Fire Emblem Catch All

Thanks for all the info guys!

Remember a couple of months ago when I and others were complaining that the campaign is too easy even on Hard? I started Cindered Shadows on Hard and it's been ripping my arms off and beating me to death with them, so that crisis is over.

Agathos wrote:

Remember a couple of months ago when I and others were complaining that the campaign is too easy even on Hard? I started Cindered Shadows on Hard and it's been ripping my arms off and beating me to death with them, so that crisis is over. :)

Let us know how good their mini-campaign turns out; I didn't really get much of a feel from many of the reviews I read.

I did it on easy/casual and I still lost about half my team most maps. It is really much more difficult than the rest of the game.

A few notes on my experience with 3H and my rambunctious gaggle of emo teen murders thus far:

- Edelgard is a badass.
- How many dedicated magic users do most of you roll into battles with? I've got 3 at the moment (Lindhart, Dorothea and Hubert).
- Bernadetta's schtick is wearing thin fast. Fantastic archer, but I'm increasingly wanting to mute all of her character interactions.
- I see what you all meant about the difficulty. I came close to scaling it down when we went and found Flayn, but then I remembered the Divine Pulse and got through the fight. Also, I'd gotten through every fight up until that point without using the pulse, so yeah, on an easier level this game must be a cakewalk.
- Do I need to be pushing for maximum class variety? I ask because I have Ferdinand and Sylvain as Cavaliers and I want to make sure I'm not screwing myself over.
- Took me way too long to figure out how important support is. Is the range on it adjacent squares, or can I be two or three squares away and still benefit?
- I'm a fan of a very limited slice of anime, and haven't played a JRPG in probably over a decade, so I am genuinely surprised at how much I'm enjoying this game.

To answer a few of your questions.

I ran 3 to 4 mages for black eagles. I did not worry about class variety as much as what felt right for the character. For higher difficulty you
may have plan more.

Bernadette carried my Black Eagles so be nice to her. She just needs a friend.

Oh I'm nice to her, and she is one of my most indispensable fighters. But the characterization is getting grating. Feyleth will not be attempting to smooch her (I know she can't, just saying).

It wasn't my first playthrough, but I had a fun BE run where I made everyone except the two hopeless causes (Caspar and Petra) into mages. Some of the not-usually-mage folks like Ferdinand and Bernadetta learn some useful and rare spells if you're willing to push them down magic paths.

It doesn't usually work out for characters with actual Weaknesses for magic skills (and no stars to fill in to change it): those characters usually barely learn any spells at all even if you do manage to grind their Magic up in spite of their Weakness.

Prederick wrote:

A few notes on my experience with 3H and my rambunctious gaggle of emo teen murders thus far:

Glad you're enjoying it!

- Support works off character attack range. So, it's easier with mages and other ranged characters (Bernadetta). You can also have melee characters temporarily equip a ranged weapon, such as a javelin, to get the benefit.
- I tend to run with 4 mages total: 2 offensive mages (Hubert and, after I recruited her, Lysithea), one dedicated healer (Linhardt or Mercedes), and Dorothea as a dancer / generalist mage.
- That was my reaction to Bernadetta as well; she becomes much better and more interesting later in the game.
- I don't think character variety is as important as having a long-term plan. It takes a lot of in-game and real time to prepare characters for advanced and especially master classes. When you do, the rewards are substantial - say hi to wyvern Petra, Caspar, Ferdinand, and Edelgard.
- Edelgard is a one-woman army, isn't she?

Mind Elemental wrote:

- Edelgard is a one-woman army, isn't she?

I get a kick out of when the enemy opts to attack her, and she either one-shots them or reduces them to 2 HP. I need to up her Heavy Armor however, so she can be more like Sylvain and just shrug off most attacks.

The latest DLC added more classes, correct? Do you need the DLC to access those? Are they available in the main game or only in the bonus campaign?

I believe you need Cindered Shadows, yes. The classes are supposed to become available in the main campaign, but you need an Abyssian Seal to test into them. I don't yet know how you get these seals.

Edelgard is a one-woman army, isn't she?

IMAGE(https://external-preview.redd.it/YAxBWQhgybDPA28L4wIlYCMhnmR0-e_4OymvPDvPAvs.png?auto=webp&s=c9d585691e105d33e1c9affdd2805ba64385920f)

You get 4 seals when you recruit the characters (1 per character), then you use the Pagan Shrine to pay 750 renown for more seals. Edit: To unlock all 4 characters you need to complete the entire paralogue, the characters become available at chapters 2,3,4,6 I think, something like that.

There are 6 chapters in the paralogue and you can get the characters in the main file before you finish, i believe you have to recruit before act 2, though I haven't tested this. Abyss also has some unique stuff, but the pagan shrine can give you rare items for renown, and has some items that are like the saint statues that you can unlock to improve the Abyss. 2 are available in part 1, and 2 are available in part 2. The characters are all magic proficient, with one "support" dps, 1 tank-ish dude, and 2 glass cannon mages who can deal a lot of damage. One has access only to dark magic while the other has some pretty good black magic including Bolting and Agnea's Arrow. I am still on my first play through with these characters and do not know the ideal class options for them, but one seems to be speed/dex, one is strength/dex, and the other two are magic, one with flying and one with riding. Anyone can use the Abyss classes, it's just getting the seals that's the tricky part. Edit: forgot one last thing (sorry for the spam), you get an artifact that anyone can use and some renown after completing the paralogue on any difficulty. I got them on easy/casual, idk if they scale up the renown based on difficulty or if it's just a flat amount.

Alright, I'm just about to November (or whatever the 11th month is), a little over 23 hours of playtime, and I have some More Questions About Three Houses!

- Money! I can tell the game doesn't allow for you to be Scrooge McDuck, but I'm always a little scared I'm blowing through all of my monthly funds too fast, especially repairing our weapons, which ends up costing a arm and a leg. How do you all handle money?

- Speaking of weapons repair, should I? I've got a few of my characters with Weapon+'s now, but on the whole, are those not worth the investment (lord knows, my Beyleth is still running around with an Iron Sword at Level 19 and just dominating people).

- Time management and motivation! How do you all handle that? I'm usually trying to keep our motivation up as high as possible, so I end up spending my three free week a month going Explore/Battle (or, rarely, a Seminar)/Rest before the monthly mission, but should I be investing more in Seminars, or worrying less about individually training students? Should I... *gasp* leave it up to the AI?

- And multi-classing! Is it valuable at all? I haven't done it yet, but I realized that several of my students are capable of trying to learn a new class, but does it have any value, or should I just stick with keeping them on one particular path?

Prederick wrote:

Alright, I'm just about to November (or whatever the 11th month is), a little over 23 hours of playtime, and I have some More Questions About Three Houses!

- Money! I can tell the game doesn't allow for you to be Scrooge McDuck, but I'm always a little scared I'm blowing through all of my monthly funds too fast, especially repairing our weapons, which ends up costing a arm and a leg. How do you all handle money?

- Speaking of weapons repair, should I? I've got a few of my characters with Weapon+'s now, but on the whole, are those not worth the investment (lord knows, my Beyleth is still running around with an Iron Sword at Level 19 and just dominating people).

- Time management and motivation! How do you all handle that? I'm usually trying to keep our motivation up as high as possible, so I end up spending my three free week a month going Explore/Battle (or, rarely, a Seminar)/Rest before the monthly mission, but should I be investing more in Seminars, or worrying less about individually training students? Should I... *gasp* leave it up to the AI?

- And multi-classing! Is it valuable at all? I haven't done it yet, but I realized that several of my students are capable of trying to learn a new class, but does it have any value, or should I just stick with keeping them on one particular path?

1. In like the first half of the game I usually ran out of money by the end of each month. I spent money first on all the cheap gifts for bribing my students, then bought weapons if any new ones were needed (Like a steel weapon for someone who could need it. In general I wouldn't use too many steel weapons, since the speed drop makes double attacking an enemy hard for most units). I would save repairs until it was almost broken or right before the battle, so I could do a last second change to wherever I needed it, no reason to lock myself into spending money on a repair you don't need. And if you need fast cash (or a better weapon), do a tournament or two.

2. Repair your pluses as needed, and just replace the regular weapons with others, since usually you get some through drops or recruiting or tournaments. I usually waited until a regular weapon broke, then upgraded to a plus to fully recharge the uses. Just make sure your people have backup weapons for when the primary weapon breaks until you can repair it.

3. Never do seminars if you can help it. Best way to keep motivation up is to do a ton of meals each day. Buy food, do gardening, go fishing, whatever you need to do to keep the food supply up. Meals increase motivation for two people, boosts their support with you, and with each other if they are compatible and you want to grow their supports as well. You can check the menu to see who supports with who. This turns into a plate spinning exercise, as you manage how much food you have, pairing people who like the same food (or at least doesn't hate it), and who you want to gain support levels.

4. Once you master a class you get a skill that you can use no matter what class they change to. So always master a class, then move onto another class (usually the next rank up). For instance, since I was going to make my Dorothea a Gremory at the end, so I focused her only in Faith and Reason, and bounced her between classes that relied on those stats (e.g. mage and priest, then bishop and warlock on the way to the gremory). For other units, once you figure out the end goal (and I don't remember when you can see the requirements for each master class but it was fairly early on), then they should pretty much stay in a lane to get there, only deviating if a certain other class has a skill that you want them to have.

As a side note, some of the better skills are for mastering Brigand, Peg Knight, and Mage. One of those things I wish I had known in my first run.

Great advice, Sundown!

I'd add:

- The importance of building up your professor rank, which governs the most precious resource: how much you can do in a game week. This is why gardening and fishing are so good - they give professor exp (plus the fish / veggies / flowers) without taking any in-game time.
- Even though the other characters' dialogue won't change, I'd argue it's worth exploring twice a month to keep motivation up, build professor rank, and have more opportunities to garden.
- From memory, it's usually worth battling the last week of the month, as there are no classes in the lead-up to the month-end story battle and you can replenish motivation during the first week of next month.
- It's worth hoarding bait in advance of the upcoming "fistful of fish" event, which gives multiple fish (and multiples of professor exp!) per attempt.
- Moneywise, I was in a pretty similar situation to Sundown. Cheap gifts and flowers are your friend (and help Byleth make friends).
- In terms of weapons, the big jump is when you get access to silver weapons. Steel weapons are situational; I like using them for combat arts (e.g. on archers) due to their combination of low cost, high durability, and the fact that their high weight doesn't affect combat arts, which mostly only get one attack.

Agree with everything Elemental added, especially the part about professor rank. It really does fuel everything else.

Prederick wrote:

Alright, I'm just about to November (or whatever the 11th month is), a little over 23 hours of playtime, and I have some More Questions About Three Houses!

- Money! I can tell the game doesn't allow for you to be Scrooge McDuck, but I'm always a little scared I'm blowing through all of my monthly funds too fast, especially repairing our weapons, which ends up costing a arm and a leg. How do you all handle money?

- Speaking of weapons repair, should I? I've got a few of my characters with Weapon+'s now, but on the whole, are those not worth the investment (lord knows, my Beyleth is still running around with an Iron Sword at Level 19 and just dominating people).

- Time management and motivation! How do you all handle that? I'm usually trying to keep our motivation up as high as possible, so I end up spending my three free week a month going Explore/Battle (or, rarely, a Seminar)/Rest before the monthly mission, but should I be investing more in Seminars, or worrying less about individually training students? Should I... *gasp* leave it up to the AI?

- And multi-classing! Is it valuable at all? I haven't done it yet, but I realized that several of my students are capable of trying to learn a new class, but does it have any value, or should I just stick with keeping them on one particular path?

1. Never had money problems on normal so can't really speak to this... You get a stipend based on prof level, so work on that. Make sure you sell all your Bullion (and any items/weapons you are not going to use).

2. I rarely repaired weapons unless they were already upgraded. I would break a normal weapon then turn it into a + or next tier weapon. Sometimes just left it broken and swapped for one of the other 10 copies I had lying around...

3. For motivation, if you invite students to eat food they have blue arrows on, they get 100 motivation. They also get 100 motivation after a support conversation with you, so save those for after you train them. You can also give 2 "liked" gifts for 100 motivation.

As for free days, I usually did explore/battle/explore. Seminars are mostly useless (Byleth can attend so a way to raise your own skills), and resting is completely useless. If you are relying on the Sword of the Creator enough that you need to rest, might need to rethink strategy.

4. I think only Ingrid, Lysithea, and Byleth multiclassed in my first run. Ingrid and Byleth because they fought so much, and Lysithea because she gets double skill/class experience. The "efficient" path is to rush Master classes, but do whatever you find enjoyable. Efficiency is only needed on Maddening I would hazard to guess.

Sorry for the late response. I do this a lot, see something I want to reply to while on my phone but don't want to type it on a phone then forget when I get home and have computer access. Hope this helps!

Basically what the others have said. I never ran out of money.

I cant wait to finish Conquest and start Birthright....

I've had trouble figuring out how to spend my money in Three Houses. As these things usually go, this means I'm neglecting a vital system that will bite me in the ass in the final part of the game.

Darkhaund wrote:

I cant wait to finish Conquest

I know that feeling well.

and start Birthright....

I don't know that feeling at all.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I've had trouble figuring out how to spend my money in Three Houses. As these things usually go, this means I'm neglecting a vital system that will bite me in the ass in the final part of the game.

IMAGE(https://media1.tenor.com/images/1ebaefe042e3954cab1cd6e0de586bda/tenor.gif?itemid=7297932)

I put all my money into gardening so we could have 8 lunches per day by the end.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I've had trouble figuring out how to spend my money in Three Houses. As these things usually go, this means I'm neglecting a vital system that will bite me in the ass in the final part of the game.

What chapter are you in? Are you playing on Normal or Hard? It sounds like those playing on Normal were overflowing with cash, but I had a pretty easy time wasting all my money between gifts, weapon upgrades, and battalions as the game progressed on Hard. I wouldn't have had nearly enough cash without taking advantage of fishing events.

I'm playing on hard and just started chapter 8 (Red Wolf Moon). Like I said, I'm quite certain I'm neglecting something important.

I feel like I was somewhere in the middle. At parts I was swimming in cash, then I was low on cash, then swimming in it again. I didn't buy a lot of gifts, though I did start buying materials for food and smithing.

Then again, I also started to swim in more cash when I sent a unit out on those Pseudo-Internet Connectivity things to sell some Master Seals.

Bringing this over from the Covidcoping thread

Stele wrote:

Some spoilers might be worth it. Black Eagles has 2 routes, and one of them is definitely more difficult. So if you do that, it's worth checking on the split point.

Otherwise just have fun. Most people seem to be playing at least twice, if not 3 times. Some even go 4 for all routes.

Fire Emblem thread. Pretty sure we just had the discussion there last week.

Yeah, I read through all of that from the other week, thought I was happy picking golden deer, but then thought I’d like Black Eagles more after meeting everyone. I am aware of the BE split, and think I know what to do to keep it from getting too hard. I’m not trying to resurge the conversation, just bringing my reply here to not take over the other thread.

I’m just going to go BE for now and just play and hope it sucks me in

After 20 hours or so, I've petered out on Three Houses. I'm struggling to maintain interest and think it might be time to give up and trade it in.

I'm a little surprised, to be honest. I really got sucked into it when I started, but I've just completely run out of steam.

A big part of it is the pacing. The social time between battles seemed interesting at first, but over time it's revealed itself to be little more than puffed up, time-consuming tedium. I can't advance the social links with any of the characters I like, either because their advancement is stalled until some future point in the narrative, or because they inexplicably are never available for things like tea time. The side quests don't really reveal anything interesting about anything at all. And I've given up on returning lost items because I can't figure out who the f*ck they belong to without a guide and also because I just don't care.

It doesn't help at all that I outright loathe a few of the characters in my house and can't muster even a scrap of interest in many of the others.

Meanwhile, the battles themselves have felt repetitious and uninteresting. Even on hard/classic it doesn't feel like there's a lot to chew on in the combat encounters. Each battle feels like it unfolds in much the same way.

It's just a bit of a letdown after Fire Emblem Echoes, which managed to have great pacing with a variety of things to do, combat encounters that kept you on your toes (having two separate armies helped a lot with that), and a cast of characters that was fairly interesting.

But hey, at least it's not Fates. It has that working in its favor.