Do note, though, that Astram is a jackass. If Midia is
in his range he'll kill her, rather than talk to her. So you have two
options: You can either bait Astram with someone who won't die/kill him,
or have Midia wait one square out of Astram's range then send her in and
recruit him. If you do the latter, chances are that they'll both die,
but since neither of them are good and you could probably use the fodder
units for this battle, I think that's a pretty good call. You can also
recruit Beck the ballistician from the village. He'll come with
thunderbolt ammo, which can help you cut down the irritation that this
battle will cause you. I hope you've got a couple sacrifice units, as
well as some good luck since that's sadly what will carry you through
this battle.
You can utilize any Warp staves you might have to get near the
ballistae, or just charge in, mixing your sacrifice units with your
actual units. There's not much to say about this battle, except your
cleric/curate should be earning their way by using a physic staff or
several other staves that are useful here. You'll want to recruit Beck
from the village as soon as possible to help kill ballistae that are in
dangerous locations. I advanced on all three fronts simultaneously,
using just a cavalier on the south, axemen and bowmen on the north and
Marth with whatever was left in the middle. Use the savepoints whenever
you deem necessary. Oh yeah, don't use fliers for this chapter.
Once the enemies along the whole center of the map are finished get
ready to move in for the boss. I sent Marth by himself to clean up the
surrounding ballistae (since Beck was already dead) and healed him when
he got wounded with a physic staff. After a few turns the boss was the
only one left, and though Marth could have taken him out easy enough I
sent in other units so they could get experience. Once you're finished
just seize the castle and smile, knowing you're done with the most
joyless battle in the entire game.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 14: LAND OF SORROW [FG21]
========================================================================
This is a pretty easy map if you have a good plan, or at least a good
army configuration. Don't forget to bring one of your master keys (or a
bridge key if you have one) with to gain access to the bridge by the
ballista. Also, if there's a single treasure in the whole game you don't
want to miss, it's the one on the east side of the treasure room here.
It contains a Silver Card, which allows you to buy anything while on a
map for half price.
The plan here is to get indoors through the easternmost entrance (you'll
be near the treasure room). You'll want to visit the village for a
Thoron tome either right away or after most the enemies are dead. If you
have a Warp staff I recommend just warping Marth right on top of the
village. Also, if your thief is strong enough to take out the sniper in
the treasure room you could also warp them directly inside the treasure
room (warp them before they take their turn, so that once they're in
they can have first strike on the sniper).
You'll want to take out the ballista right away (whoever does this, I
used Merric, should have the master key). Be mindful of the knight on
the other side of the bridge who has a javelin. Start moving any units
who can move over water towards the knights on the east side of the map.
On the second turn you should be able to lower the bridge and take out
all four knights. Keep in mind that the two cavaliers in the courtyard
will probably charge you once you're in range. Have your eastern
detachment clean out the cavaliers and thieves inside the structure, as
well as the sniper if he's not dead yet. After Marth has grabbed the
Thoron tome have him head back as safely as possible, watch out for the
enemy's longbows, which can be troublesome. I recommend saving on his
way past the save point.
By now you should have the courtyard cleared, as well as the hallway in
the structure, including the treasure room. Also, two of Minerva's
subordinates should be making their way to Marth to join your party
(assuming you recruited Minerva, even if she's dead they'll still
initiate dialogue instead of attacking). From here you'll mostly be
killing pegasus knight reinforcements, which is easiest is you hole up
inside so they lose their advantage of mobility. Get them choked up and
hit them with arrows or whatever pleases you.
After about a dozen dead pegasus knights you'll be free to do whatever
you want at your leisure. It's a good time to clean up the rest of the
archers who are alive, the two healers and the two knights. Check out
the shops if you want and possibly save it. You can bait the archers,
but keep an eye on any of them that still have longbows. You can also
bait the knights one at a time if you want. This cleanup session
shouldn't take long or be hard, so just get it done and then head on to
the boss. I took him out with a couple bowmen and axemen who had
hammers. Magic can do the trick too, or a Rapier or Wing Spear. There
are plenty of ways to make this guy dead. Once you're finished seize the
throne and head on to Chapter 15.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 15: AN OASIS OF MAGIC [FG22]
========================================================================
Yeesh. Get ready for some really nasty business here. On H3 it wasn't
bad, but take a look at that Gharnef. Better hope you've got an
extremely fast and extremely resistant caster around. Either that or a
handful of sacrifice units. I find this to be a good map to use a few
Warp charges on. If Gharnef is too much for you to handle (he only
sticks around for a little while, but cannot be hurt while he tears
through your whole crew) then just warp any sacrificial lambs into the
room behind him. You can even send them with keys so they can loot the
treasure chests before they die. Other than that, there isn't a whole
lot you can do about him but grit your teeth and take the hit.
It might take a while, but I recommend sticking around where you start
until you've killed all the reinforcements that the enemy will
eventually send towards you. The furthest I would advance is to the
small island just north of you, and that's solely for the purpose of
taking out the enemy thief to loot his Recover staff. I immediately
warped a generic unit with 18 speed, no weapon and a master key into the
room behind Gharnef, which consumed two of Gharnef's turns and allowed
me to loot both treasure chests. The following turn I warped another
worthless generic unit into the same location. This allowed me to safely
advance far enough to take out the enemy thief, which I did with Caeda.
By the time the thief and my sacrifices to Gharnef were dead the enemy
had reinforcements coming in. I holed up around the starting location to
take out the reinforcements, which took a long time. Gharnef left the
battlefield before he got anywhere near my army, and the reinforcements
went down without a problem. So, for me, it was time to advance.
With around 10 enemy units left you shouldn't have any real problems.
You might want to pass a few turns if you're not sure that all the
reinforcements are dead. Otherwise you can proceed in one of two ways:
Divide your army to clean the enemy up quickly, or move your collective
forces as one to ensure there are no hitches. Since I didn't want to
redo any amount of this chapter, I advanced with my whole army across
the deserts.
By this point you shouldn't need any advice on this, it's very routine.
Just remember that the sand will make some classes totally worthless
when it comes to movement. So it's best to bait enemies. A note on the
boss, this will be the first enemy unit who has the swarm spell. It's
deceivingly good looking from it's range, but know that it has weak
attack power and can't hit squares near the caster (like a ballista).
After you've cleaned everything up, looted the treasures if you haven't
already, and checked out the shops (Bolganones, Javelins, Handaxes and a
Rapier, yum yum) seize the castle to advance to the next chapter.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 16: THE BATTLE FOR ALTEA [FG23]
========================================================================
Ah yes, this is a beautiful looking chapter. Lots of silver, several
killer weapons, poleaxes, ridersbanes, a levin sword and all manner of
nasty. Xane the freelancer is the only freelancer you'll get in this
entire game if you want her. I can't tell you how to get her, since it's
too late in the game for me to even consider taking new recruits. Also
there are two villages, each of which contains a unit to recruit. The
western village has Arran the paladin, the eastern village has Samson
the hero. Neither have good stats, and since you can only grab one of
them I chose the paladin simply because he comes with better equipment
for me to take from his corpse.
You'll probably want to make your way west towards the villages to
start. You could always send a detachment down the east side, but that's
up to you. I chose not to, simply because I didn't want to find out if
the four conspicuous northwestern fortresses spawned reinforcements. I
clogged them up as soon as possible with four units who were level 20
and didn't yet have Master Seals for promotion. Anyway, as you start
your trek you'll notice the three dracoknights make their way toward
you. Try to be near the bridge with all your units so that all the
dracoknights are left flying above land, allowing you to attack them
with several units. Make sure not to melee them with cavalry as one has
a Ridersbane and another has a Poleax. Spend a turn killing them and
proceed west to the villages. Now you make your choice: You can recruit
either Arran or Samson, but you can't recruit them both. As I said
previously, I chose the paladin as he comes with a Silver Spear and
Killer Lance.
Next you'll want to occupy the fortresses (or don't, maybe they don't
spawn reinforcements?), kill the thief and get ready to kill the
incoming cavalry. They'll come to you, so if you stick around the
villages you should be able to draw them in close and get the
initiative. It shouldn't take more than a turn to kill them all. Proceed
onwards to kill the incoming general, and make your way to the southern
save point.
When you get near the southern save point the enemy will get
reinforcements near their castle, who will immediately begin charging
you. You can easily choke them out at either of the bridges, which will
cause the three cavaliers on the south to advance, or allow them to
charge close enough to you where you get the initiative without
provoking the stationary cavaliers on the south. It's your call. Either
way works fine, just be sure to look out for the cavalier with a
Ridersbane. Otherwise the reinforcements are pretty weak by this point
in time.
After that, bait the three southern cavaliers and kill them if you
haven't already. This is also where I headed east and killed the hero
with a Master Seal from a distance without opening the door. Now you can
either choose to head in and wipe out the remaining hero and do whatever
you desire with Xane, or not even bother. Since I did some arena action
to get some dough I didn't head inside. If you need the experience then </pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
feel free to head in and take them out. It should take you two turns at
most.
Not a whole lot left, just a few chumps, one of which has an
armorslayer. Either bait them or charge them, it's your call. They're
not so tough, but I had five promoted units, and Marth and Julian were
around level 22. Clean the last unit, the cleric, and start in on the
boss. Try to kill the boss from a range in one turn, so he doesn't have
the opportunity to switch to his Killer Bow. If you've got a powerful
mage with you it shouldn't be a problem. Now you can peacefully check
out the shops and the arena if you haven't already. Bing bang boom,
you're done with Chapter 16.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 17: STAR AND SAVIOR [FG24]
========================================================================
I'll no longer be mentioning Silver weapons or spells like Bolganone.
We'll just assume that the enemies have such things. What I will
continue to mention are any special weapons, like Killer weapons, the
Swarm tome, or any enemies who are killing machines. Which brings me to
mention the two roaming manakete, who are brutalizers, and the sniper
with a Killer Bow. Take a good look at the northeastern room,
specifically the casters. One has a Swarm, which isn't bad but is worth
mentioning simply because of it's rarity. The other two have Fortify
staves, one of which you get as loot; so don't let this guy burn all
your charges. The Gold Card is for accessing secret shops, which you'll
want to take advantage of on H5. Check OboeDude's FAQ for in depth
information on secret shops.
Now, this is a pretty easy battle, really. Pick three or four units who
will be killing the two manakete, and then send the rest west towards
the western save point. Your manakete detachment should head up the
center, killing the manakete, caster, and finally the second manakete.
These guys are quick, so try and hit them from a range to weaken them
up. I used a sage (bolganone), sniper (silver bow) and Marth
(wyrmslayer). While your manakete detachment is doing their job your
main force will be tearing through two knights, two thieves and a hero.
After all that's done you'll want to carefully dispatch the sniper with
a killer bow. Either charge and surround him, or bait him with someone
who has enough HP, defense and speed to live through a critical. By the
time the sniper is dead you should have everything on the west cleaned
up except for two mages. They're quite a joke, so snuff them and send
your army towards the eastern savepoint while your thief loots all the
treasures. Be mindful when approaching the save point, as the mage with
a swarm can hit a large area, and some of the other mages can also
attack a few squares out of the throne room.
From here I chose to kill the western mage with Caeda through the wall,
and then took out both the mages with fortify staves, as well as the
sniper before heading into the throne room. If you choose to do this
then be sure that the units you use for it have high speed and are
serious killers. Also, try not to use your sages to kill the mages, as
you'll probably want to heal anyone who gets wounded and is in range of
the remaining sniper. My sniper with a killer bow took care of most of
this, since he has a lot of speed and a 40% chance of instantly killing
anyone he shoots.
Now, it's time to storm the throne room. If you didn't kill the mages
and the sniper then you ought to be careful near the entrance, as any of
those three units can attack through the statue which is immediately to
the right after entering the room. You probably don't want to leave
anyone adjacent to that statue. Regardless, this push isn't bad. I
opened the door with my thief, killed a knight with an armorslayer,
killed the other with a wing spear and left the bishop alive for another
turn. He missed his target, then I finished him off on the same turn
that enemy reinforcements showed up.
The reinforcements are a pretty big joke. Just choke them off anywhere
along the path they travel and annihilate them. It shouldn't pose any
problems. Meanwhile, you should probably get started on the boss. He
goes down easy enough. I hit him with two javelins then finished him
with Marth and his wyrmslayer. Nothing to it. The only thing I can
foresee as a problem here is if he's much quicker than you. If Marth is
around level 20 or above it then that shouldn't be a problem. You could
always kill him entirely with ranged attacks though, so no worries.
Finally, check out the Secret Shop and hopefully you can grab some
Longbows and Killer Axes, since this is one of the only places you'll
ever be able to get them, and head to the next chapter.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 17X: HELENA CASTLE [FG25]
========================================================================
Alright. Pretty standard stuff here. The only enemy who is a visible
threat is the sniper with a killer bow, anything else is trivial.
You'll want to stop the initial enemy advance. It's a joke, so do it
however you see fit. Afterwards there are four rooms for you to check
out. Two contain an enemy and treasure chest, one contains just a
treasure, and the other contains just an enemy. None of the enemies are
serious, but make sure you send at least a squad of four people to
accompany your thief just to be safe.
During the course of looting you should see some enemy reinforcements
appear down around where you started. Two of the paladins are
ill-equipped, while the third has a Killer Lance. Regardless, they
shouldn't pose much of a problem. You can bait them, or just wait for
them to get close enough where you'll get the initiative, or whatever.
As long as you take the one with a Killer Lance out immediately you
shouldn't have any problems.
By now you should be done looting, and should begin your passage down
the western side. You'll want to try and take out the northern-most
archer through the wall. The second archer can't be baited, so you'll
just have to deal with him on your way through. You can bait the two
mages on the very west by standing on the other side of the wall just
north of them. Obviously, you'll want to use someone with good speed and
resistance, so that you can kill them both in one turn. While all this
is happening you'll get two more groups of three enemy reinforcements to
cut down, same as last time.
Now, let's talk about the western passage. This will probably be the
nastiest part of this map since it's so congested. If you've set
yourself up properly (killing the two mages and the archer) you
shouldn't have too much of a problem. You can take out the last archer
without consequence, assuming you have a skilled bowman with a longbow.
Even so, you'll have to head south from there taking out a bishop and a
manakete, meaning the sniper with a killer bow will get a free chance to
kill one of your units. The only way to nullify his chance to get a
critical is to make sure your two units who are furthest up (the ones
who probably killed the manakete) are ones with either high skill or
very high defense and HP. Otherwise you'll probably want to save it
first and then cross your fingers.
After you kill the sniper you'll get to crush a pathetic cavalier, and
either head forward to take out the nearby hero or bait him with a
reliable swordsman. To your east will be Etzel the sorcerer, who can be
recruited by beating the chapter without killing him. Don't worry about
him attacking you, as he's stationary.
Once you get far enough east the roofs will be removed from the area
where the boss is. It reveals a sniper, manakete and two mercenaries.
The sniper is the only real worry, as if you've already positioned units
to breach the southwestern room they can be shot by the sniper through
the wall (to their east). Other than that there are no worries.
Breaching the southwestern room isn't bad, either. A knight, bishop, and
a bishop with Swarm. They can all be taken out in one turn if your units
are set up right. Mine weren't, but a bishop with swarm isn't a very
nasty thing to be hit by.
That's pretty much the end. By this point the mercenaries are so weak it
makes for a good laugh. This manakete isn't anything to write home
about, and the sniper can be killed through the wall by a variety of
classes. The boss is a general, making him one of the weakest units in
the game, by this point in time. You know the procedure: Hammer, Wing
Spear, Rapier, Armorslayer, Magic or whatever. Seize the throne and
you'll get Etzel in your army if you didn't kill him. He's not good
though, so you might consider killing him for some good experience
instead of recruiting him.
========================================================================
INTERMISSION: A QUICK STATUS CHECK [FG26]
========================================================================
By now we're pretty far into the game. I realize that by this time your
party could look a lot different than mine, and some things I say are
easy might not be so for you. The next paragraph will give you an update
on where I am, so that you can compare your party against mine and see
why some things I say might not be applicable to you.
I have a party of twelve people, all of which have been promoted by this
time (I bought Master Seals at the Wi-Fi shop). My party includes Marth
(24), Julian (21), Caeda (4 Falcoknight), Hardin (10 Paladin), Darros (3
Horseman), Athena (2 Swordmaster), Barst (2 Warrior), Ogma (1 Hero),
Cord (2 Berserker), Abel (5 Sniper), Merric (4 Sage) and Linde (5 Sage).
All my members are capable of using silver weapons for any weapon type
available to them, but I usually just use steel. It should also be
noted that I used the Boots (+2 movement item) on Marth by now.
My caravan has all manner of goodies, including at least 5 silver
weapons of each type, several bolganones, Excalibur with 18 charges,
Aura with 23, and a pristine Parthia, Hauteclere and Thoron. It's also
well stocked with killer weapons, several Wo Dao and Brave Swords (once
again, the Wi-Fi shop), as well as Longbows, Poleaxes, and weapons
strong vs. manakete. As far as staves go, I'm starting to get low on
Mends, but have several Recovers, two Warps, a Physic with 3 charges
left, a full Fortify and a partially used Barrier.
If your army and caravan don't look like that don't worry about it. In
fact, if they don't look so good then there is a good chance you're
having a lot more fun than I am. Just realize that we're on the final
stretch of the game by now. If you have stockpiles of goodies like I do,
then you ought to start using them or you'll beat the game with a bunch
of toys you never played with. Also, try to get those units promoted as
soon as possible if they aren't already. Promoted units (even if
promoted around level 15) are much more powerful than those that aren't.
Keep in mind that you won't be able to promote all your units until
you're near the final chapter unless you take advantage of the Wi-Fi
Shop.
Keep in mind that you get two more really easy battles before things get
nasty. Don't doubt though that things will get nasty. I recommend
spending your next couple battles trying to get any unpromoted units
promoted in order to be properly prepared for the upcoming nasty.
Anyhow, on with the guide.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 18: THE SABLE ORDER [FG27]
========================================================================
There's a lot of cavalry to kill here, so if you have polaxes,
ridersbanes, a wing spear and a rapier handy it'll make things go much
smoother than if you don't. A few enemies have ridersbanes, one has an
armorslayer, and there's a couple killer weapons floating around out
there. Overall, it looks a lot nastier than it really is. Also note that
Est, the last member of Minerva's squad, will show up at some point
during this battle and either try to kill you, or join you. There are a
couple armories, vendors and an arena as well.
As you start off you should head for the bridge immediately. The enemy
will begin their first advance, sending several cavaliers your way.
Choke them out on the bridge, pushing southward as you kill them.
Shifting is a good thing to do here, as you'll still be able to advance
while killing off the enemies. Now, take your time and make your way
south. The cavalry near the arena will advance once one of your units is
within their range, so be mindful if you have any fliers or defensively
weak units. It's best if you can stop the initial enemy advance and take
out the cavalry near the arena before any reinforcements arrive, but not
necessary by any means.
Once you've completed that task you'll want to sit someone on the
fortress on the center island to block reinforcements that will soon be
popping out of it. If you feel like you've done all of this very quickly
(by about turn 5 or 6) then go ahead and bait the horseman and paladin
to your south. I did so with Etzel, using him as a sacrifice. You should
be able to take out this pair of cavalry very easily, upon which you can
either wait around for enemy reinforcements or continue south to bait
the next group of cavalry.
I chose to advance and bait the next group of cavalry, which is when Est
appeared. Just keep the island fortress clogged and hit the southern
group of cavalry with everything you have. Assuming you've enough power
you'll wipe them all out in one turn. By now the enemy should be
receiving reinforcements on the southwestern fortresses. Since the
reinforcements are cavalry and you'll have to cross a field to block the
fortresses off, it's best to just kill them until they stop coming. They
do, however, spawn only every other turn. So if you're powerful enough
and don't want the extra experience just go ahead and block them off.
Once that's finished you're pretty much done. Just a couple cavaliers,
one of which has a Ridersbane, a healer and the boss left to kill. You
know the routine with the boss. Once you're finished you can check out
the shops or the arena and seize the castle to progress to the next
chapter.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 19: MANAKETE PRINCESS [FG28]
========================================================================
This is one of the quickest and easiest battles in the whole game, in my
opinion. You'll only be met by a couple units that provide any threat,
which are mostly the heroes scattered about. Particularly the one with a
killer edge. Note that Tiki the manakete can be recruited by Bantu, if
you've still got him around somewhere. The Divinestone she holds is nice
looking, but being on the down slope of this game it seems that
recruiting a level 1 unit would cause more trouble than you'd eliminate
by taking her. Also note that you must kill Tiki in order to unlock the
gaiden chapter 24X.
Just send your main squad of units up the center, killing anything along
the way. You might want to bait the hero with a Killer edge with one of
your toughest units, otherwise you can arrange your units to take him
out from a distance safely. Either way, you'll want to kill all the
thieves running about as soon as possible, especially considering that
one has the Lightsphere.
Meanwhile you should form up a detachment designed to loot all the
locked rooms. Obviously, you'll need a thief, a strong melee killer and
one or two ranged attackers. It also makes things go quicker and
smoother if you have a promoted caster in each of your groups (which
shouldn't be a problem by now). Some rooms will have loot, while others
just have enemies. You can open the door and clobber the enemies head on
and through the walls immediately. If you can't kill the enemies in one
turn then you might consider keeping a bowman with a longbow near your
looting detachment.
By the time you've checked every room your main squad should be finished
killing everything. Aside from the heroes the only thing worth noting is
that you might want to bait the two casters near the boss. Then be sure
to kill Tiki from a distance. She's not so tough, but don't forget that
manekete stats are deceiving on H5.
Just be sure that you get everything here, as the two pieces required
for the spell to defeat Imhullu are scattered about, as well as other
various goodies. Once you're finished with everything, continue on to
chapter 20.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 20: CAMUS THE SABLE [FG29]
========================================================================
Alright. This is a very nasty chapter. I recommend bringing a master key
if you still have one around and using it to lower the bridge nearest to
your starting position. Also note the raw brutality of your enemies.
Almost every general and paladin class enemy has a Brave weapon, which
are the most powerful weapons in the entire game (in my opinion).
Otherwise Camus has the Gradivus, which is the legendary spear. Notice
that the Gradivus can attack from a distance, just like a javelin. One
last enemy to note is the healer, who has a fortify staff. This usually
isn't a problem, but considering the classes you're up against it ought
to be noted. You'll definitely want to kill any enemies you target in
one turn. Aside from all that, you can get the Hammerne staff (only
usable by Lena) from the village.
Now, before we get to the nasty you might consider thinking carefully
about your units' starting positions. It's best if you can take out the
northeastern squad of enemies on the first turn. This includes the
ballista and two generals. Caeda (wing spear) can fly over the river and
get close enough to the ballista to avoid damage, which means you might
want to put her in the very top spot available to you. Other
classes/units I would place near her are a Berserker (hammer & poleax),
Sniper (longbow), and a Hero (armorslayer/hammer & poleax), since they
can all cross the river immediately, allowing them to attack both
generals on the first turn. Also note that this is a good map to start
using any Physic or Fortify charges you have left. I will reference the
above units as Caeda's detachment. Hopefully your main army will have a
sufficient amount of units who can attack from a range and excel at
killing paladins, as they'll be defeating the four paladins with brave
lances who are just above the village.
Here goes nothing. If Caeda is strong enough to both kill the top
general and survive his attacks you should do that immediately. If not
then you should head in first with your sniper who has a longbow.
Hopefully you'll critical and kill the bottom general with just your
sniper. Regardless of how you do it, Caeda's detachment should have both
generals dead in the first turn, also making all of her detachment able
to attack either the ballista or the paladins who will be advancing on
them next turn.
If you're using a squad of twelve units like me, then you'll have just
gotten three generic fodder troops. Using them in the first two turns is
ideal. The first should be used to lower the bridge and take one or two
ballista attacks while you move your main army near the bridge. The four
paladins to the west will advance after your turn, which is where you
should spend the other two sacrifices. I'd send one north to take some
heat off of Caeda's detachment, and keep the other by your main army in
order to take a ballista attack and one paladin's attack. Don't melee
attack any enemies unless absolutely necessary. Also, be sure that any
of your units left exposed to enemy attacks can only be hit from one
direction and by one enemy (forming a line is a decent idea, or using
natural defenses).
By now it's only turn three for me, and so far there is only one paladin
left by Caeda, and two paladins and a ballista by my main army. All my
sacrifices are used up, and I've only got two wounded units. Hopefully
you're looking good like this. Finish off the remaining paladins this
turn. Getting the ballista would also be nice, but that's pretty trivial
by comparison. Also, it is ideal if you can avoid attacking with Marth
this turn, so he can be on his way to the southwestern most ballista;
he'll have the dual purpose of killing the ballista and visiting the
village. You should be aware that enemy reinforcements will be spawning
along the southern fortresses and some of the western ones. It is best
if you can block them off, but a good alternative is to clean the
ballistae, visit the village and get your whole army massed on the north
side of the eastern bridge (the one by your starting position).
I feel I've done this much of the battle in a timely fashion, so I'll be
trying to block off enemy reinforcements. I can't remember which
fortresses spawn reinforcements, so I guess I'll have to block all that
I can afford to just to be on the safe side. I chose to block the two
fortresses on the very west just south of the save point, the one across
the southern bridge from there, the four fortresses south of that, and
the fortress on the east just above the eastern save point, as well as
the fortress near the shops and arena. They were all blocked on turn 8.
So, if you're using 12 units then this leaves you with only three to
finish the chapter.
For those three units, I'm going to choose to use Marth, my sniper and
Caeda. This is also the point where I did some shifting on fortresses
and used my first and only save for this map. At this point (maybe turn
12ish) the enemy received a reinforcement of one horseman on the
fortress across the bridge from the western save point (near the enemy
castle). The horseman has a Brave Bow, but he's very weak and not as
fast as he ought to be. It shouldn't be a problem.
Now, I've shifted Merric with a warp staff up near my squad I'm using
for the final push. My plan is to warp my sniper in, who will shoot
Camus with a longbow and then fly Caeda in the same turn, having her
finish off Camus with a Wing Spear. This will put my sniper in the blind
spot of the ballista, meaning he can only be attacked by the general
with a brave lance. Caeda might be shot by the ballista, but she's very
evasive and I'll rely on her ability to dodge (not a good idea, but I do
it fairly often with ballistae). I did the math and know for a fact they
can both survive the general's attack (both my units also have high
skill, so there's little or no chance for the enemy to critical).
Ah... it's a good thing I saved, since I've come to a problem. Unless my
sniper gets a critical, I'll be unable to kill Camus without losing a
unit. Now, I initially thought I'd only be able to remedy this
conveniently by using permanent stat boosting items on either Caeda (to
survive Camus' attack) or Marth (to survive Camus' and the ballista's
attack in order to bait Camus), but there is a third and better
solution. If you looted everything on the last chapter, you'll remember
obtaining a Geosphere, which is described as damaging all units on the
battlefield an equal amount. This means I can warp in my sniper, attack
with a longbow, then use the geosphere to hurt Camus enough so that
Caeda can kill him, and finally use a fortify to heal my own units from
the geosphere damage. Let me tell you, it was nasty, but it worked.
Now, the battle is basically over. Snuff out the last general (if he
didn't commit suicide on you) and ballista, then take out the two
healers and finish the map off by killing the boss. You can also recruit
the boss by talking to him with Marth. Now, you can check out those
shops if you want, just remember that if you pull units off of their
fortresses you will still have to kill the reinforcements. Now, I
believe congratulations are in order. That was one of the hardest
battles in any Fire Emblem game ever.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 20X: THE LAIR OF FIRE [FG30]
========================================================================
I bet you'd never be so happy to see a map full of enemies with silver
weapons, huh? This battle should be a joke after that last one. The
southwest corner is the only thing that's very noteworthy, having an
enemy with a Ridersbane and one with a Killer Edge. Other than that you
should be aware of the caster near the boss who has a Swarm tome. Also
you'll be able to recruit a berserker named Ymir here by speaking to him
with Marth (maybe it was Caeda, I can't remember). He's not very good
though, so I recommend killing him for experience. Be sure to loot all
the chests, as they have some decent goodies in them.
I divided my army here, feeling no real threat. I sent all my cavalry
with Caeda and a sage up the largest bridge towards the three generals
surrounding a save point. Everyone else I sent along the southwest. Use
up those ridersbanes, hammers, wing spears, rapiers, armorslayers,
poleaxs and whatever you want. Of course, you could always conserve them
since this map is such a pushover. You shouldn't really need any advice.
Just be careful with Ymir and the manakete. Neither of them are very
special, but they might surprise you if you send in a weaker unit to do
the job.
After cleaning the center I sent Caeda's detachment to kill Ymir while
my main army killed the boss and Julian finished looting everything. It
didn't take long. When you're finished progress onward to the next
chapter.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 21: CLASH IN MACEDON [FG31]
========================================================================
Yet another extremely nasty chapter. Brave weapons everywhere, a few
Thoron tomes, some Killer weapons and various other things that aren't
so friendly.
My opinion is that the best plan for this map is mass your army in the
center. For starters, you'll want to be in the center below the southern
savepoint. This is one of the few times in this game you might want to
form a perimeter, or a horseshoe (doesn't need to resemble a horseshoe,
just needs to be generally shaped like one) line formation.
You'll immediately be approached by two paladins and two dracoknights.
Watch out for the dracoknight on the east, as it has a Brave Lance. Both
the paladins also have Brave Lances. The beginning is most likely where
you'll want to use any sacrifices you have. It's not a bad idea to save
them for later though, if you can manage that. Form your horseshoe near
your sacrifice units to take out these first four enemies.
I managed to take out the first four approaching enemies at the cost of
two sacrifice units, then baited the three central generals before enemy
reinforcements arrived. Obviously you'll want to use troops who can
survive the generals' attacks to bait them, but it's best if you can
also use evasive units for this. In my case, Caeda got lucky and dodged
both attacks, killing one of the generals while taking no damage.
Swordmasters are good for this sort of thing too, if they have an
Armorslayer and high defense/HP.
The reinforcements though, they'll be coming for quite some time. It's
not plausible to block their reinforcements off, as you'd have to wipe
out their entire army to do so. So you'll want to pick a good spot to
form your horseshoe line (yet again) where you'll get the initiative on
the main threats who will continually advance upon you. The way I see
it, there are really only three reinforcements who will be a threat to
my units: A dracoknight with a Brave Lance, another with a Ridersbane,
and a cavalier with a Brave Lance. All three of which come up the
western side. So my formation will be really heavy on the western side,
while allowing the weak reinforcements from the northeast to get the
initiative on me (specifically, some of my strongest defensive units).
One last note about the reinforcements is that they only appear every 4
or 5 turns. As long as you kill them in a timely fashion you'll have
plenty of time to regroup. Keep your patience, slow but steady really
does win this race. I think all enemy reinforcements stop for certain
when you reach turn 25. It's best to pass several turns to be sure,
though.
By the time the third group of reinforcements come in you should
probably have killed all the enemies but four dracoknights, two healers,
a paladin and the boss. If this is the case then you know you're doing
good. As long as you just be patient and take out all of the enemy
reinforcements as they appear it's a done deal. The four dracoknights
are a joke, with just javelins and a Ridersbane. The last paladin I had
alive (who you could possibly have dead already) had a Brave Sword, so
he's the biggest threat for me. Either way, you'll probably want to save
when making your final push or before it (depending on if you've saved
yet).
Baiting the last remaining enemies is a good idea, whether you regard
them a threat or not. I baited each with my strongest unit, while having
my whole army as close as possible. It's best to be thorough on chapters
like this. Either way, once you've killed all enemies (including
reinforcements) you might want to visit the shops, including the Secret
Shop.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 22: A KNIGHT-FILLED SKY [FG32]
========================================================================
If you have as many bow users as I do (Sniper, Warrior, & a Horseman)
then you shouldn't have a problem with this map. In addition, I still
have my Excalibur, which by this point means any one flier is dead in
one turn at the expense of 1 charge of Excalibur. In addition, my
Berserker can be flipped to a General, allowing him to use bows (with a
B proficiency), just in case. That won't be needed though, as four dead
enemies per turn is more than adequate. Just keep your army massed up
for this one.
It should be noted that this is the beginning of the only plot branch in
this game. The village here is home to Gotoh, who is the powerful
magician who can create the Starlight tome, which is the only thing
capable of defeating Gharnef's Imhullu. You can choose to either visit
the village with your Starsphere and Lightsphere in hand to get this
tome, ultimately leading to the acquisition of Falchion; or you can
choose to not get the tome, meaning you get to keep the Starsphere and
Lightsphere, you can't get Falchion and you'll have the gaiden chapter
24X unlocked (assuming you killed Tiki back in chapter 19). Before you
choose, you should know that Falchion is the only weapon that does bonus
damage to the boss in the final chapter, who is the strongest final
enemy in any Fire Emblem game, in my opinion. I recommend getting
Starlight, defeating Gharnef and obtaining Falchion.
First of all, you'll want to send your whole army up the east side of
the map. I don't have much to say about most of this battle, as if you
have bowmen and Excalibur there won't be much of a battle, so much as a
slaughter. Use your sacrifices to bait the first enemy advance. You
should be able to obliterate this advance in one or two turns. If it
takes two then be sure to form a line in front of your vulnerable units,
since there's some randomly placed nasty weapons in this advance. Once
it is crushed the enemy will begin their second charge. By this time you
should have killed the enemy thief, and be occupying the northeast
corner of the map with your entire army. Taking out the enemy's second
advance is a pretty big joke.
Alright, I still had a sacrifice unit left, who just happened to be a
general. I used him to bait all the remaining enemies as quickly as
possible. Once you get near the staircase leading to the rest of the
enemies they will receive a meager two reinforcements. Just keep pushing
forward, leaving your toughest units in front and you'll eventually be
able to take over their fortresses, effectively cutting off their
reinforcements. This should leave you with two enemy healers and the
boss left. This is the point where I sent Marth back to the village (I
just went past it initially) to get my tome. While he was doing that I
cleaned up the two healers and took out the boss with my main army
(leaving the fortresses blocked off while I did so). That's that. Check
out the shops and head to the next chapter.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 23: DARK PONTIFEX [FG33]
========================================================================
This isn't a particularly hard chapter, it's just somewhat complicated.
Before anything else, you should know that the real Gharnef (who has the
Falchion) is in the southeast corner. So don't kill him if you plan on
going to chapter 24X. If you've had as terrible of luck as I have with
my casters' levels then this won't be much fun. The biggest threats are
the bishops with Swarm (never thought I'd say that) and the two heroes
with Brave Swords. Other than that you can bait pretty much anyone with
a variety of units, which is what most of this chapter will consist of.
I immediately wanted to clear the three units on the steps as well as
the eastern group of enemies which includes the real Gharnef. First off
though, send your thief up to loot the treasure chests. Then head east
with your whole army. It's best to bait each enemy and then slaughter
them however is necessary. While you are killing the eastern units you
should get to work on cleaning the staircase. It shouldn't take you more
than a few turns to get all this done, which leaves you with only a
handful of enemies left to kill. Also note that one of the bishops with
Swarm will advance on you. It's best if you can bring him all the way
down the stairs, which allows you to move in a sniper with a longbow to
kill him without consequence.
By this point the enemy has probably received their reinforcements.
Several casters who all have Thoron tomes. Yes, you'll probably be
drinking a lot of Pure Water (hopefully you have a lot of it). Just wait
at the bottom of the stairs, or choke them out at the middle level. It's
your call how you do it, since your casters' stats are probably much
different than mine. If you have high resistance you can just go ahead
and slaughter them all. Either way, you'll have to split your turns
between killing and healing, so having Recover staves is ideal. I ended
up killing them mostly with Merric and my sniper (longbow), using my
other caster to heal Merric every round.
Now, time to make your final advance to the top of the stairs. I used
Marth, Caeda, my paladin and sniper and my two casters. With only one
bishop who has Swarm left you should be able to heal the one unit who
gets hit each turn while you advance. Just make your way to the top and
get ready for the final push. Getting rid of the nearest Gharnef and the
sniper is probably the worst part of this whole push. I recommend saving
with whoever you use to bait the sniper. I used my paladin, who had a
lot of defense, speed and 7 resistance. I buffed him up with a barrier
and moved him onto the savepoint, saving it. Chances are this unit will
be hit with both Swarm and the sniper, so make sure they can survive.
After that you'll want to buff up your strongest caster (mine was
Merric, he had the most magic, speed, resistance and HP) and send him
over to bait Gharnef. It might take a few turns to kill him (unless you
critical), but just be patient and do it properly, keeping any
vulnerable units as far away as plausible. Once he's finished the real
threat is gone.
Clean the bishop and the two heroes next. It's best if you can take out
the boss with a longbow, and then kill the healer beside him to get your
(probably mostly used up) Fortify staff. Now you just have to kill the
last Gharnef, which by now you should know the procedure. Visit the
Secret Shop if you need Master Seals, otherwise make sure you looted
both the treasures and head to the next chapter.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 24: THE DRAGONKIN REALM [FG34]
========================================================================
As you can see, you'll be killing a whole lot of manakete here. You'll
also notice that they have a veritable ton of speed and skill, which is
a dangerous combination. In case you don't know, the Falchion is like a
Wyrmslayer, but much better. So chances are that you'll be doing a lot
of manakete killing with Marth. Otherwise make sure you give your
manakete killing weapons to anyone who has a lot of speed and skill.
While not an extremely hard battle, it is a long battle. You can be sure
to kill all enemy reinforcements to get a ton of last minute experience,
which you might want if you've just recently finished promoting your
units. You can get an Aum staff from the only treasure here, but it can
only be used by Elice, which essentially makes it worthless. I let the
thief abscond with it.
Start off by making your way east to to begin killing in the northeast
corner. I chose to bait the first manakete with a sacrifice unit, then
kill him with a combination of ranged attacks and a wyrmslayer, sending
Marth into the hot seat to take out the caster (make sure you don't take
damage for this, as Marth will be able to be attacked by the next
manakete). You can choose whoever is most appropriate for this task, as
for you it may not be Marth. Regardless, that'll take out the initial
threat and give you a decent area to fight in.
Now, I thought it was wise to leave my two other sacrifice units in the
rear, as the enemy should be advancing towards your rear with a few
insignificant units. I baited the next manakete to the south again with
Marth, which triggered an enemy advance including a sniper and a
manakete. This led me to feint with Marth, massing my army and readying
for the enemy's pincer maneuver. You'll have to divide your units
intelligently if you plan on using this strategy, as you'll be killing
some units to your rear and your front. I got through all of this
without needing to use my sacrifice units, which is nice since they may
be needed for the process of blocking off enemy reinforcements.
On turn 9 the enemy will start receiving their reinforcements. It will
take them a turn or two to get to the northeast corner, so make sure the
enemy's pincer attack has been completed defeated by then. You'll be
facing a long stream of enemy reinforcements from this point on. It
includes several manakete, a pegasus knight, bishop and hero. I
recommend killing all the reinforcements until they eventually stop
spawning, solely for the purpose of gaining experience. The manakete
kills are worth a ton of experience, so you'll be able to get any of
your weaker units levelled up a little before the final battle.
Okay, it occured to me on turn 33 that the enemy reinforcements must
come for all of eternity. This is great if you really need a lot of
experience, but only if you know they come forever. Anyhow, I'll be
cutting off their reinforcements now. You'll want to use those last two
sacrifice units (if they're still around) for getting to the top two
fortresses on the east side. It's several turns between reinforcements,
so actually getting on to the top two fortresses shouldn't be bad. Just
make sure you start your advance right after the reinforcements spawn.
If you think it's taking you too long then try to keep your sacrifice
units in the front (in the odd chance of enemy reinforcements they
should target your sacrifices).
Once these top two fortresses are blocked you'll need to divide your
army. All in all you'll need four units to leave behind while you
advance to the boss and clean any roaming units that are left. These
four units will occupy the three fortresses on the east, as well as the
fortress which spawns a manakete to the southwest of the treasure chest.
As far as dividing your army you should make sure you have adequate
manakete killing power which will head around the south to block off the
fourth fortress. Your other division should be capable of killing heroes
and bishops, who will be approaching from the two fortresses near the
boss.
Use your southern division to clean up near the treasure chest (after
blocking the fortress which spawns a pegasus knight), as well as block
the fourth fortress as quickly as possible. For this purpose I still had
a sacrifice left, as well as a horseman to block off the enemy fortress
while I cleaned the treasure area. Note that once you block of the
fortress southwest of the treasure the enemy's reinforcements heroes
should start heading for your southern division. If this division is
strong enough to kill a hero with a Killer Axe and two manakete then it
shouldn't be a problem.
From here I recommend moving both divisions forward, executing a pincer
against the remaining enemies. Nothing left should prove any particular
challenge. The trickiest part left will be blocking off the last two
fortresses without consequence. For such a thing I recommend joining
your divisions and advancing immediately after reinforcements spawn. You
should get the intiative, as well as have a couple turns to get the
fortresses blocked off. From here, just kill the boss. Once he's dead
you'll have a peaceful chance to check out the shops, including the
Secret Shop. Then it's off to either the gaiden chapter or the final
chapter.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 24X: THE ALTERSPIRE [FG35]
========================================================================
If you chose the path that leads you to this battle, you'll probably be
disappointed. You'll find several swordmasters, berserkers, warriors,
bishops, snipers and others, as well as quite a few more manakete. None
of your enemies will be too nicely equipped, but they will have silver
weapons and the manakete have mostly magestones, which can be a real
pain (though not in this particular situation). Note that the northwest
chest contains an Excalibur tome and the northeast an Aura tome. As far
as I know this is the only place in the entire game to get these tomes
(aside from Merric and Linde starting with them).
There isn't a whole lot to say about this battle. The enemies are very
weak and provide little to no challenge. You'll probably feel like
you've been granted a reprieve from combat, since you'll feel like
you're stomping on corpses. Just make your way to the southern save.
Once there you should divide your army into two equal parts and have
each division advance along their respective paths. The only enemy who
could even pass for a threat is the sniper with a killer bow. Other than
that you should be able to run through this map without stopping or
saving or worrying at all about anything. It's completely insulting.
After your victory you'll get a weak version of Falchion (it weighs
more, is more innacurate and deals less damage). Overall, this chapter
is a waste of time, in my opinion, and you'd have been better off if you
killed Gharnef for Falchion.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 25: CHOSEN BY FATE [FG36]
========================================================================
This is it. The showdown. The final battle. Endgame. The hardest battle
you will probably ever fight in a Fire Emblem game.
First thing is first: Preparations. Since Falchion is the only weapon
that deals extra damage to the final boss, I recommend maxing out as
many of Marth's stats as possible with permanent stat boosting items. On
my file I was able to have Marth's HP, strength, skill, speed, luck, and
defense maxed out. His resistance finished at 11, as he gained 1 point
naturally and 10 through use of Talismans. Anything you have extra you
should use with good judgement. I chose to improve Caeda's stats,
boosting her HP to 56 and her strength to 23, while she had skill speed
and luck maxed out. Anything extra (mostly Speedwings for me) I split up
between anyone who was lacking in a particular stat, choosing to round
the rest of my units. All my magic boosting items went to Merric,
resulting in his having 27 magic. With Thoron in his hands he was a
veritable demon.
Now you'll want to arm your units to the teeth. Give them the best of
the best, and don't forget to hand out your legendary weapons. I find
it's best if you spread the legendary weapons around, even if someone is
capable of using two (Caeda could have used Mercurius and Gradivus, but
I chose to only give her Gradivus, leaving Mercurius for my
swordmaster). Try to divide your most powerful weapons among as many
units as possible, as one weak unit generally means a dead unit for this
battle.
After you've distributed your weapons and everyone's inventory is full
(or close to it, hopefully), you'll want to pick one weapon to forge.
This weapon you choose can surpass the power of any legendary weapon in
the game, and depending on how much money you have to put into it, will
make other weapons look like toys for children. My recommendations are
to either forge a Wo Dao or a Brave weapon, assuming you have either.
For about 68 grand you can make your Wo Dao a force to be reckoned with,
having 17 Mt, 100 Hit, 50 Crit and 1 Wt. Otherwise a Brave Sword can
have 17 Mt, 100 Hit, 0 Crit and 1 Wt for around 104K. Obviously, you'll
want to sell anything that isn't going to be used in the final battle to
come up with as much money as possible for forging your weapon. Just be
sure to give this masterpiece to a capable unit who will not be easily
killed. Other weapons to be considered are Longbows (for the purpose of
killing the boss without a great threat) or the tome Thoron (which can
become the most powerful weapon in the game).
Finally, you'll want to choose positions for your units. If using 12
units like I do, you'll have three sacrifice units. I generally place
all three sacrifices in the area where only three units can be deployed.
Which basically means you'll have three locations where four units can
be deployed. Chances are that you'll want your thief near Marth to open
the door to the northeast, and also take into account that Gotoh will be
joining your army for this battle, he will start near Marth. To me, this
means that you can send a caster with each of your other groups, meaning
all three groups will have a caster available for healing. I'd also make
sure each group has a wide variety of weapon types available to them.
Each of my groups was able to have a swordman, axeman, spearman, caster
and bowman; save Marth's group, who didn't have a spearman. You'll also
want to note that any staircases will be the location of where enemy
reinforcements come from. This means you'll want to leave two units in
the northwest room to stop enemy reinforcements, and one in the
northeast to do the same. Other reinforcements you can worry about
later.
So here we are. There isn't any definitive strategy for this battle, as
the possibilities are numerous. In a nutshell, you want to move as quick
as possible, since certain doors will close throughout the course of the
battle and reinforcements are many. Losing units isn't an issue, unless
you're anal about it. Since it's the last battle though, it really
doesn't matter if everyone lives. You'll notice that nearly all enemies
not only have Brave weapons, but they are forged. Only your most elite
units will survive this battle if it's fought in a natural sense.
There's little reason to nit-pick over losing this character or that,
but you might rather place your sights only on defeating the boss and
beating the game.
Ideally, you'll want both your northwest and northeast divisions to
hammer their way out of their starting positions, getting to the hallway
preferably by the third or fourth turn. On the way be sure to block off
the staircases so that reinforcements can't arrive through them. By the
time you get out into the hallway your main division (the one with
Marth) should have most of the hallway cleared. I'd place priority on
killing ballistae and manakete, while Gotoh focuses on using his Swarm
tome to kill both the healers by Medeus (the boss). Note that it's best
if you try to get your sacrifices within range of enemy ballistae, which
can easily kill defensively weak units like casters.
Once you can mass as many of your troops as possible, make your way
directly to Medeus, saving as appropriate. You'll probably have at least
one group of reinforcements chasing you along, but don't bother stopping
to kill them. Just try and get into the throne room and block passage
through the narrow hallway just south of the northern save point. It's
best if you can block off both staircases in the throne room, but the
bottom line is taking out Medeus. Shoot him with longbows if you can
(this is the weapon I chose to forge), and attack or counterattack
(whichever is more appropriate) with Marth. In fact, hit Medeus with
everything you can. Just be aware that you'll want to kill him in as
little turns as possible and most people who attack or are attacked by
him will die. After a turn or two he should be dead, and you'll have
beat the game on the hardest setting available.
In actuality, there is little chance of this going so smoothly. I was </pre><pre id="faqspan-4">
only able to mass my northeast division with Marth's division. My entire
northwest division was obliterated, and I had to deal with ballista
reinforcements while I made my way into the throne room and killed
Medeus. By the battle's end I had lost almost my entire army, having
only Abel (my sniper), Caeda, Marth and Ogma (who was blocking the
northeastern reinforcements) alive. Regardless, I tried to stick to that
strategy and it ended well enough.
Congratulations. If you were playing on H5 then you've beat one of the
hardest (if not the hardest) turn based strategy games ever made. I hope
this guide helped you, even if in the least.
========================================================================
THE SMALL PRINT [FG37]
========================================================================
Thanks should go to Intelligent Systems, and any of their affiliates. I
would also like to thank GameFAQs, for being a tool for convenience for
many years. Finally, thanks go to OboeDude, whose FAQ included
information about the Secret Shops and Wi-Fi Shops.
I have no contact information. If you somehow get ahold of it, please
don't contact me. Thankyou.
Copyright 2009, Anthony Forrestal
Do anything you want with this guide except profit off of it. It is
free, and always should be.
-Feral
