Fire Emblem 4: Seisen no Keifu for the SNES First Generation Guide by VincentCraven Submitted July 1, 2007 Current Version: 1.0 Table of Contents: I. Basic Information II. Pairing Analysis III. Walkthrough 0.Prologue 1.Chapter 1 2.Chapter 2 3.Chapter 3 4.Chapter 4 5.Chapter 5 IV. Hard Mode V. Storyline VI. Special Thanks 07/11/07 - Edited information in pairing analysis; finished chapter3; inserted Storyline section: completed Prologue 07/28/07 - Finished first generation walkthrough and storyline I'm suprised no one has made a complete guide for this game! No, this is not my favorite game of all time, but you should see how many FAQs are already made for Final Fantasy Tactics! I have been spending most of June playing and analyzing this game and so I decided to organize my research in a nice little text document (we call this obsession). It was only by random chance that I happened to notice the "Want to Write Your Own FAQ? You can write and submit your own FAQ or guide for this game too! Read the Help Files to find out how." notice underneath the incomplete FE4 FAQs while looking for more information on the game at Gamefaqs. As you can see, I decided "Why not?" even though writing a walkthrough was not in my original plans. Anyway, that's my story and if you are reading this, I'm a minor speck in your story too! ================================== I. BASIC INFORMATION ================================== 1.Menus This game was never released in the US and is in Japanese. Since many players can't read Japanese, I'll start by a brief explanation of the basic options. Main: Press A on any space unoccupied by a character or your castle. Unit - a list of your units; used to find units that you have not moved Item - a list of your items; also shows who owns what item Data - shows the turn number and number of units in each army Skill - a list of skills; also shows which of your units has that skill Options - sets preferences Save - save game on one of four save slots End - ends your turn and begins enemy phase Options: In the main menu, select Options. In the bottom right there are options for each selection. Animation - 1 for full animation, 2 for animation on map, 3 to select different animation for each character TerrainWnd - turn the window to show terrain effects on/off Unit Wnd - turn window displaying character name and health on/off MessageSpd - speed of message text, higher number means faster speed Enemy Spd - speed the enemies move during enemy phase (normal/fast) Sound - controls the music (Stereo, Mono, or Off) AutoSave - gives option to save game at beginning of each turn AutoCursor - cursor starts on main character on each turn (on/off) Character:On a character, the menu will display his or her stats Top box,left:Level(experience) Health Points Top box,right:Attack Power Accuracy Range of attack Evasion Bottom right box:Weapons(select weapon to view Accuracy Might Range Weight) Bottom left box:Strength (Str) Magic (Mag) Skill (Skl) Speed (Spd) Luck (Luk) Defense (Def) Resistance (Res) Bottom left box(scroll down): Leader of unit Lover Can talk to this unit Movement Range Money Current arena level Status 2. Basic Mechanics Damage = Attack Power - enemy Defense(Resistance for magic attacks) Attack Power = Strength(Magic for magic attacks) + weapon Might Active Speed = Speed - weapon Weight (abbreviated AS) Hit Chance = (Accuracy - enemy Evasion)% Accuracy = Skillx2 + weapon Accuracy Evasion = Speedx2 + Luck Experience gained from attacking = 10 + enemy's level - Level Experience gained from killing = 30 + 2(enemy's level - Level) The Two Triangles: Swords best Axes, Axes best Lances, Lances best Swords Wind bests Thunder, Thunder bests Fire, Fire bests Wind. Light and Dark best Anima (Wind,Thunder,Fire). Light and Dark have no advantage over one another. When a weapon is good against another, that weapon recieves a +20 accuracy and evasion bonus. Bow has no advantage over any other weapon, but will always critical against flying units unless the flyer has Nihil Accuracy and Evasion bonuses: Every leader has stars in place of a leader's name. If a unit is within three spaces of his leader, he recieves an evasion and accuracy bonus: One star yields no bonus, Two stars yields +10, Three stars yields +20, Four stars yields +30, Five stars gives +40, bonus applied to leader at all times. Charisma is a skill on certain characters that works like a two star lead except that the person with that skill does not gain a bonus. Lovers gain +10 bonus when within three spaces of each other. The terrain window tells what each piece of land adds or subtracts to evasion. Love and Sibling auto-critical: Any time that lovers or siblings are adjacent to one another, they have a chance to activate a critical when one initiates an attack. Weapon kills bonus: The weapon kills bonus activates when the weapon kills surpass 50, in which case it is (Weapon kills -50). Weapon kills bonus activates even if the unit does not have the critical skill, which is why you should always use your best weapon if you have the money to repair it. Movement: Some terrain allows units to move futher than others. Sea, -30, is only traversable by Pirates and uses 5 move per square traveled Roads, which grants -10 evasion bonus, uses 7/10 of a move. This means: 1 to 3 squares on road = no bonus 4 to 6 squares on road = +1 to move range 7 to 9 squares on road = +2 to move range 10 - 12 squares on road = +3 to move range 13 - 16 squares on raod = +4 to move range Desert, -10, uses 4 move per square for mounted units and 2 for nonmounted. Meadow and Sand do not affect movement or evasion Woods, +20, and Mountain, +30, use 3 move for mounted and 2 for nonmounted. Note that unpromoted mounted and armor units cannot traverse mountains. Cliffs and Peaks are untraversable Flying units are unaffected by terrain bonuses and can move over any square. Skill list: Skill Effect (Activation) Pursuit - attack again after enemy if Active Speed(AS)> enemy's AS Continue - may attack again before enemy attacks (AS + 20)% This is what a Hero weapon does Critical - doubles attack power (skill + weapon kills bonus)% Charge - may activate another round of (AS - enemy AS + HP/2) combat if HP is above 25 May activate multiple rounds Ambush - unit will always attack first if HP falls below half of MaxHP Also negates the opponent's Charge skill Wrath - unit will activate critical if HP falls below half of MaxHP Prayer - increases avoid by 10(11 - HP) if HP is below 10 Life - unit recovers 5-10 HP each turn Elite - user receives 2x experience in all encounters Nihil - negates sword skills and all criticals always Charisma - units within 3 spaces of this unit gain +10 accuracy and evasion Bargain - unit can buy and repair items for half price Steal - steals all opponent's gold when damage is inflicted (Thief only) Dance - all adjacent units that have moved can move again (Dancer only) This skill uses up the Dancer's turn Greatshield- Negates an enemy attack(General only) (User's Level)% Sword skills can only be activated when using swords and only on foot. If a Hero sword is used, sword skill will be in effect on both hits. The activation rate for all of them is (Skill)% Lunar Sword - may negate enemy defense Solar Sword - may heal user by amount done to enemy MeteorSword - may attack five consecutive times ============================== II. PAIRING ANALYSIS ============================== Love in this game is a powerful thing. In both the first and second generations, you can pair off units to help them fight when they are within three squares of each other. In the first generation, however, lovers are more important as they determine the character's stats, skills, and items in the second generation. Cuan-Ethlin and Sigurd-Dierdre are unchangeable pairs. In this game, the female will always birth the same children, so the male only affects how the children will turn out, not who they are, unfortunately. Before beginning the analysis, I should point out the inheritance rules: 1. Base stats bonuses of the child are based off the parent's final stats, so try to level the parents as much as possible; however, the majority of the luck base is completely random. Sons inherit the father's growth rates and 1/5 of his stats* plus half the mother's growth and 1/10 of her stats. Daughters inherit the mother's growth rates and 1/5 of her stats* plus half the father's growth and 1/10 of his stats. *Bonuses do not include parent's base stats. 2. Only the parent's personal skills are inherited by the children. Class skills are not passed down. See base stats section for class skills. 3. Levin and Claude pass major Holy Blood to the male child* and minor Holy Blood to the female child*. Characters also inherit minor blood from minor blood parents unless the parents both have the same Holy Blood, in which case, major Holy Blood is developed in both children. Minor Holy Blood boosts weapon mastery by one rating, and grants a bonus of 50% spread out on two or more stats, depending on the Holy Blood. Major Holy Blood grants twice the bonus minor Holy Blood does (100%) and allows usage of all weapons of that type.Weapon mastery is boosted only if unit could originally wield that weapon. (No axe wielding swordfighters... T_T) *Faval inherits major blood from Brigid. Altenna inherits major from Cuan. 4. Any items the female has will be passed down to the daughter* and any items the male has will be passed down to the son* unless it is a weapon/staff that the child cannot use; however, parents can obtain weapons/staves they cannot use and pass them to children who can use them. Items will have the same number of uses they did at the end of chapter5. *Patty, Faval, Cuan, and Altenna inherit the opposite gender parent's items. 5. For every 10 gold the parents have, each child recieves 1. For this reason, it is a good idea to repair all items before starting chapter5, and repairing them at any castle you pass by, if you have the chance. Also, even if you don't plan on using the weapons, carry as many wieldable weapons as possible so that the child can sell them for money. Base stats of parents and children: | means generic unit only class Class Str Mag Skl Spd Def Res Move Skill Arch Knight 7 0 6 6 6 0 8 Axe Knight 7 0 6 6 6 0 8 Bard 0 7 7 10 3 7 6 Bow Fighter 7 0 10 10 5 0 6 Pursuit Dancer 3 0 1 7 1 3 6 Dragon Knight 10 0 7 6 11 0 9 Free Knight 7 0 6 6 6 0 8 Junior Lord 5 0 5 5 5 0 6 Lance Knight 7 0 6 6 6 0 8 Mage 0 7 6 6 1 5 5 Pegasus Knight 7 0 7 12 5 7 8 Priest 0 7 6 6 1 7 5 Prince 8 3 7 6 7 3 6 Princess 5 7 5 8 5 7 6 Shaman 0 8 7 7 3 10 5 Social Knight 7 0 6 6 6 0 8 Sword Armour 9 0 5 3 10 0 5 Swordfighter 7 0 10 10 5 0 6 Pursuit Thief 3 0 3 7 1 0 6 Steal Thunder Mage 0 7 9 6 1 5 5 Troubadour 3 3 6 6 3 3 8 |Wind Mage 0 7 6 9 1 5 5 Second Tier Class Str Mag Skl Spd Def Res Move Skill Bow Knight 10 0 8 8 8 3 9 Dragon Master 12 0 9 7 14 0 9 Pursuit Duke Knight 12 0 7 7 8 3 9 Falcon Knight 7 7 10 15 6 12 8 Continue Forrest 12 3 12 12 7 3 6 Pursuit Forrest Knight 8 0 15 12 8 3 9 Continue General 10 0 6 5 12 3 5 Greatshield Great Knight 12 0 7 7 10 3 9 High Priest 0 12 9 8 3 8 5 Lord Knight 10 0 7 7 7 3 9 Magfghtr_Female 3 12 9 12 5 10 6 Continue |Magfghtr_Male 5 12 10 10 7 7 6 Continue Mage Knight 5 10 7 7 5 7 9 Master Knight 12 7 12 12 12 7 9 Pursuit Paladin_Female 9 5 9 9 9 5 9 Paladin_Male 9 5 9 9 9 5 9 Sage 0 15 12 15 3 12 6 Continue Sniper 12 0 12 12 7 3 6 Pursuit Swordmaster 12 0 15 15 7 3 6 Pursuit, Continue Thief Fighter 7 3 7 12 5 3 7 Pursuit, Steal Max stats are ALWAYS 15 points above base stats. Parent's growth rates: ~ means minor Holy Blood ! means major Holy Blood Note that stats increased by Holy Blood are designated by * Males HP Str Mag Skl Spd Def Res Luk Holy Blood Alec 70% 30% 5% 40% 30% 30% 5% 30% Fin 70% 30% 5% 40% 30% 30% 5% 50% Beowulf 80% 40% 0% 40% 30% 30% 5% 20% Noish 80% 40% 5% 30% 20% 40% 5% 20% Ardan 90% 50% 5% 10% 20% 40% 5% 10% ~Lex 70*% 40% 5% 20% 20% 20*% 5% 20% Axe:+20%HP,+30%Def ~Holyn 90*% 30% 5% 50*% 30% 30% 5% 20% Sword_Odo:+20%HP,+30%Skl Midir 60% 30% 5% 30% 40% 30% 5% 10% Jamka 90% 50% 0% 10% 30% 30% 5% 40% Dew 50% 40% 10% 40% 40% 40% 10% 40% ~Azel 50*% 10% 10*% 20% 50% 20% 10% 20% Fire:+20%HP,+30%Mag !Levin 50*% 10% 30% 40% 30*% 20% 10% 20% Wind:+40%HP,+60%Spd !Claude 50*% 10% 20*% 20% 30% 20% 10*% 30*% Staff:+20%HP,+20%Mag, +20%Luk,+40%Res Females HP Str Mag Skl Spd Def Res Luk Fury 50% 20% 10% 20% 30% 30% 10% 20% ~Lachesis 40*% 20*% 5% 10% 20% 20% 10% 40% Sword_Hezul:+20%HP,+30%Str ~Aira 50*% 30% 5% 30*% 30% 20% 5% 20% Sword_Odo:+20%HP,+30%Skl ~Tiltyu 40*% 10% 20% 30*% 40% 10% 10% 50% Thunder:+20%HP, +30%Skl ~Aideen 50*% 20% 30% 20% 30% 20% 5% 30*% Bow:+20%HP,+30%Luk !Brigid 50*% 30% 20% 30% 20% 20% 5% 10*% Bow:+40%HP,+60%Luk ~Sylvia 40*% 10% 20*% 10% 10% 10% 20*% 20*% Staff:+10%HP,+10%Mag, +10%HP,+20%Res Love Growth chart: Units start out with a certain amount of love. Every turn that both units are on your team, love points are increased by the number on the right. (By the way, units gain no bonus when they are dead). Units standing next to one another gain 5 more love points on that turn. At 500, units fall in love and cannot pair with any other unit. Aideen Aira Lachesis Sylvia Fury Brigid Tiltyu Alec __ +2 __ +2 50 +2 __ +3* 50 +2 50 +4 120 +3 Noish __ +2 __ +2 50 +2 __ +3 50 +2 50 +4 120 +3 Ardan __ +2 __ +2 50 +2 __ +3 50 +2 50 +4 120 +3 Azel 120 +1* __ +2 50 +2 __ +3 50 +2 150 +4 120 +3* Lex __ +2 __ +2* 50 +2 __ +3 50 +2 50 +4 120 +3 Fin __ +2 __ +2 50 +2 __ +3 50 +2 180 +10 180 +10 Midir 120 +1* __ +2 50 +2 __ +3 50 +2 100 +3* 120 +3 Dew __ +2* __ +2 50 +2* __ +3 50 +2 50 +2 120 +3 Jamka 250 +1 __ +2 50 +2 __ +3 50 +2 150 +4 120 +3 Holyn __ +2 __ +2* 50 +2 __ +3 50 +2 150 +4 120 +3 Levin 50 +2 50 +2 50 +2 200 +2 210 +2* 50 +4 120 +3 Beowulf 100 +2 50 +2 50 +2* __ +3 50 +2 50 +2 120 +3 Claude 150 +3 200 +2 50 +3 190 +1* 100 +3 50 +4 180 +3 *These units can get a love bonus conversation. Instantly fall in love upon conversing: Fury-Levin +100: Aideen-Azel/Midir, Aira-Lex/Holyn, Lachesis-Beowulf Sylvia-Alec/Claude Brigid-Midir, Tiltyu-Azel + 50: Aideen-Dew, Lachesis-Dew "What happens if I don't pair one of the females with anybody?" You will get generic units that the same class* as the children, but are usually worse, with lower stats, poorer skill sets, and no inherited items. They do look different, and some excel in odd stats. (What's up with Laylea's strength growth? She is a dancer!) Generic units in second generation (none have Holy Blood) Name HP Str Mag Skl Spd Def Res Luk Replaced by Radnay 70% 40% 5% 30% 40% 30% 20% 20% Lakche Rodolban 80% 30% 5% 50% 30% 30% 5% 20% Skasaha Mana 50% 10% 30% 20% 20% 10% 20% 40% Lana Dimna 90% 30% 5% 50% 20% 40% 5% 30% Lester Tristan 130% 30% 5% 30% 20% 30% 5% 10% Delmud *Amid 90% 20% 40% 50% 40% 20% 20% 20% Arthur Femina 60% 30% 10% 20% 50% 20% 5% 50% Fee Daisy 50% 10% 10% 30% 50% 20% 10% 30% Patty Janne 60% 20% 20% 50% 20% 30% 20% 10% Nanna Laylea 50% 50% 10% 20% 40% 20% 20% 30% Leen *Linda 90% 10% 40% 40% 30% 10% 20% 20% Tinny Asaello 90% 40% 5% 10% 20% 30% 5% 60% Faval Hawk 60% 10% 20% 20% 50% 20% 10% 20% Sety Sharlow 70% 10% 50% 20% 20% 10% 30% 30% Corple *Amid starts as a Wind Mage and promotes to Magefighter, unlike Arthur. *Linda starts as a Thunder Mage, unlike Tinny, but promotes to the same class "I can't avoid having Fury and Levin fall in love! How am I supposed to get Femina and Hawk?" Simple, kill off any females that have fallen in love before finishing chapter5. The father's state of life has no effect on the children. "Okay, so what pairs are the best of the recommended? I just want one good playthrough." Beginner set(easy to make and good characters): Aideen-Midir, Aira-Lex, Lachesis-Beowulf, Sylvia-Claude, Fury-Levin Brigid-Holyn, Tiltyu-Azel Easiest 2nd gen set(Patty is a SL; many good units come early): Aideen-Midir, Aira-Lex, Lachesis-Fin, Sylvia-Azel, Fury-Claude, Brigid-Jamka, Tiltyu-Levin Advanced set(excellent characters but difficult to use): Aideen-Azel, Aira-Dew, Lachesis-Fin, Sylvia-Levin, Fury-Claude, Brigid-Holyn, Tiltyu-Lex* *Wow, this makes the children REALLY good. The catch is Arthur REALLY needs to promote so he can use a Tron tome instead of a Wind tome, which is a huge difference when you are only relying on attack power to save you! Better make sure that this equation is true so that Arthur can kill Johalva's army. [Lex's magic x 2] + [Tinny's magic - 7(12 if promoted)] > (or =) 10. Kinda sad, but he needs to inherit at least 1 magic to kill them. Either that, or he needs to kill the boss and gain a magic point. You'd be suprised how bad Lex's and Tinny's, hence Arthur's, magic growth is. I'll start with the most recommended pair all the way to the least recommended pair. Top = good, bottom = bad. All aspects of both characters are included in ranking, but the usefulness in the first generation is not considered as important. Unless otherwise noted, stat growths (not HP or res) are between 35-45% HP is 100-125%, resistance is 2-15% Str/Mag is only noted if that character primarily uses weapons based on that stat or if less important offensive stat is not 2-15%. abysmal < low < average < excels in < high < very high < overkill(over 100%) AIDEEN - yields Lana, the Priest, and Lester, the Archer Knight Lester really takes priority in this pair, unless you want the Rescue staff. He only gains the almighty Hero bow from Midir or Jamka. Lana is a priest, which can only fight upon promotion and can only use Elfire at best unless you waste Holsety so she can use an Elwind tome. X_X The Rescue staff is pretty nifty, so if you don't mind losing Hero bow boy, choose Azel as the father. Lana becomes pretty good too. Lana starts with a Live staff. Midir - same class as the son (best for beginners) -Easy to make -affection bonus: talk in chapter1 -Hero bow: talk in chapter4 (must be in love) -pair does not hold well in first half -Skill set: Pursuit, Charge Lester -Excels in speed and luck Pursuit will usually activate, and Charge activates pretty often. With his Hero bow, he will be killing most enemies since he will attack four times. Because of this, however, he needs a backup bow. Recommended items:Hero bow, Silver bow Lana -Excels in luck and speed; low magic Once she promotes, she uses Pursuit often and possibly Charge, especially if you give her a wind tome. She dodges well and can heal okay until then. The Libro staff allows her to stay out of real danger. Note that Charge does not activate unless she can attack back. Recommended items:Libro staff, Recover staff, Warp staff, Restore staff Sleep staff Jamka (best for first generation) -Easy to make -Hero bow: talk in chapter4 (must be in love) -pair works okay in first half -Skill set: Continue, Charge Lester -Excels in strength; very high luck; low skill; high HP Hero bow may kill enemy, but Lester lacks Pursuit. Speed ring helps activate both skills which he relies on to finish opponents, though I think Hero bow replaces the Continue skill. Give Lester the Pursuit ring and he will be about as good as with Midir as the father. Recommended items:Hero bow, Silver bow, Speed ring Lana -high luck; low skill and magic Once promoted, she can use Charge often and might activate Continue, but don't count on it. Give her a wind tome to increase her chances of activating both skills. She isn't worth sending into battle. Recommended items:Libro staff, Recover staff, Warp staff, Restore staff Sleep staff Azel (my favorite only because of the Rescue staff ^_^) -Easy to make -pair holds well (until Azel gets a horse and leaves her in the dust!) -affection bonus: talk in chapter1 -Rescue staff: talk in chapter4 (must be in love) -Skill set: Pursuit Lester Without a Hero bow, Lester is pretty sad. He does have Pursuit, but without much strength and starting with an Iron bow makes him useless. (On the bright side, Faval has more bows to sell to pay for his bow.) He is a pretty high quality SL with good speed and luck to evade with. Once he gets a good bow (Killer or Silver from Faval) he can contribute to your team in less suicidal ways. Where are the magic bows anyway? Recommended items: good question... Lana -high luck; excels in magic and speed; low skill and defense Did you get tired of having a good Lester but a bad Lana? She is great at healing and upon promotion can use Elfire. Pursuit allows her to kill nonmagical opponents. Aideen gains a rescue staff too, but Lana won't inherit it since it requires A in staff mastery. For this reason, give the staff to the wielder of the Valkyrie staff. (Unless Claude is her father, which wastes the Valkyrie staff and both children will have NO skills, she cannot use it and will not inherit it. Oh, and by the way, if she pairs with Claude, Claude gives her the Rescue staff in chapter5.) Hooray for another useful magic unit! Recommended items:Libro staff, Recover staff, Warp staff, Restore staff Silence staff, Rescue staff(for Sety/Corpul) Fin -Difficult to make -terrible pair for first generation -Lana gains +5 magic at the end of chapter7 by talking to Fin -Skill set: Pursuit, Prayer Lester -very high luck; excels in skill Lester is okay without his Hero bow, but since he usually pulls out of harms way anyway Prayer doesn't assist his cause much. He is much better than if you pair Aideen with a magic user. He starts with an Iron bow, so he should buy the Killer bow off Faval (chapter8/9) Recommended items: (cannot acquire) Lana -very high luck Lana is great since she gains +5 magic in chapter7 (way before she will usually promote) and Prayer, plus very high luck, allows her to step into the line of fire, axes, and such if she is lucky. Avoid enemies and combat since the best tome she can use is Wind. Recommended items:Libro staff, Recover staff, Warp staff, Restore staff Silence staff --- Levin -Moderately difficult to make -not a good pair for first generation -not recommended because you waste the Holsety tome and Holsety major blood on Lester, not to mention he doesn't get his Hero bow. How sad. -Skill set: Continue, Critical Lester I don't think this is worth doing even if you DID have multiple Levins. Continue and Critical activate pretty often, however. Recommended items: Power ring Lana -high speed and luck, low defense This is the best Lana possible. She can use Elwind upon promotion, and will kill her opponent if one of her skills activates. You may consider supplying her with an Elite ring so she can begin fighting sooner. She does lack Pursuit, so that takes away a few more points from this pair. Recommended items:Libro staff, Recover staff, Warp staff, Restore staff Silence staff Beowulf -Difficult to make -bad pair for first generation -not recommended, since Lester doesn't get the Hero bow -Skill set: Pursuit, Charge Lester He gets the same skills as with Midir but he doesn't gain a Hero bow. Hero bow = valuable. No Hero bow = SL* *see walkthrough intro* Recommended items: Power ring Lana See Midir (stats are worse for her) Recommended items:Libro staff, Recover staff, Warp staff, Restore staff Sleep staff AIRA - yields Lakche and Skasaha, the Swordfighters Lakche and Skasaha both always have great skill and should have either a sword skill, critical, or Ambush for a chance to activate Meteor Sword before the enemy can ever attack them (works for close range only). Both children start with an Iron blade. Lex (best for beginners) -Moderately easy to make -affection bonus: talk in chapter3, also grants Hero sword -mounted/unmounted mismatch pair -Skill set: Pursuit, Meteor Sword, Ambush, Nihil, Elite Skasaha -excels in skill, defense, strength, and HP; low luck Since Lex has Elite and high defense, he is the best pair for him. He will promote easily, since he gains lots of defense to stay on the front line, uses Ambush which kills his opponents often with Meteor Sword before he is attacked, and has Elite which means double exp, but he needs to gain a few levels before being sent on his own to fight. Have Skasaha buy his swords off Lakche (or Celis) on the first turn or just let Lex finish the wielder of the Silver blade. Recommended items: Silver blade (have Lex finish that chapter3 boss) Lakche -high skill; excels in defense, strength, and HP; low luck -Continue upon promotion With Elite, she skyrockets in level, being able to kill enemies easily with her Hero sword (she'll need it if she is on the front line relying on Ambush to save her). She will obviously tear through her sword using Meteor all the time, but you can just award her with a few more villages. Before you know it, you'll have a very durable swordmaster slaying your armies for you. She must level up before slaying armies. Recommended items: Hero sword, Prayer sword* Silver blade(Skasaha), Slim sword(Skasaha) *Prayer sword is, by the way, ONLY for female characters. Dew (my favorite) -Moderately difficult to make -pair holds well, but Dew is weaker than Aira and should hide near her -Skill set:Pursuit, Meteor Sword, Solar Sword, Nihil, Bargain Skasaha -high skill; excels in strength, speed, defense, and luck; low HP Solar Sword and Meteor Sword both activate pretty often since his skill is always so high, and he gains a wee bit more magic and resistance. Give him a magic sword so that he has a chance to heal when long range units attack him too, unless you have other good swords to spare. Bargain helps him pay for that Wind sword he keeps tearing through. Since both units rely on these skills, give the skill ring to him or Lakche. Another skill ring is acquired in chapter6 from the village below and to the right of Johan's army of Axe Knights. Recommended items: Wind sword, Clipper sword, Skill ring (ch6) Lakche -high skill; excels in strength and speed; low HP -Continue upon promotion Usually, Solar Sword will help her more than Lunar Sword or Critical. Plan on using the Hero sword, since it does will activate Solar sword twice on each Solar Sword activation, or the Thunder sword which allows her to heal when she is attacked by long range units. Both children should obtain a skill ring to help activate both sword skills. Recommended items: Thunder sword, Cutter sword, Skill ring (ch1) Holyn - same class as the son (best for first generation) -Easy to make -affection bonus: talk in chapter3, also grants Hero sword -holds together like peas and carrots -Skill set: Pursuit, Meteor Sword, Lunar Sword, Nihil Skasaha -overkill skill; very high HP; low luck He has a high chance to activate either Meteor Sword or Lunar Sword because of his overkilled skill. These skills are his main weapons, so give him and Lakche a skill ring to boost activation. With such high skill AND a skill ring, he can easily hit with the Silver blade. Recommended items: Silver blade, Slim sword, Clipper sword Skill ring (ch6) Lakche -overkill skill; high HP; low luck -Continue upon promotion She isn't as durable as Skasaha, but she is just as useful. Once promoted, she surpasses him. Although both units have major Odo blood, it really doesn't matter because they both already can use A in swords and the only way to wield the Balmunk is by intentionally killing off the original wielder (which I certainly do not condone). Have her take the skill ring (Skasaha should acquire other ring from ch6). Patty cannot use the Hero sword, so give it to Lakche too. Recommended items: Hero sword, Prayer sword, Cutter sword Skill ring (ch1) Noish -Difficult to make -not very good for the 1st gen. -Skill set:Pursuit, Charge, Critical, Meteor Sword, Nihil Skasaha -high skill; excels in strength and defense; low luck Critical is great for Skasaha, since he has high skill growth and high skill base; however, Critical can be obtained in other ways such as high weapon kills, sibling/lover bonus, or weapon specialties such as such as the Cutter sword against armoured units and the Clipper sword against flying units. Give both of them a Skill ring (see above). Recommended items: Silver blade, Slim sword, Skill ring (ch6) Lakche -high skill; excels in strength; low luck -Continue upon promotion Lex is a much better choice statwise for her, but if you insist on Critical, this is your choice. Still a good pairing since Critical comes in handy when fighting opponents. Both should get a skill ring. Recommended items: Hero sword, Prayer sword, Skill ring (ch1) --- Claude -Difficult to make -Claude is a healer, Aira is an attacker. It doesn't work too well. -Not recommended because you can't revive units with Skasaha >_< -Skill set: Pursuit, Meteor Sword, Nihil Skasaha This is one of those pairings that just makes you want to ask "Why?" Not only did you waste the Valkyrie staff, you also wasted that major Blagi blood. Or did you? Obviously, Skasaha is going to be terrible at fighting with standard swords, but he can hold his own with a good magic sword. Not only that, but while his defense is pretty poor, he has great resistance and his skill set is pretty solid, even without additional skills from his father. He can still activate Meteor Sword okay, since he can never have anything below average skill. I haven't actually tried this pair, but I know Dew can activate Solar Sword when casting Elwind with a Wind Sword, so I assume Skasaha can do the same with Meteor Sword. Have Lakche and Skasaha chill in the castle for a turn so that he can buy some swords off her. Recommended items(the swords are bought): Return ring (to sell off for money), a magic sword (choose your favorite color), Earth sword Lakche -Continue upon promotion Finally, a pair that allows Lakche to suck, I've been waiting for this! Unlike Skasaha, her magic growth isn't high enough to really make the pair worth it and her resistance is only decently high (30% Res & Def) Her luck growth is nice, but its nothing you couldn't do without Dew. Other than that, she has nearly been equalized. Remember how good Aira was? Lakche will always have better stats than her, but she isn't as good as her only because the enemies in the second generation are made of tougher stuff. Recommended items: Hero sword, Power ring, Skill ring LACHESIS - yields Nanna, the Troubador, and Delmud, the Free Knight Delmud and Nanna always have high strength, making them able to concentrate on stats elsewhere. They lack good offensive skills, so look for Pursuit. Delmud starts with an Iron sword Nanna starts with an Iron sword and a Relive staff Fin (my favorite) -Difficult to make -worthless for first generation, since as soon as the pair can be made, Fin is effectively done fighting in your army -Nanna gains +5 bonus speed by talking to Fin at the end of chapter7 -Skill set: Pursuit, Prayer, Charisma Delmud -high strength and luck -Continue upon promotion Pursuit is essential, and Prayer may save him (don't count on it). Have Lakche, Skasaha, or Celis hold a Silver sword for Delmud and sell it on the first turn so he can buy it as soon as he shows up. He makes for an exemplary fighter and asset since he always has Charisma. Recommended items: Return ring (might not need if parents end rich) Nanna -excels in strength and luck; low skill and HP Nanna is a decent healer with the Relive staff she starts out with, in spite of her abysmal magic growth. She can use the Defender since she probably will heal more than fight, but she often puts herself in harms way. Once she is low on health, she can use the Earth sword to heal her back up. I think Prayer works for only one turn, can't verify that yet. Also, this is the best pair since Nanna gains +5 speed in this pairing. Recommended items:Defender sword, Earth sword, Return staff Beowulf - same class as the son (best for first generation & beginners) -Easy to make -affection bonus: talk in chapter2; also grants her a stat boost but this can be obtained even if she chooses not to fall in love with him. -works well once Lachesis promotes, which should happen soon... -Skill set: Pursuit, Charge, Charisma Delmud -high strength -Continue upon promotion This Delmud is just like the Fin Delmud except his luck is much lower and he has no Prayer skill, making him less durable. Charge does help much more offensively than Prayer does. Recommended items: Silver sword, Clipper sword Nanna -high strength; excels in luck; low skill The Defender-Earth sword combo is not so effective with this pair, but unless you want Fee to use this combo, give them to Nanna. Fin is much better for her also since she gains a speed bonus with him, and Charge usually just is a risk factor for her until she levels up some. She does level quickly, so this pair still makes for a good Nanna. Recommended items:Defender sword, Earth sword, Return staff Lex -Moderately easy to make -good pair once made (Lachesis and Lex are both 1337 once promoted) -Skill set:Ambush, Elite, Charisma Delmud -high strength; excels in defense and HP; low skill and speed -Continue upon promotion Don't you wish that Lex came back to own in the second generation? Well, he does, and now his name is Delmud! While he lacks Pursuit, remember that Neir blood + Hezul blood = Instant win. Anyway, this is remedied by a Pursuit ring or a Hero sword. Choose your sacrifice. Recommended items: Hero Sword Nanna -high strength; excels in defense and luck; low skill and speed Tired of Nanna dying even when Prayer 'should' have saved her? Here you go! Now you can send her in to heal and utilize Charisma. She also has Elite, so she will be accumulating strength and defense swiftly. The Defender-Earth sword plan still works, but Nanna doesn't need it now. She will need a Pursuit ring if you want her to kill anyone. Recommended items: Silver Sword, Pursuit ring Azel -Moderately easy to make -Both units start on foot and need to be protected. Both units also gain horses upon promotion and Azel can hold his own as long as Lachesis stays near to grant him the love and Charisma bonus -Skill set: Pursuit, Charisma Delmud -excels in strength, magic, and speed; low skill and defense -Continue upon promotion He now has good magic and good strength. Magic swords allow retaliation against both close and long ranged opponents. Magic base is 0 though and his strength is much lower until he reaches high levels, meaning he probably will fail to finish his opponents until he gains Continue. Recommended items: Light/Thunder sword Nanna -excels in strength, magic, and luck; low skill and defense Nanna is now a good healer. You'd be crazy not to give her a magic sword, since she has solid strength and magic to utilize both features. Just Pursuit is not enough to finish most opponents, however. She always starts with Relive, so she just needs the Return staff as a supplement.I don't recommend the Defender-Earth sword combo since her primary weapon now is a magic sword. It still works though. Recommended items: Wind/Light sword, Return staff SYLVIA - yields Leen, the Dancer, and Corple, the Priest Corple can use Valkyrie or Holsety, so I only recommend Levin or Claude, unless you made the pairs Fury-Claude and Tiltyu-Levin in which case Azel. Corple starts with a Libro staff. Leen is a dancer and doesn't need anything other than Knight+Leg ring combo. Leen starts with nothing. Levin (my favorite) -Easy to make -not so great for the first generation, one fights and the other doesn't -Sylvia gets a conversation with Celis during Chapter10, granting +5 def. -recommended for advanced players only, since he comes in chapter9 at lv 1, cannot use Holsety until promotion, is the worst unit of the three Holsety wielders(still awesome, I must admit), and needs to take your Elite ring -Holy weapon Holsety tome can be utilized -Skill set:Continue, Prayer, Critical Corple -very high speed; excels in magic and resistance; low defense Corple is one of three units that can wield the Holsety. Why would I choose Corple when he has to promote to use it first? Simple, he is the only one that goes from C wind to * wind, meaning without Levin he just plain sucks. He joins in chapter9, so he needs lots of experience so that he can promote and wield Holsety. Give him the Relive staff or the Recover staff because his starting staff only has 10 uses on it. Recommended items: Holsety, Relive staff, Elite ring Leen -excels in speed, resistance, and magic; low skill, HP, and defense; abysmal strength -Dance skill Leen is always a poor fighter, since she is a Dancer, but now that she has good speed, she can dodge enemies decently well. She should wield a magic sword if you do want her to fight. She can activate Continue decently well and has Critical so she might kill opponents. Sadly, she never excels at combat, so I recommend no weapons(no fighting) for her. As usual, she should never be without the Knight+Leg ring combo. Recommended items: Knight ring, Leg ring Claude - son promotes to same class (best for first generation & beginners) -Easy to make -affection bonus: talk in chapter4 after first castle is conquered -neither should be fighting, so good pair for first generation You did give her the Knight+Leg ring combo, right? -Holy weapon Valkyrie staff can be utilized -Skill set: Continue, Prayer, Critical Corple -high resistance; excels in magic and luck; low defense, skill, and HP Corple just plain sucks like this statwise. Why would I recommend this pair then? Well, he is one of TWO units that can use the Valkyrie staff. That staff makes him very valuable, but not a good fighter. Use him solely as a healer/magic shield and you'll be okay. Recommended items: Valkyrie staff, Relive staff, Reserve staff Bargain ring Leen -high resistance; excels in magic and luck; low skill, speed, HP, and defense; abysmal strength Leen is just like Corple but more extreme on the terrible part. She is supposed to Dance though, so dance only and stay out of trouble. Recommended items: Knight ring, Leg ring Azel -Moderately difficult to make -not so great for the first generation, one fights and the other doesn't -Skill set: Pursuit, Continue, Prayer Corple -execls in magic, speed, and resistance; low defense and skill Corple now has great speed to dodge and can use Elfire once promoted. He also has Pursuit and Continue, which may allow him to kill enemies. Recommended items: Relive staff Leen -high magic; excels in resistance; str, skl, def, HP are all low She has such high magic, you may want to give her a magic sword. I still think she won't be fighting since her bases and most of her growths are just terrible. Recommended items: Knight ring, Leg ring --- Lex -Moderately difficult to make -This pair doesn't work so well in the first generation. Either Lex isn't fighting (bad decision) or Sylvia is on the front line (worse decision). -Not recommended, since you really waste Lex's usefulness to neutralize characters that are just supposed to be protected. -Skill set:Continue, Prayer, Ambush, Elite Corple Corple has excellent defense and can get out there to do his job: healing. He grows quick, meaning he will soon get his max defense (a sad 18, but better than nothing). No, he's not a good fighter, since he has a 25% magic growth. His 45% strength growth is wasted. Recommended items: Relive staff Leen Leen is actually useful like this. You may want to try this pair just for fun, since Leen gets great defense like this and gains levels about twice as fast (since she usually just dances for her turn, and that experience never changes). I suppose while you're at it, you might want to try the Defender+Earth sword combo since she has Prayer and the Knight+Leg ring combo to make her like Nanna. Trust me, after a few minutes of this, you'll be disappointed. Dancers have terrible base stats, cannot promote, and hence should rarely, if ever, fight. Recommended items: Defender sword, Earth sword, Knight ring, Leg ring FURY - yields Fee, the Pegasus Knight, and Sety, the Sage Sety can use the Valkyrie or Holsety, so I only recommend Claude or Levin. Sety starts with a Lightning tome. Fee is very useful but will usually have low strength for the sake of Sety. Fee starts with a Beserk sword and a Slim lance. Levin - promotes to the son's class (best for first generation & beginners) -Extremely easy to make -instant love: talk in chapter4 after Falcon Knight of Silesia dies -good pair for first generation since Fury flies by herself anyway -Fury gets a conversation with Celis during Chapter10, granting +5 str -Sety gets a conversation with Celis during Chapter 8, granting +3 luck -Holy weapon Holsety tome can be utilized -Skill set: Pursuit, Continue, Critical Sety -overkill speed; excels in skill; low luck Sety in this form is pretty much God incarnate as a Sage who decides to join your team. Sage + Holsety = invincible. Enough said! Most enemies will avoid Sety since he is nearly invincible, unfortunately. Like with all Holsety wielders, Continue and Critical activate often. Recommended items: Holsety tome, Recover staff OR Relive staff Fee -high speed; low strength, luck, and HP; decent magic for nonmagic unit Her high speed is accented by Pursuit and Continue, which both depend on speed. The Hero lance is a lot more manageable with such high speed. While her strength isn't so hot, she does have skills to fall back on and she can wield magic swords very well once she promotes. Since she is the only one that can fly until chapter9 and hence will be on her own, I recommend the Shield and Life ring so she can stay alive better. Recommended items: Light sword, Hero lance, Slim sword, Slayer lance, Shield ring, Life ring Claude (my favorite) -Moderately difficult to make -neither would use the support anyway so it makes for a good pair -Holy weapon Valkyrie staff can be utilized -Skill set: Pursuit Sety -high resistance; excels in luck; low HP and skill -Continue skill Sety has awesome base stats, the best base magic, speed, and resistance you can get, and he will come close to maxing, if not max, all three (assuming that he in fact does reach level 30). His Lightning tome is a great weapon, so he is still great w/o Holsety. He also can use any staff so who needs the inferior Priests? With his high magic he can silence nearly everyone. He also comes earlier than Corple, which means the earliest use of the Valkyrie staff! Recommended items:Valkyrie staff, Reserve staff, Sleep staff Bargain ring Fee -excels in resistance; good magic; low HP, strength, and skill -Continue upon promotion Just give Fee the Light sword, since she has such good magic. Her defense and resistance growths are both pretty good, making her even more versatile. She is better than Fin, so give her the Hero lance. Give her the barrier ring so she can be a great mage killer too. She can also use B staffs now once promoted. How delightful! Recommended items:Light sword, Hero lance, Slim sword, Slayer lance, Barrier ring --- Azel -Difficult to make -pretty bad pairing since it is hard to make and they won't stay together -not recommended since Claude or Levin should be available for Fury; Claude makes for a good father only for this pair anyway -Skill set: Pursuit Sety -Continue skill This pairing is probably a tad bit worse than with Claude statwise. All he gets is much quicker maxed speed but poorer luck and resistance. He can now use Bolganone, the A Fire tome, but it is heavy and Lightning works like a charm anyway. Pursuit skill on Azel is wasted on him (and Fee) so it's like Azel had no skills. Don't forget that Sety can't use A staves anymore and you need to stick Claude to Sylvia so you can bring your dead kids back to life, making Leen and Corple bad. Recommended items: (inherits no staves and no Bolganones are in first Fee generation, so stick with the Lightning tome) -Continue skill This helps Fee probably more than with Claude. She still gains no new skills, but she has higher speed, overcompensating for the lower luck, and has noticeably higher magic. Resistance is lower by a great deal, but defense is unchanged, so don't worry about it. As for weapons, I still give her the Hero lance along with the Light sword since she now has more speed to counteract the high weight, and because I use her much more than Fin (who would be the only other guy you should give this lance to). She only has C staves after promotion though. Recommended items: Light sword, Hero lance, Slim sword, Slayer lance Alec -Moderately difficult to make -This pairing is bad in the first generation. Alec kinda needs help from his mate, yet Fury always wants to fly off doing something else. They both have the same base move, however, so you can just 'pretend' Fury has no wings and hope no terrain makes one have to wait on the other. -Not recommended since most units do not wield bows and hence this pair will most of the time make the children below average -Skill set: Pursuit, Nihil Sety -Continue skill This really has no use for Sety. Nonetheless, Fee is worse, so she needs more help. Sety is still good like this, save his 10% magic and resistance growth which really does neutralize him if you must know. Anyway, he does have Pursuit and Continue, and a very nice base speed with a nice speed growth as well. Anyway, he can still kill with his Pursuit and Continue skills, so don't worry about him. I only recommend this for Fee, so this is 'half' recommended. Recommended items: (already has Lightning tome and cannot inherit) Fee -Continue upon promotion If you want Fee to stay withstand arrows, this is the pair to choose. She gets pretty good defense and speed, fair luck, and loses her weakness to arrows. That's right, no more worry about arrows, yippe! Her primary weapon should be the Hero lance, since she gets more strength than magic, which is now a pretty sad 12%, and stab away. Fee is never really that good offensively (unless you choose Azel and use magic swords) but her multiple hits make up for that, allowing her to kill enemies effectively here too. She may still want to use the Light sword so she can retaliate against the bowmen she will now be fighting. She gets a +7 bonus in magic upon promotion too. Recommended items: Hero lance, Light sword, Slim sword, Slayer lance BRIGID - yields Patty, the Thief, and Faval, the Bowfighter When you get Faval, he usually can kill everyone on the map in two hits. all he needs is to be able to hit them and pay for his expensive bow. Faval starts with a Silver bow and is the wielder of the Holy Ichival. Patty is your main source of money, since she can steal and give money to all units in your party. Patty starts with a Sleep sword. Holyn (my favorite and great for beginners [I think]) -Moderately difficult to make -This pair has a good base, so it isn't too hard to make it, but it is pretty hard nonetheless. Once you get it, it's a decent pair but nothing special. Just have Holyn lead the way and Brigid back him up. -Skill set: Lunar sword(unusable by Faval) Faval -very high HP, skill, and luck -Pursuit skill Faval should primarily use the Killer bow now since Ichival is so expensive and he has such high skill to activate Critical, allowing him to kill his enemies w/o his Holy weapon but it isn't so reliable. He, more often than not, will max HP, making him pretty durable. Recommended items: Killer bow, Ichival Patty -high HP and skill; excels in luck -Steal skill -Pursuit upon promotion This is your chance to give Patty a Hero sword to start off. High skill means good activation of Lunar sword, which if it does activate will negate defense for both hits of the Hero sword. She has a low strength base, so give her a Power ring. She may want the Pursuit ring until she promotes, though I don't think it is worth using on her. She still is pretty fragile, so I suggest the Shield+Life ring combo. Recommended items: Hero sword, Power ring, Shield ring, Life ring Dew - same class as the daughter -Difficult to make -not so great for the first generation -Skill set: Bargain, Solar sword(unusable by Faval) Faval -overkill luck; excels in strength, skill, speed, and defense -Pursuit skill Wow, look at those beautiful stats. Luck will always max, no matter how luck screwed he starts out. His offensive skills are kinda shabby, but he does inherit the Ichival, so he can kill enemies in two, if not one, hits. Bargain skill certainly helps with paying for the holy Ichival, but it still is too expensive to be used exclusively. Use the Killer bow as a backup (also expensive, but still 5x cheaper than the Ichival) Recommended items: Ichival, Killer bow Patty -excels in strength, skill, and luck; decent magic; low HP -Steal skill -Pursuit upon promotion Well, here is Dew, back as a female. Thieves are pretty weak, and usually need a ring or two to get them started. Consider giving her the Shield+Life ring combo, since she has serious durability issues, even with Solar sword. She might need a Skill ring to help activate it. If you don't give Skasaha or Lakche a skill ring, give it to her as well. With her decent magic growth, she probably would do well with a magic sword. Remember that she inherits items from Dew, not Brigid. Recommended items: Wind sword, Shield ring, Life ring, Skill ring? Jamka - same class as the son (best for first generation) -Moderately easy to make -both are the same class, meaning great pair -not recommended unless you don't like using Patty -Skill set: Continue, Charge Faval -overkill luck; high HP; excels in strength; low skill -Pursuit skill Wow, look at Faval go! Pursuit, Contine, Charge... how is he not going to kill the enemy? If you give him the Hero bow, that's just twice the ownage, or the lighter Killer bow for a higher activation of all his skills plus a small chance he'll activate Critical. His skill is poor in this form by the way, so don't count on Critical. Ichival of course can kill everyone (except some bosses) in two hits, but with such a low skill he misses more often. I still suggest Dew or Holyn. Recommended items: Hero/Killer bow, Ichival Patty -excels in strength and luck; decent magic -Steal skill -Pursuit upon promotion Patty has high strength and good skills to activate, but unless you attack from a range with a magic sword, Charge will hurt her more than it helps. If she can dodge enough though, Continue, Charge, and Pursuit is a great combo to fight with. Her skill, speed, and defense are okay but not as high as Dew's were. Since Charge may backfire, only choose this pair unless Dew and Holyn are already taken, or you don't plan on using Patty too much. -_- *Sigh*... At least Faval is good. Recommended items: Slim sword, Thunder sword, Shield ring, Life ring Midir -Moderately easy to make -This pair gets a conversation to help pair them, but since Midir is mounted and Brigid isn't, it won't stick together well. -not recommended since Jamka makes for a better father -Skill set: Pursuit, Charge Faval Faval is probably better if you pair Brigid with Jamka, but still gets Charge, which for bow users is a good idea. His stat growths are also more rounded, meaning higher speed and skill and less overkilled luck and strength. In the long run, his stats will be better than with Jamka as the father. With good skill, he should probably use the Killer bow and with good speed he will activate Charge often. His HP isn't so high as with Jamka, but he will still be okay. Too bad he doesn't have Continue though. I'd choose Brigid-Jamka over Brigid-Midir just for Continue, since both children get Pursuit anyway. Recommended items:Killer bow, Ichival Patty -Steal skill Kinda like with Jamka except with Pursuit in place of Continue before promotion. While she does have better speed and skill, she has less HP, strength and luck. I'd probably choose Jamka over Midir again just because she could use more HP and strength more than she could use more speed, and once she promotes she gets Pursuit anyway. I suppose if you want to give Jamka, Holyn, and Dew to other people, you'd do this. Charge is more dangerous for her in this form anyway. Recommended items: Thunder sword, Shield ring, Life ring TILTYU - yields Tinny and Arthur, the Mages Arthur and Tinny both need magic and skills to compliment Wrath. Arthur starts with a Wind tome Tinny starts with an Elthunder tome Levin -Moderately difficult to make -good pair once Tiltyu promotes -Tinny gets a conversation with Celis during Chapter10, granting +5 magic. -Holy weapon Holsety tome can be utilized -Skill set: Continue, Critical, Wrath Arthur -overkill speed; very high skill; high HP; low defense With Holsety, Arthur is pretty powerful, but he won't get around very well until you get Sylvia with her Dance and Knight+Leg ring or until he promoted. He allows for the earliest use of Holsety and once promoted he has 9 move. Try to keep him at half health so he will only use one Holsety use per unit to kill them. God speed, Arthur! Recommended items: Holsety tome Tinny -very high skill and speed; excels in luck; low defense She specializes in wind magic and can use Continue and Critical to finish her enemies. Wrath is just a backup in this form, though she might want to take a Pursuit ring if she isn't relying on Wrath. Since she specializes in wind magic, has very high speed, and good luck she is a difficult unit to hit. Recommended items: Elwind tome Azel - same class as the son (best for first generation & beginners) -Easy to make -Gives a conversation that boosts Tiltyu's HP by 5 and boosts affection, but this is obtainable even if Azel doesn't fall in love with her. -pretty good for the first generation until Azel promotes -Skill set: Pursuit, Wrath Arthur -high speed; excels in magic and skill; low defense With Pursuit and excellent speed he can kill enemies with Elfire and if he gets low on health he will use Wrath twice. As long as he is on the offensive, your opponent doesn't stand a chance. Just have him take a hit and stay out of the line of weaponry. He can still kill his opponents with Wind and Wrath so he should probably stick with a Wind. Recommended items: Elfire tome Tinny -high skill; excels in magic, speed, and luck; low defense -Continue upon promotion Pursuit allows for double Wrath attacks, which is always nice. She also gains good magic which helps kill her opponents. Once promoted one of them uses Tron and the other one uses Bolganone. Continue activates often once she promotes since she has high speed. Recommended items: Wind tome Lex (my favorite) -Difficult to make -one of the worst pairs in the first generation -Skill set: Ambush, Wrath, Elite Arthur -excels in HP, skill and defense; decent strength; abysmal magic Ambush + Wrath + 1/2 HP = Goodness. He will critical and always attack first below 1/2 health. He makes for a very reliable, versatile character once promoted. Recommended for advanced players only since he starts out really weak and gains hardly any magic. Give him a magic ring since he really relies solely on his magic power to protect him. Once promoted, give him a Hero sword and a Fire sword. He will usually have better strength than magic upon promotion. Recommended items: Magic ring Tinny -high skill; excels in luck, speed, and defense; low magic and strength -Continue upon promotion She starts out with Elthunder, so a magic ring isn't so important for her. Like Arthur, she is perfect for frontilne infantry once promoted. Upon promotion, she can heal and use Tron and Continue which is a very useful addition to Ambush and Wrath. Ignore her C sword mastery. She is also very reliable once promoted, but until then she isn't so useful. Recommended items: none --- Claude -Easy to make -Claude and Tinny both start with the same move, and both need to be protected, although she would probably like to go fighting so she can promote. -Not recommended because Arthur, suprisingly, never can use the Valkyrie staff. You really want to break off the relationship they are starting on. -Skill set: Wrath Arthur Here is your typical mage: magical, high resistance, very fragile. Blagi blood is wasted on him, since he never can use staves. The only real skill he has to kill his opponents is Wrath, which is okay if you keep him with a Wind tome and avoid enemies. His speed and luck are good, so he can dodge pretty well, just keep him protected by terrain and other evasion bonuses. He is still good, but you waste the Valkyrie and he has much better forms. Recommended items:(nothing, unless you want to give him a Pursuit ring) Tinny Well, she does have decent resistance, I'll give you that. She has high luck and speed, which means give her a Wind tome and she may avoid enough to stay alive. Unless she is fighting mages, she needs protection. On the bright side, when she promotes, she gets A in staff. Other than that, she needs to be at low health to be a good fighter. Recommended items: Wind tome I may not put in all the non-recommended pairs, so instead... Why #1 is indeed #1, and who overrides whom: Aideen-Midir: The Hero bow (the best bow aside from the Ichival in most circumstances) will always grant Continue. This means that the Continue skill is wasted on Lester. The only other guy that grants Lester with the Hero bow is Jamka. Theoretically, Lester would be better with Jamka if he had the Pursuit ring, since he has higher HP, meaning a greater chance to activate Charge, and better str, overriding his pathetic skill growth with Jamka as the father; however, his stats aren't much better and other units could put the Pursuit ring to better use (like Leaf or Patty). Lana is a priest and her skills/stats are not as important as your other unit's (like Lester) even once she promotes. She can only use Elfire at best, which makes Lana mediocre whereas the Hero bow makes Lester awesome. On a side note, giving someone like Sety the Rescue staff makes him better while this pair really is worse off. If you don't like Lester (or Midir for that matter) sacrifice him and put that Rescue staff to good use! Aira-Lex: Skasaha can gain a sword if Lex kills Shagall for the Silver blade in ch3, or he can take the Return ring and sell that so he can buy any sword he wants off Lakche or Celis, wasting at most 2 turns. Lakche and Skasaha already have Pursuit and Meteor Sword, which is enough to kill anyone if they activate. While skill is lower with Lex as the father, it usually maxes anyway and they gain Elite which allows quicker level gain. Ambush can be utilized well in this pair since both units have a decent defense base and both can activate Meteor Sword about 15-30% of the time, depending on their skill level. Lex is a great pair for anyone because of Elite, but this pair utilizes his great strength and isn't hindered as much by his sad speed and skill growths. At max level, the only stats that suffer are speed by a couple points, and luck. Dew grants Solar sword and better stats except in HP and defense, but they do not grow as fast and are not nearly as durable. Close call though, since Solar sword activates pretty often, healing on every few attacks. Holyn grants Lunar sword and better HP, skill, and speed. Strength and defense are better with Lex. The skill level will certainly max by level 12, assuming you did level the parents some, meaning high activation of both sword skills. This isn't as important as staying alive though, which high defense and Ambush or Solar Sword achieve pretty well. I'll end this by saying that no other character grants Elite, no other character grants as high defense, and no other character, except Ardan, who is inferior in every way except strength, grants these two Ambush, which is the skill they need to compliment their overkill sword skill. Lachesis-Fin: Delmud can gain a sword if Fin kills Shagall for the Silver blade in ch3, or he can take the Return ring and sell that so he can buy any sword he wants off Lakche, Celis, or Skasaha, wasting at most 2 turns. Delmud and Nanna both need Pursuit. Since you only have one Pursuit ring, you can't remedy this any other way than by giving them one of these fathers: Alec, Azel, Beowulf, Fin, or Midir. Midir is the best choice for Aideen and gives the pair worse stats than Beowulf, who has the same skill set. Alec has the same stats as Fin but with less luck and no Prayer skill. Nihil does not override Prayer. Azel gives them both magic, but they rely on strength since it is so high and it will be noticeably lower. Azel also gives great speed but their defense and skill will suffer. No other skills inherited. Beowulf, while he is much easier to pair with Lachesis, gives much less luck and only slightly better HP and strength, which is still very high with Fin. Delmud is about the same with Fin as with Beowulf. Prayer or Charge? Prayer is defensive while Charge is offensive, anti-defensive since it gives the enemy another chance to attack in some occasions. Nanna is about the same too until you factor in the fact that she gets a +5 speed bonus by talking to Fin at the end of the first chapter you have her! This means she has high speed and luck, so great evasion. Also, with the Defender, she will often be hit to low health, activating Prayer, making even higher evasion for that turn. After that, just attack with the Earth sword to heal and switch back to the Defender. She also has high strength and Pursuit to really damage, if not kill, her attackers. Although she is a poor healer, there are several great healers out there and making her a decent healer means slashing both units' fighting prowess. Brigid-Holyn: Faval can 2-hit Barons and Generals with the Ichival; enough said. Jamka is a better choice for him only because Greatshield could negate an attack. Then he could use Continue and/or Charge to try again. The problem is that the bow is so expensive to repair he needs a backup weapon. With such a high skill level, Critical on the Killer bow is more effective. Patty never starts out very good... unless you give her a Hero sword. She can only use a Hero sword if Holyn is her father. She also inherits Lunar Sword, allowing her to penetrate defenses which is a big deal for Patty since she is so weak. With a 3 strength base how can she kill an opponent without penetrating the opponent's defenses? Hero sword allows for a double attack, which makes for double penetration. Patty is also the only unit that can put Holyn's Odo blood, his Lunar sword, and his Hero sword to such good use. (It was originally his, remember? He gave it to Aira for some reason...) The Brigid-Holyn pair makes a warrior out of a thief and so it is #1. Sylvia/Fury/Tiltyu-Levin: I kid you not. All three are telling Levin "I want to have your babies!" Who does he choose? Well, lets look at the situation a bit closer... Corple, Sety, and Arthur all can use Holsety, but who wants it the most? Arthur PROs - Arrives first and becomes mounted upon promotion CONs - Worst offensive stats Sety PROs - Best offensive stats, only unit with Pursuit CONs - Claude will be Corple's father, meaning he sucks Corple PROs - Benefits the most from Holsety CONs - Cannot use Holsety until promotion and arrives late at lv 1 Unfortunately, all three females benefit the most with Levin as the father... The only fathers you should consider are Azel, Claude, or Levin. All three females birth useful magic users and only the above three have decent magic. Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Sylvia - Levin Claude Azel Fury - Claude Levin Claude Tiltyu - Azel(Lex) Azel(Lex) Levin Unless you think you really need Holsety early, option 1 is best. Sety is just as awesome with Claude anyway so you shouldn't even consider option 2. You get Balmunk and Mistlotin in chapter7 and Ichival in chapter8. If you really need Holy weapon power, rely on these exemplary units. Holy weapons are expensive, so the less you rely on them, the better. This may be a lengthy explanation, but here it is: Corple, while he is one of two units that can use the Valkyrie staff, is terrible with Claude as the father since he can only use C in fire, wind, or thunder magic. With Azel he can use Elfire, which is still pretty bad since he will rely on Pursuit and Continue to kill his enemies. Elfire is heavy, so both skills will activate less and he usually will just suck. Corple also the only Holsety wielder that can have Prayer! Give him the Pursuit ring once he promotes since by now your units that needed Pursuit should have gained it by promotion. 40K isn't too hard to come by if Patty is awesome. Leen has much better speed with Levin and gains +5 defense in chapter10. She has a much better chance of staying alive in this form and may be able to kill units with a magic sword if Critical activates, but don't count on it. Just thank Levin that she doesn't suck anymore and go about your buisness. Sety, and many people would agree with me, is awesome no matter who the father is. Claude makes him just as good if not BETTER than Levin does in a way. Sure, he can't do as much damage, but if he sports Holsety, many units will avoid attacking him anyway. Lightning, while it is not even half as powerful as Holsety and does not grant +10 skill or +20 speed, it is very accurate, pretty light, does not have a weakness to Dark, and costs 1/10 as much as the Holsety costs to repair. What makes him so awesome is his high magic and resistance stats. With that high resistance, he is almost guaranteed protection from unfriendly staves. On the flip side he can silence nearly every mage because he has such high magic. Claude_Sety is 2nd only to Levin_Sety and is more useful in some circumstances. Oh, and he can revive people a chapter earlier than Corple can. Wielder of the Valkyrie staff needs to be awesome too, since no one can revive him if he dies! Fee, unfortunately, is much better with Levin as the father than with Claude as the father. Fortunately, she gains qualities that Levin_Fee does not. She never gains Critical back, but she does have slightly better magic which on average is better than her strength upon promotion, so give her the Light sword. She also gains great resistance, which is the same base as Sety has upon promotion. She and Sety have the highest resistance base to work with and high resistance is a very rare quality. She also gains B in staff upon promotion. Using Sleep staff or Libro staff while being able to fly? Don't even try to tell me that isn't useful. Sorry for rattling on, but you do need resourceful characters. Blagi blood helps both children immensely whereas it helps Corple and Leen almost none. Not a hard decision, right? Arthur's stats end up nearly the same with Levin as with Azel. Wrath and Holsety is a really good overkill, I'll give you that, but Wrath with Bolganone or even Elfire usually gets the job done, especially if he has Pursuit to go along with it. He still can dominate with Azel as the father so he doesn't need Holsety. Besides, he isn't invincible since his speed cap is so low. Lex makes Arthur near invincible once promoted and he doesn't need the expensive Holsety tome. His magic is poor, so he needs to rely on swords such as the Hero sword (you get a second one in chapter7, so he can take that one) to kill his opponent before he ever gets attacked. You do get a second power ring too, so he can take that as well. Tinny's stats end up nearly the same with Levin as with Azel once she gains her +5 magic bonus in chapter10. She gains Continue upon promotion and Wrath overrides Critical when she is at half health anyway. She starts with Elthunder which is good enough if she activates Wrath and if Azel is her father she also gains Pursuit. She actually ends up better with Azel as the father, though she does start out worse. Like Arthur, Lex can give her the Wrath+Ambush combo which is very good for clearing out armies with low resistance. You cannot alter the following children, but they are superb the way they are. If you are wondering what I give to the unchangeable kids, wonder no longer. Celice, son of Sigurd and Dierdre -Skill set: Pursuit, Nihil -High HP; excels in strength and skill; decent magic and resistance Celice starts out pretty weak, but he has good growths. If Sigurd only used his Silver sword once he got it, it should be able to Critical enemies. He starts with two stars, but gains a star after chapter6. As long as his sword can critical, he is a good unit. Recommended items: Silver sword Leaf, son of Cuan and Ethlin -Skill set: Continue, Critical -Pursuit upon promotion -High HP; excels in strength, skill, and defense; low luck Leaf starts out decent but lacks Pursuit. Once he promotes though, he becomes a Master Knight, making him awesome. Master Knight bases are 7 in magic and resistance and 12 in all other stats. Also, since he can use A in every weapon except Light and Dark he is very versatile. Recommended items: Silver sword, Pursuit ring Altenna, daughter of Cuan and Ethlin -Skill set: Continue, Critical -Pursuit upon promotion -High HP; excels in strength, speed, and defense; low luck Altenna is your second flyer. She is better than Fee since she has 9 move instead of 8 and she wields the Gaeborg. While Fee's magic and resistance is good/great, Altenna's is terrible. Altenna's defense is the highest and her strength ties for first. Needless to say, Fee's are, at best, decent. Her Gaeborg grants her +10 strength and +10 defense, allowing her to do just as much damage as Faval. Awesome is an understatement. Recommended items: Gaeborg, Silver lance, Javelin Julia, daughter of Alvis and Dierdre -Skill set: Pursuit, Continue, Nihil -She does not really classify as one of the children since she inherits no items and no stat bonuses. Always sell all Dierdre's items and give as much money as possible to Sigurd. -overkill magic; excels in resistance; low ========================== III. WALKTHROUGH ========================== There are many ways to play the game. Ones I consider as cheats are: Boss abuse - attacking the boss and intentionally letting him reheal himself while using healers to repair damage dealt back to unit. This allows ridiculous amounts of experience gain, and while units do have a limited amount of uses on their weapons, this causes the game to be very easy IMO; however, feel free to use this tactic. Arena abuse - continually resetting the game to try different paths until a character is able to beat the arena, including resetting the game to get better level ups. Not only do I think this is cheap and easy, but also characters recieve lots of money. (In fact, I don't even use the arena.*) Besides, this technique is quite boring and wastes yout time. *Exception- see chapter2 Here are general tips if you don't need the a detailed guide. There is also a quick tips section for each chapter. 1. Mounted units typically have higher defense than unmounted and unarmored units. They are more useful than unmounted units because they can continue to move and change weapons after attacking. They also have more move, which allows them to get out of range of unmounted units after attacking and gets them to where they need to be in time. 2. If you have pairs of units working on love bonds, keep them together to speed up the process. Also, if you don't care about turns, just wait until turn 50 rolls around while keeping your pairs together if no enemies are alive. After turn 50 or so, affection does not increase. 3. At level 20, units promote. Try to get your units to level 20 if they are getting close because promotion gains are very useful. (In fact, Azel gets a horse when he promotes, bring his move from 5 to 9! Gotta love horses.) Make sure your unit can promote by visiting the promotion place at home base. If you don't understand what the kid says, just know there are two messages and that Sigurd cannot promote while Ethlin can. 4. Try to keep the levels between your mainly used characters even, since high level units can get very little, or no, experience when attacking and killing enemies. Weaker units are also harder to use later on. 5. Sigurd should always be where the action is in tight situations. Even if he is not the unit taking a risk by attacking a powerful unit, his +10 support in accuracy and evasion will go a long way. Any unit with Charisma (Lachesis and her children) should do likewise as that skill mimics his. 6. Cuan, Ethlin, and Fin all leave after chapter3. While Fin comes back in chapter7, Cuan and Ethlin's items will go straight to their children or are effectively removed from use if the children cannot utilize them. Dierdre leaves during chapter3 but is unable to leave the castle that chapter. 7. Mages are very powerful, as most units have low resistance to block their attacks, but they are soft and squishy and don't hold up well against swords and axes. Also, no unit (okay, excluding holy weapon bearers) can take out an army all by himself. 8. Always use your strongest weapon, since you can repair them at any castle, and once you kill 50 enemies with that weapon any character can critical with that weapon, regardless of whether he/she has the critical skill or not. 9. Some items pair well and I identify those as combos. Some combos are: Knight+Leg ring (obtained in chapter3) Leg ring grants more move and the Knight ring allows you to move after acting, so moving further is more useful. Recommended for dancers Defender+Earth sword (obtained in chapter4) The Defender allows for less damage taken while fighting while the Earth sword allows you to heal when fighting. Recommended for mounted healers since they can't heal themselves, often are healing instead of fighting for their turn, and can switch weapons after healing Shield+Life ring (obtained in chapter3) Like the Defender+Earth sword combo but for units that primarily fight instead of heal. Recommended for fighters 10.Save often. If you have spare save slots, use them. It can be very frustrating if you save at a point that makes it impossible to win. I suggest saving at the beginning of the chapter on one file, and on every fifth turn on another. These chapters can easily take over fifty turns. Also, Don't try to 'just finish the chapter' because of this length. Before I begin, let me point out a few things: The only way to duplicate an outcome is to make your units perform the same actions and in the same order. Only for the first few of chapters can I be specific about killing strong enemies. As you progress, there is a greater and greater chance that your units will have stats significantly different from mine. Growths are random, so your characters won't always get the same level up, and your characters will probably not all be on the same level as mine. Also, if your character is dead and I tell you to use that character to do something, don't fret. Just substitute with the next best thing or completely ignore that point. As a rule of thumb, if any character has an ability that is unique (flyers, dancers, theives), you should be more careful when battling with these, since some characters are unreplaceable. My pairings are not all 'predestined pairs' which give conversations between characters, are easy to make, and are typically good ideas, although I do use pairings that make every unit reasonably useful. As for character usage, Sigurd is mandatory as only he can conquer castles, Game Over if he dies, but plan on using ALL of your characters. Why? Because characters recieve less experience as they reach higher levels. More units may mean lower levels, but since they are lower levels they get more experience and will be nearly just as high of a level. If you don't like a character, you can just use him to set up another for the kill. When things are getting rough, you don't want your SLs sitting off in the castle idly twittling their thumbs, do you? Oh, and when I say SLs, I mean Sacrificial Lambs. A note about SLs: Ideal Sacrificial Lambs should accomplish something when they die. Unless your situation is really desperate, don't intentionally kill off any units (not until chapter5 anyway). Noish makes for a great SL since he has good defense, uses swords which really are better weapons for staying alive since they are light, is mounted, and if you are lucky, he may just activate critical when all seems lost. Alec is very useful for chapter1, so if you are new to the game (and frankly not good at keeping people alive) keep in mind he should stay alive for at least this chapter and the first wave of enemies in chapter1. After that, feel free to slay him. My SLs in my favorite setup are Ardan, Noish, Alec, Azel, Jamka, and Beowulf. Females should never be SLs as they all* need to live to get the best units in the second generation! *Exceptions: Dierdre- She just won't stay dead because she is the mother of the second generation's leader. Ethlin- She can die and will still birth good children; however, if she leaves, Cuan leaves too so don't kill her off. 0.Prologue Units join on... Turn1: Sigurd - blue hair, white horse (your main character, don't let him die!) Alec - green hair, white hat (Social Knight) Noish - yellow hair (Social Knight) Ardan - green hair, not mounted (Sword Armor) Turn2: Lex - blue hair, wields axe (Axe Knight) Azel - red hair, mage (Mage) Turn3: Cuan - dark red hair, white horse (Duke Knight) Ethlin - female, your healer (Troubador) Fin - blue hair, wields lance (Lance Knight) After conquering first castle: Midir - uses bows, green hair (Archer Knight) Quick tips and character missions: Sigurd-avoid hogging exp, kill bandit on village near castle on turn 5, get in range of Sage from the north after castle is conquered Alec-help Noish/Fin finish characters off (higher evasion, attacks 2x) Noish-finish off brigand on closest village Ardan-protect castle or help by weakening enemies Lex-run up to the northern village and then come down to assist like Alec (he gets 2x experience and will be above most other units in level) Azel-kill the thief from forest, kill brigand from church, run left to road, down to corner of circle of road, as far down as possible but to the left, take out thief (if he can't reach him, he moved to a wrong space) Cuan-save upper villages that Noish and Azel protected, guard bridge Ethlin-heal on every turn for exp, finish units on low health if necessary Fin-save village to the right of far left castle Midir-save village Sigurd protected for the speed ring (grants +5% chance of activating charge for him) Detailed guide: Move Sigurd down to kill the brigand (use terrain to your advantage) and Alec and Noish up in range to attack the thief on the village next turn. Ardan should probably leave the castle and try to follow Sigurd (he has barely over half the move, so he won't make it far -_-). Sigurd should start running for the southern village near the castle. He is a higher level and already promoted, so he should try to kill as few enemies as possible without endangering himself or anybody else. Have Alec attack and then Noish (Alec has more evasion and attacks twice, so he will get attacked no matter who attacked first. Noish only gets attacked if he attacks first.) I suggest that you leave that village and the village next to Azel for Cuan. These can be left for anyone, but this money should go to a unit in chapter2. Azel should kill the thief near him from the forest so that he can be protected and can reach the church on the next turn. Have Lex sit it the forest right below him. If a brigand is in range of Ardan, attack him from the road so that Ethlin can heal him when she comes in. One thing to note about Ethlin is all the brigands seem attracted to her. Even when one of your other units is going to die in another hit (excluding Fin), they attack her. With Cuan next to her she probably won't get hit very often. Plan on having her heal every turn she can, since it's good experience. Cuan should get in range to save the village next turn and attack anyone he can along the way with his Javelin (usually an archer is in range of him for me). Azel should be sent to the church and kill off a brigand, unless he took a hit since he will probably die from the brigand with a handaxe. If the other brigand attacked Lex, finish him and run for the far northern village. Fin is the only character you get back in the second generation, so use him often. Killing units gives more experience than just attacking them; however, most of the units you face use axes, which are good against Fin. Be careful not to put him in range of very many enemies. Any units you plan to use as SLs should primarily be weakening enemies, not killing them. Once Sigurd reaches the village he should double back and sit next to two brigands guarding the castle so that he will weaken them for your other units. Leave the village he protected for Midir to save when he comes in. Azel should take this path from the church: left to road, down to corner of the circle of road, down far as possible but to the left, take out thief (if he can't reach him, he moved to a wrong space). Lex should take out the thief on the northwestern village and save it. Cuan should save both villages in the northeastern part of the map, and then head for the bridge that was lifted on turn 1. Cuan, Azel, and Lex should not slow down to kill off any enemies other than thieves. Btw, make sure no enemies are between your units and the castle. After most of the enemies have been cleared out of the way, (or if you are just feeling lucky) weaken the boss and kill him with whomever you wish. Have Sigurd attack with Ethlin next to him and he may critical the boss. After the boss is dead, seize the castle. (Ardan cannot attack the boss if you want to finish quickly because he cannot move out of the way). If you don't care about turns, wait until all your units are set up for an attack across the bridge (it will lower after the first castle is seized). I suggest that Midir take the village Sigurd protected to acquire the speed ring, which increases his (yes, its a he) chance of activating Charge, allowing him to activate multiple rounds of combat (since he is an archer this usually just means he gets to fire a few more pairs of shots at the enemy). Fin and Cuan also can make good use of the Speed ring, but they both leave on chapter3 and you won't get the Speed ring back until chapter7. Make sure that whatever you do, no enemies can ever reach any castles you conquered. If they reach home base, you lose. Other castles you seized grant 1K for all units. Once Sigurd seizes the castle, the bridge falls and a hoard of enemies come crossing the bridge, unless you blocked that spot across with Cuan in which case make sure he has the Javelin equipped. Sigurd just has to make sure to keep that almighty sage away from all enemies, as he steals your experience. Once either Sigurd talks to him or he talks to Sigurd he leaves, leaving Sigurd with a Silver Sword (equip and use only this). If the enemies do cross the bridge, just hide in the forest and on the town for evasion bonuses. Make sure that units such as Azel, Ethlin, and Fin are not in range of many enemies and that those that are near many enemies are well healed. Stay out of range of the brigand right across the bridge unless you want the rest of the enemies swarming over to you. Make sure Fin gets this village so he can buy some items in the next chapter. After the enemies that have crossed have been killed, move Cuan from out of range of that brigand to right across the bridge from him with a Javelin. Attack him if Cuan has full health or if Ethlin can heal him. Now, move the rest of the units behind Cuan but not right next to him or against the river unless it is Midir. Azel can attack long-range, but will be killed in two. Make sure that he cannot kill any of the long-range units if he is put in range. This strategy also works if you stopped all enemies from crossing in the first place. On your turn, have Cuan or Midir kill any units right next to Cuan and then have your mounted units run back and forth across the bridge, attacking any units they can. Now all that is left is to kill the boss. Bosses are a great chance to utilize the love and leadership acc/evade bonuses. Make sure Cuan has enough health to take a hit, then move Ethlin next to the entrance so that when Cuan attacks, he is next to Ethlin. He may critical, but don't count on it. Seize the castle. My turns:13-16 1.Chapter 1 Units join on... Turn2: Dew - blonde haired happy kid (Thief) Aideen - female, another healer (Priest) Enemy recruits: Aira - female, black hair, very dangerous (Swordfighter) Jamka - appears after the second castle is conquered (Bowfighter) Special recruit: (you cannot avoid getting her) Dierdre - female, get when Sigurd heads up to the last castle (Shaman) My Equips and Preparation: If you want to use the arena, feel free. All it does is grant experience and money, making the game easier(exception-see chapter2). Sigurd-Silver sword Cuan-Iron lance, Javelin Ethlin-Slim sword, Live staff Ardan-Iron sword Alec-Steel sword, Iron lance Noish-Steel sword, Iron lance Fin- Steel lance, Javelin (should have enough if Azel killed brigand swiftly) Lex-Iron axe, Steel axe (needs Iron axe to acquire Hero axe from peninsula) Azel-Fire tome Midir-Iron bow, Speed ring If you want, you can buy the Slim sword for someone, although I usually leave it for Dew. Now, once all items have been bought, repair all items (except Ethlin's Slim sword, she doesn't use it much and will sell it next chapter.) Quick tips and character missions: No one needs to protect the castle this chapter. Have Fin move out first, then Cuan next to him to initiate a conversation, boosting his stats. Sigurd-kill off thief before he reaches village, weaken the warrior so Lex can finish him to recieve the hand axe. Talk to Aira after conquering first castle to recruit her Alec-use him to lure Aira away from the castle (her skill can't work on him) Lex-once you pass where Dierdre is recruited, send him to wait at the end of the peninsula at the right to recieve the Hero Axe Dew-give his money to Aideen, waiting on the corner of the town, then begin attacking the brigands to steal their money (one of the few times you should not concentrate on one unit), talk to Aideen for a warp staff Aideen-after recieving the money, run away from the brigands and toward Midir talk to Ethlin for a return staff (for Ethlin that is) Midir-if you choose to pair Jamka, ignore this. Otherwise, send Midir to that first village, then down toward Aideen for a love boosting conversation Aira-if Jamka won't come out for Aideen to reach safely, lure him with Aira at the end of his range with Aideen right behind her Detailed guide: Some enemies ambush the castle, but they will all be killed. If you don't feel so confident, leave a save file at the beginning of the chapter. If it fails, just curse my name and start from the beginning of the chapter. Fin should move first so that Cuan can stop right in front of him to initiate a stat boosting conversation. Deploy the rest. Now, have Sigurd take out the thief and the rest of the mounted units form a line so that they can be attacked only once. If your Fin can take out the brigands with his Steel lance, you might want to switch to his Javelin unless he got some solid defense whilst leveling up. Dew should give his money to Aideen and prepare for the army of brigands. Sure, he looks like a pretty good Sacrifical Lamb, but in truth the only unit that can hit him while he is on the village is the captain, and he has a 6% chance of hitting him. I'm nearly certain he can take it. Aideen should run up the path like she wants to rescue that village up where Sigurd and friends are. Sigurd should attack the warrior and let Lex finish him to recieve the Hand axe. Kill off as many other units possible and have Midir take the village (or someone else if he already has 7K/you want Jamka to keep his bow). If you want Midir to pair with Aideen, send him down toward her (this is probably the best pairing for Aideen). Dew should not take the village and let the thief come attack so that he can steal his 5000 gold. Pretty good work stealing money from a thief! Once the enemies up near Sigurd are gone, send your units just out of range of all the enemies around the castle with Alec up in front. Now have Alec move down with his sword equipped just out of range of Aira and toward the forest. Make sure that Aideen and Midir get out of the way. Once Aira moves away from being in range of any of your essential characters, have them move down to take over the castle. Sigurd should take over this castle in two turns so that Aira can't attack him when she comes running back to rescue Shannan. Whatever you do, make sure Lex is not in her way, as she can EASILY kill him. I've had her go out of her way to kill Lex when she was supposed to return to the castle. Once in range, have Sigurd talk to and recruit her. When you get the chance, have Dew talk to Aideen and Aideen talk to Ethlin for some staves. Take out the brigands around Dew and save the village if there is anything left. Stay out of range of the group of enemies around the castle until you are ready to fight all of them. Make sure that thief doesn't run off to take out the other village. After the enemies around the castle have been killed, try to set up Dew for the kill on the boss. He can only do 1 damage, so if it is too difficult just let Sigurd finish him and seize the castle. On the next turn, have Dew enter and buy the Slim sword if it is still there. Don't forget about that far left village. Let Jamka come out until Aideen can reach him, picking off brigands when necessary. Aira is probably the best choice in this situation. She, like Alec, cancels criticals and sword skills. Also, she has the same AS as him. I have never seen him attack Aideen, seeing as she is the unit that recruits him. If you want, you can steal his money with Dew, though I don't really recommend it since he can easily hit Dew with his Killer bow. Once you have acquired Jamka, feel free to send Dew thieving off whoever is left in the forest now. If you are using the arena as little as possible, make sure Aira is a decent level or that Sigurd has 15 or more speed. Make sure you send Lex up to that peninsula and not up to the boss. Once Sigurd passes through the narrow forest opening, he recruits Dierdre. Dierdre is a useful character. Start off by sending her just in range of the boss's long range magic, and silence him. Instant level up! If you have the unit who will take the magic ring from the boss nearby, feel free to let Dierdre get killed. The great thing about her is if she dies, she just comes right back after the leader of the unit that killed her is defeated and his castle seized. Just make sure that you don't need to silence him again to kill him. He has an incredible amount of magic power and kills nearly all units in one hit, so keep him silenced! Oh, and by the way, dark magic (and light magic for that matter) is effective against anima. I prefer to give the magic ring to Ethlin because she gets a magic sword in the next chapter. If you want Dierdre to fight in the arena, give her the magic ring so she can one-hit KO the first few or she doesn't stand a chance. My turns:36-40 2.Chapter 2 Units join on... Beat the Arena(close range units): Holyn - (Swordfighter) Talk to leader of green castle: Lachesis - (Princess) Conquer first castle: Levin - male (Bard - the only one in the game) Sylvia - female (Dancer) Enemy recruits: Beowulf - comes with Voltz after siezing the first castle (Free Knight) talk to him with a unit who has 10K (he takes that 10k) Fury - commands an army of pegasus knights (Pegasus Knight) comes after seizing the second castle, talk to her with Levin Here is the only time I use the arena, to recruit Holyn. Use your strongest character, preferably with an AS above 11 and with the best weapon he or she can use. I would suggest Aira unless Sigurd has acquired lots of speed. Sell the Silver Sword to her and tear through enemies (you may die at the armor unit, if she hasn't levelled much). Also Holyn's Moonlight sword doesn't work on her (Nihil is a great skill). My Equips and Preparations: Sigurd- Silver sword Dierdre- Aura, Silence staff, Circlet Cuan- Steel lance, Javelin Ethlin- Relive staff, Return staff, Magic ring Ardan- Steel sword, Iron sword Alec- Iron sword, Iron lance Noish- Steel sword, Iron lance Fin- Steel lance, Javelin Lex- Hero axe, Steel axe, Iron axe, Hand axe Azel- Thunder tome, Fire tome Aideen- Warp staff, Live staff Midir- Killer bow, Iron bow, Speed ring Holyn- Iron blade, Slim sword Aira- Steel blade, Iron blade Jamka- Steel bow Dew- Slim sword, Skill ring Once everyone is equipped, repair all items as needed. Someone needs to guard the castle this time around, since Fury will come down through the mountains heading for your base. The catch is, she doesn't come until after you sieze the second castle, so you can warp the protector (Levin in this case) using either the Warp staff or Return staff. Quick tips and character missions: The first castle should be seized quickly, since one village (the one that contains a useful ring) is destroyed very quickly and is hard to reach. Also, the green castle has three paladins around it. If all of them survive, you get a special ring at the end of the chapter. Whoever got the two villages in the prologue should probably use this money to recruit Beowulf. This chapter is pretty long, so try to keep your paired units together to speed up the love process. Sigurd-talk to Lachesis to recruit her, have him finish the general with the return ring Dierdre-talk to Ethlin on the first turn to give her a Light sword move in range of the bishop boss's sleep staff and silence him from the area where Levin comes out (safer) or from the mountain that Fury comes down from (faster, but dangerous) Cuan-kill the Duke Knight attacking Lachesis's castle for the Silver lance, talk to Fin after the first castle is conquered to give him a Hero lance Ethlin-probably the best unit for a Elite Ring from the Forrest Knight that comes with Beowulf, can finish him easily and uses staves to level* *Staves give good experience experience even at high levels unlike weapons Ardan-sit on the peninsula that stretches out into the sea underneath the second castle for Pursuit ring, do not guard castle for this reason Lex-kill the second boss for a shield ring and be an excellent wall Fin-stick to a female (unless you don't want Fin to fall in love) Dew-steal money when possible, but be careful about it! Levin-recruit Fury (Note that Fury does not attack Levin, nor does she go towards him. if he is in the mountains, she will fly to untraverable land if she can reach it. Your best bet is to warp him to the castle and guard it. No guard is needed until the second castle is conquered. Her squad, however, will attack Levin but are not much of a threat when he is in the mountains or guarding the castle.) Sylvia-get the village that was attacked first for the special ring and end the chapter with at least 20K (assuming the four castles stay standing) Beowulf-talk to Lachesis to give her a stat boosting conversation (this also boosts the love between them) Fury-kill the boss with a sleep staff and take the villages Sylvia did not take (If you use her as much as I do, you will need the money.) Detailed guide: Start by putting Ethlin in the top left corner of the forest and have Dierdre in the bushes right behind her to give her the Light sword. Deploy others. Lex should lead the group of unpromoted mounted units unless one of the other units has plenty of defense. Fin should not take this role unless he is really strong. Midir should be right behind the leader of this 'pack'. Upon reaching the green castle, you will need to kill off the nearby enemies with the units that can reach only by the end of their range. I suggest using Ethlin to kill the first one, have Midir kill the one to the left of the middle Paladin, and have Lex kill the one in front of it. Try to get Alec or Noish in range of the enemy Duke Knight with a sword equipped so he will go for him and not one of the weakened Paladins. Sigurd should kill one on the other side of the middle Paladin, protecting the left Paladin from the bottom, and Cuan kill the one to the left of the left Paladin and protect him from the left.(Just another reason why having a horse underneath you is a good idea.) The Duke Knight should have attacked Noish or Alec, so send Cuan over to kill him (weaken him with someone else if you must) and send the rest of your units up to the next wave of enemies. Normally I would suggest healing before attacking another wave of enemies; however, if you don't hurry, you will lose a ring I consider as one of the 'essentials'. If you can, you probably want to finish off any units on your way to the next wave of enemies so you aren't fighting on two fronts. Sigurd should talk to Lachesis as soon as the Duke Knight is killed. If he talks earlier, then it is usually difficult to keep the Paladins alive considering they begin to move about. The knights are best avoided if possible, but the General and the Priest should be killed off. If Midir has the Killer Bow and the Speed ring, he has a good chance to set Sigurd up for the kill on the General. The priest has no weapon, making him hard to hit and harder to use Pursuit. Have Lex try killing him with his Hero axe. Chances are he will miss, but it does no good to weaken a unit and have the Priest come and undo your damage. Lachesis should stay out of the way for three reasons: she has three Paladins that attack if an enemy is in their range and these Paladins surround her every turn if no enemies are within range. These Paladins must stay alive until the end of that chapter for the Knight ring (as well as Lachesis, but she is no SL) and they recieve no experience when they attack. Again, with that Killer bow and Speed ring, Midir has a good chance to seriously weaken, if not kill, the boss on the first castle. Your mounted units should make quick work of him and the Armor that blocks the way to the castle gates. Leave Sigurd for last so that if the boss is still alive he can kill the boss and sieze the castle in one go. Make sure you have killed as many enemies down below as possible with your straggling unmounted units before you sieze, since all of them disappear when their castle is taken. Don't worry about sending your mounted units to save the villages. Levin comes on the turn after you seize that castle. Have Levin kill as many thieves as possible on his way to protect the far left village. Sylvia can make any units next to her move again with Dance, so use this skill to help send Levin on his way. If Levin doesn't kill a thief, have Sylvia finish it. It takes her two turns to finish a weakened thief. This is the ONLY time I suggest using Sylvia to fight, as she is a poor fighter and can use her turn to let four other units attack again instead. I leave that hard to save village for Sylvia because it contains a Bargain ring which helps her buy stuff that totals to 75K (with this, all you need is 25K). Have your three mounted units with the most defense, Cuan, Sigurd and Lex (or Noish since he doesn't use axes) block the path where the two Lance Knights and Duke Knight are (or were) because the Forrest Knight Voltz and his army of Free Knights are coming down. While you wait for the attack, make sure Cuan talks to Fin for a Hero lance and Dew talks to Lachesis for a Thief sword. Have all other units line right behind these three and wait for the attack. (Keep Lachesis out of the way so the Paladins don't steal experience!) Have Ethlin finish their leader, because he drops an Elite Ring and she can promote next chapter if you keep healing every turn with the Relive staff. Also, she can sell it next chapter to help her buy the Pursuit ring Ardan has. Ardan can't put it to much use anyway. Don't kill Beowulf because he gives a conversation that boosts Lachesis's stats. I would suggest whoever took the two villages upper villages in the Prologue to talk to Beowulf to recruit him. By now Ardan should have gotten to the peninsula to get the Pursuit ring. Next, have all your mounted units form a line just inside the range of the closest Bow Armor so that they all come down to fight. By now Levin and Sylvia should be done with the thieves. Unless you can beat this chapter faster than I can (which makes me wonder why you would be reading this) you have plenty of time to have Sylvia use her dance to help out the team until after this next boss is defeated before she goes back down to acquire her needed cash. Get used to forming the 'diamond' to allow Sylvia to give as many units as possible another attack. (Remember that the mounted units can attack and move to another spot to form the 'diamond'.) Unit The <--- 'Diamond' Unit Unit (dancer goes in the middle) Unit These guys are easy as long as you make sure guys like Azel and Dew aren't put into range of more than one of these guys. The boss, once his army is gone, is a piece of cake. Just finish him with a unit you think would be great with 5 more defense, preferrably Lex to give him a buffer when he leading your other units against a fierce opponent. After he is dead, send everyone down to where that Lance Armor is blocking the path to the next castle. Use the Return staff to send Levin back to the home castle. If you are seizing the castle right away, he needs to protect home base. If you like stalling so you can arrange your army for a safe battle, he can hike all the way up to that Armor in the mountains while you form a wall with your mounted units. One other thing: When you sieze a castle, you should either warp Sigurd to a place closer to the action or dance for him because he can't move after he seizes the castle. (Or both, the best decision after this chapter). Sylvia should now go village hunting. I suggest leaving as many as possible for Fury, but feel free to give money to whoever else you want. The lowest village gives the rescuer an Cutter sword which is effective against armor units but has a B rating. Sylvia can't use it and will only sell it for 2.5K. Fury, however, can use it but I usually just sell it for Aira to buy. Aside from the fact I buy lots of weapons for Fury, I also stock her up with money because the man I pair her with also needs lots of money, as you will soon see. Dierdre is not leaving the castle after this chapter, so you are going to sell her stuff and give all the money to Sigurd. This means don't bother giving her money. Anyways, wait until one of your units must move into the range of the bishop boss's staff and THEN silence him with Dierdre. Silence doesn't last forever... Lots of swordfighters come out along with a few mages. The swordfighters can double attack, so keep that in mind. If you seized the castle right away, the mounted units will probably reach the pass before you do. Don't forget to protect Lachesis's castle too! Just stay out of range of the ballistas and you should be fine. Again, Lachesis really shouldn't be used this chapter. Those Paladins will just eat your experience and may kill themselves if you aren't careful. If you sent Dierdre up through the mountains to silence the bishop, wait until Levin has killed Fury's squad (while standing on mountains) and recruited Fury before moving up to the position to silence him. Once that job is done, feel free to try to kill the ballistas with her. She will probably die along the way, but she comes right back... The only unit that can really put that Sleep staff to use AND kill the bishop is Levin, once he promotes. Otherwise, kill him with a unit who will sell that staff for 15K, and seize that castle. For the last army, know that an army of Lance Knights and Axe Knights lead by a Duke Knight with a Slayer lance appears, which criticals on mounted units. Still, you should use Lex and Cuan to take him out. Lex should attack first because he has high defense AND has the weapon triangle bonus to help protect him. His defense ring should allow him to take a hit from the Duke Knight and stay alive when the other units try to finish him. After this guy is dead, the boss is a cakewalk. He can't even attack long range! I can see why you would be tempted to boss abuse this guy, he is pathetic. -_- His Reblow/Libro staff drops and heals long range (B rating, 10 uses). Give this to Aideen, which means she'll have to buy it, 'cuz she probably can't fight yet. It sells for 2.5K, meaning it costs 5K. My turns:41-50 3.Chapter 3 Units join on... (last units of first generation come this chapter) Seize second castle Brigid - blonde hair (Sniper) Tiltyu - blue hair (Thunder Mage) Claude - male (High Priest) My Equips and Preparations: Sigurd-Silver sword, Steel lance, Return ring Dierdre-sell all items and give money to Sigurd when finished in the arena Cuan-Silver lance, Iron lance, Javelin Ethlin-Silver sword, Pursuit ring, Live staff Ardan-Steel sword, Iron sword Alec-Iron sword, Iron lance Noish-Steel sword, Iron lance Fin-Steel lance, Slim lance, Javelin Lex-Hero axe, Steel axe, Iron axe, Hand axe, Shield ring Azel-Elfire tome, Fire tome, Thunder tome Aideen-Warp staff, Libro staff, Live staff Midir-Killer bow, Iron bow, Speed ring Holyn-Steel blade, Slim sword Aira-Prayer sword, Cutter sword Jamka-Silver bow, Steel bow Dew-Slim sword, Elite ring, Skill ring, Magic ring* Levin-Elwind tome Sylvia-Bargain ring, Knight ring (she needs no weapon) Lachesis-Iron blade, Thief sword, Relive staff, Return staff Beowulf-Steel sword Fury-Light sword, Hero lance, Slim sword, Slayer lance, Barrier ring *Dew gets a Wind sword near the end of the chapter, which casts Elwind at a range. Azel would put the magic ring to better use, if he could afford it; unfortunately, my Azel is always poor. As usual, make sure you repair your weapons. Cuan, Ethlin, and Fin leave after this chapter, so unless you sell their items at a castle before the chapter is over, you won't get those items back until they (or their children) return in the second generation. While the castle doesn't need to be guarded, you may regret not putting a guard up if the path to the base is also left open. I would suggest leaving Ardan in the castle unless he is being paired with a unit. Pirates can act as thieves in this chapter, so watch out for them. Quick tips and character missions: You should have three main parties in the first part. Parties will vary depending on your love pairings. My parties are: North: Sigurd, Noish, Alec, Ethlin, Cuan, Beowulf, Lex- basically I use this party to protect Dew while he steals money and trains up. 7 units is plenty of protection, just make sure that they are two spaces away from him so that the bow users can't get to him. He won't be stealing from many enemies, because that is too dangerous for your weaker mounted units. Dew-finish off as many units as possible, get the village to the right of the far left village (grants +3 strength to the rescuer) West: Midir-take out the pirate assaulting far left village and the other nearby pirate, then save the two villages Holyn,Aira,Jamka-take out Lance Knights from the forest Fury-kill each mage with the hero lance and retreat out of range East: Sylvia, Levin, Lachesis, Fin, Azel- this party I use mainly Fin and Levin to kill off the Armors and then send Fin and Lachesis to kill the pirate in the upper right. Try stealing money with her Thief sword on pirates, it gives you 5K if you hit one. ^_^ Aideen-your backup healer in this party, use Sylvia to get her quickly to the village Lachesis saves (grants a Restore staff) and to the other village to the left of it. She needs lots of money if she is going to buy that Silence staff and the items I suggest in chapter 5. Ardan-guard the castle in case something goes awry Lachesis-talk to Eltosian for the Earth sword and to send him packing. Bowmen and Mages-primary Dragon slayers Sigurd-finish off Dragon Knight for the Life ring Fury-fly up to assist Claude and Tiltyu Aideen-talk to Brigid to give her the Ichival Dew-save village over second castle (grants +1 Def to rescuer) once Claude and Tiltyu come out of the tower up north, send him in for a Wind sword. Pirates have 5K on them, meaning he should be fighting a great deal this chapter. Holyn-finish off boss on second castle (drops a Silver blade) Brigid-run toward Tiltyu and Claude for safety until others arrive Detailed guide: One mounted unit (preferably Midir) needs to take out the top left thief, so move him first to make sure no one blocks his range on his way up. Fury should head up to kill off the mages. She can take them all out easily if you gave her a barrier ring. Now you need three parties to take on the three fronts. Really, you could send Lex to take out all opponents on the left or right fronts, but since he levels so quickly, I suggest putting him with the upper party (which is your main party). Nonmounted units should probably comprise the left party, since that's where you'll be headed after the first castle is seized. Split up your healers accordingly, but make sure Aideen is in the right party. You may not need a healer in the left party. In the left party, get just deep enough into the woods so that only a few Lance Knights can attack you at a time. In the right party, have your units kill off the Armors (all but the General have Javelins) and have them kill the far right pirate. Aideen should save this village for the Restore staff. All pirates (and thieves) have 5K on them, so steal lots this chapter with Dew and the Thief sword wielder. In the right party, two or three fighters may be required. Stay out of the general's range until you have killed the armours. Levin and Fin can take care of the job if they have a healer (and possibly a dancer) to help them out. Aideen should be with this party so she can acquire the Restore staff from the far right village. In the main, upper party, you should take out the General with one of your mounted units. If Ethlin is promoted, she should have no problem weakening it so that someone else can finish. The Bow Knight and his army will move once your units are in range, so keep weaker units out of or at the edge of range. The armours surrounding the castle have a healer, so concentrate on finishing a few enemies at a time until you can reach the healer. The village to the left of the castle grants +3 strength to the rescuer. If you love thieves like I do, let Dew rescue the village. Otherwise, choose wisely. The boss can probably be taken out without help from the left and right parties. He has a Thunder sword, so the best tactic is to attack from a distance with Azel or Levin and close range with your mounted units. He drops his sword, but have whoever wants it buy it later, this boss is fast and dangerous for setting weak units up for a kill. Before you sieze the castle, have someone with high strength that can use swords save the village above and to the right of the castle. The Clipper sword wielder is your primary weapon against the army of Dragon Riders. Once the castle is seized, the castle to the left of yours will deploy Eltshan and his army of Social Knights. Lachesis, promoted or not, needs to talk to Eltshan as soon as possible. Not only does he give large bonuses to his army, but also he can pretty much kill any of your units in one round of combat. Once she chats with him, he will leave and give Lachesis the Earth sword. You will need to form a line of mounted units just out of range of Eltshan but in range of his Social Knights to clear up the way a bit. All your units should be nearby, since Sylvia may have to go in to help Lachesis reach Eltshan. Once that's done, an army of Dragon Riders appears, lead by a Dragon Knight. Unfortunately, their path is hard to predict. Usually, they will head toward Sigurd's army but sometimes they charge your recently seized castle. The best thing to do would be to put your mounted unit with the Clipper sword on the castle only if the army is heading that way. When they are nearing the castle, have your Warp staff wielder warp him/her over to the castle so he/she can guard it. The rest of your army can take on the second castle, possibly along with the Dragon Rider army. Their leader drops a Life ring, so let a unit with the Shield ring or high defense obtain this, allowing better solo mission capabilities. The boss shouldn't be too difficult once his army is out of the way. Send either someone who can use his Silver blade to finish him, or someone who needs to pass on a good sword to his son. (Fin for Delmud maybe?) The village above the castle grants +1 defense, choose wisely (or give it to Dew). If you haven't already done so, send someone to protect the upper castle when you seize this castle. An army of brigands will come from the north across a bridge once you seize. Also, your last three units (Claude, Tiltyu, and Brigid) will appear after this turn. If you are making a difficult pair with one of these three, her/his mate should be warped up there quickly so you can rack up a few extra turns before turn 50 arrives. Dew needs to get the Wind sword from the tower up there. Fury should fly straight up to the tower to help out Claude and Tiltyu. Once Brigid appears on the map, have her run toward Claude, Tiltyu, and Fury. Ignore the village, since she needs to stay away from the incoming army. Tiltyu shouldn't have a problem killing her opponents with Tron if she is brought down to half health. Claude should heal them only if someone is in danger of dying, since his staff only has 10 uses. The Warrior leading the army toward the upper seized castle has the Leg ring. Someone who needs the money should kill him and sell it at that castle right away. Sylvia should buy it ASAP so she can help move units up toward Claude and friends. If Dew can, have him fight pirates until he reaches 50K, give money to someone (like Claude) and repeat. Once all the pirates have been slain or mugged, have Dew wait on the tower Claude came out of. Someone who is or will wield a Hero weapon should take out the Warrior boss for a Power ring. If you have beaten the chapter quick enough, you will have time to work on some pairings. If Fin isn't going to be a father, you probably shouldn't worry about pairings just yet. This is the last chapter for Fin, Cuan, and Ethlin, so relieve them of any items their children won't use. Oh, and by the way, make sure Aideen talks to Brigid before this chapter is over. Make sure! My turns: 48-55 4.Chapter 4 My Equips and Preparations: Sigurd-Silver sword (close to 50 kills by now, right?), Return ring Ardan-Steel sword, Iron sword Alec-Iron sword, Iron lance Noish-Steel sword, Iron lance Lex-Hero axe, Steel axe, Iron axe, Hand axe, Shield ring Azel-Elfire tome, Fire tome, Thunder tome Aideen-Warp staff, Libro staff, Live staff Midir-Killer bow, Iron bow, Speed ring Holyn-Steel blade, Slim sword Aira-Prayer sword, Cutter sword Jamka-Silver bow, Steel bow Dew-Wind sword, Slim sword, Elite ring*, Skill ring, Magic ring Levin-Elwind tome Sylvia-Knight ring, Leg ring Lachesis-Iron blade, Earth sword, Thief sword, Relive staff, Return staff Beowulf-Steel sword Fury-Light sword, Hero lance, Slim sword, Slayer lance, Barrier ring Brigid-Ichival, Killer bow Claude-Valkyrie staff, Reserve staff Tiltyu-Tron tome, Thunder tome *If he is promoted, give it to someone else like Lachesis or Fury. Quick tips and character missions: WARNING: Most units in this chapter are magic based. Units with low resistance can easily be slain. DO NOT RELY ON LEX! Now that that's out of the way... Aideen-she should be in love with Midir/Jamka/Azel by now and will either give a Hero bow or recieve a Rescue staff by talking to her lover Sylvia-rescue the village to the left of the northeastern most village for a Defender sword. Save before you do this, as the game may glitch. Dew-lower the drawbridge to the first enemy castle when it is raised Once the castle has been seized: Head back to Silvial and wait next to green unit guarding road to enemies. Some units will need to stay and protect the castle you conquered. Levin-enter second castle seized for the Holsety tome Detailed guide: Unless she was very successful in the arena and has leveled up a great deal, don't even bother using Tiltyu. Most of the enemies are either Wind Mages, which have an advantage over her, or Pegasus Knights, which have high speed and resistance, making it difficult for her to kill anything or survive. Have Aideen talk to her lover (Midir/Jamka/Azel) for an item. The first army is lead by a bishop with a Sleep staff. Use Sylvia to get a unit (or four) in range to kill him. Watch out for the Wind Mages as they are fast and agile. The second army is of Pegasus Knights. Take them out with a bow user or wielder of the Wing Clipper. Their leader has a Prayer ring, so do not let it activate. By now, the village allocations don't matter for me, so just give them to the future parents. The one village that needs to go to a particular unit is the village to the left of the northeastern most village. Give to Sylvia for a Defender sword. Save before you do this, as the game may glitch. -_- Right before reaching the bridge, notice that two Wind Mages and a Magefighter are all wielding long-ranged tomes. Watch out for the Magefighter, since not only does he do more damage, but also he has Continue and may attack twice. Send in a unit with high resistance or evasion (that can actually kill units) and take out the Magefighter. Fury should be able to do this adequately. The drawbridge probably was raised by now, so send Dew* right where you used to be able to cross and he'll put it back down. Either that, or let a long ranged unit take out the Wind Mages from the other side before crossing. Boss is like eating cake. Seize the castle, but leave someone to protect it from Pegasus Knights. All of them (save their leader) wield Javelins. *If Dew has died, you can take the long way around through the mountains. After the castle has been seized, a battle (which you, my friend, can in no way participate in) will occur and the result is Silesia is conquered. Note that if any of your mounted units have not yet promoted, he will not be able to cross the mountains. Ardan also falls under this category, I think. Send all units (save the upper castle guard) to wait for the battle to end. It doesn't take very long, so your unmounted units may need to be warped over. Civilians are released, and for every one you rescue, that unit gains 100exp. Two things to note: While units that are low level need levels more, they gain much more experience than high level units do by fighting. Unless you really want Tiltyu to get some magic (she might not even give Arthur a bonus with such a terrible growth) I suggest just giving it to whoever is closest to level 29. If you use the unit in chapter5, chances are even at lv29, he/she will reach lv30. There are six civilians, just don't let them die. Unless you want to train a unit, the army around Silesia isn't too tough. After Silesia has been conquered, have Levin enter to gain the Holsety tome. Once captured, the undefeated Pegasus Knights and the Swordmaster's unit will move in to try to retake Silesia. Aside from the Swordmaster, you really don't have to worry about a thing. Take her out with Brigid's Ichival and other long ranged attacks (like Holsety, for example). After this point, if Levin has been promoted, you don't have to worry about a thing! Just in case you let Levin die though, lets Continue. Without Levin, this boss is pretty difficult. Your best bet is someone with high evasion (Aira, maybe?) to rush in and take him out. Oh, and don't forget Sigurd and Lachesis to give supports. Just keep any units with low evasion and low resistance out of this. My turns:... 5.Chapter 5 My Equips and Preparations: Sigurd-Silver sword, Return ring Ardan-Steel sword, Iron sword Alec-Iron sword, Iron lance Noish-Steel sword, Iron lance Lex-Hero axe, Steel axe, Iron axe, Hand axe, Shield ring Azel-Elfire tome, Fire tome, Thunder tome Aideen-Warp staff, Libro staff, Live staff Midir-Killer bow, Iron bow, Speed ring Holyn-Steel blade, Slim sword Aira-Prayer sword, Cutter sword Jamka-Silver bow, Steel bow Dew-Wind sword, Slim sword, Skill ring, Magic ring Levin-Elwind tome Sylvia-Knight ring, Leg ring Lachesis-Defender, Earth sword, Thief sword, Relive staff, Return staff Beowulf-Steel sword Fury-Light sword, Hero lance, Slim sword, Slayer lance, Barrier ring Brigid-Ichival, Killer bow Claude-Valkyire staff, Reserve staff, Silence staff, Live staff Tiltyu-Tron tome, Thunder tome At this point, all items should be repaired and bought by whatever unit you think needs money. Just to give an idea, Sigurd spawn should only need the Silver sword and, assuming you can critical with it, he shouldn't need too much in the line of money. Make sure items can be wielded by the children. Oh, and there are lots of thieves around where Nanna starts, meaning she uses her Thief sword to get $$$. Lester/Faval - bows; preferably Faval since he has a Holy weapon Lana/Sety/Corpul - staves; make sure that Lana/Sety doesn't get an A staff unless Claude is her/his father Fee - lances (not much choice for this one) Arthur/Tinny/Sety - tomes; Tron cannot be inherited swords: Meh, there's lots of em. Any unit that uses Silver blade/Magic sword as the primary weapon AND doesn't have Bargain Any items that you are only buying to sell in generation 2 should be put in storage. Children will withdraw and sell. Quick tips and character missions: Sigurd - hurry to the Master Knight as fast as possible as he is Byron, father of Sigurd; return to castle to repair Tyrfing; Levin - primary boss killer for this chapter; especially for the final boss Brigid - secondary boss killer for this chapter Fury - wait as close to the castle as possible and then kill the boss Priests with Sleep staves should have less magic than Fury has resistance, but just make sure she can't be put to sleep kill off all Fire Mages with Meteor on them (long range magic) unit(s) that needs more money: save villages in other direction of action and kill off army that is storming the castle from behind Dragon Knights with Slayer lances arrive, take out Cuan and Ethlin, and attack you. Have unmounted units available to slay the beasts. Levin probably can take out the enemies, but chances are, his evasion is so high, they will just surround him until another unit comes in range. Levin is unaffected by the Sleep staff wielders as his magic is too high. He also has an advantage against Reptor, wielder of the Thorhammer. You want to win? Just use Levin. Detailed guide: Have Sigurd reach Byron for the Tyrfing and repair it at home. Avoid using Levin and Brigid for anything besides killing bosses, just cause the game is more boring if you slay them all with no strategy. Besides, Brigid isn't all that durable. Fury should rescue the village near the castle in the desert and wait for access into the desert. Only army for the main army to watch out for would be the Archer Knights as they all have Hero bows. I usually kill about half with Midir on one turn, let him heal, and have other units right outside of range of the army so that they can finish the units. Before taking the castle, remove the Generals and the Ballista Archers. This boss wields the Swarchik, an axe. Sigurd wields the Tyrfing, a sword. Sword > Axe. Need I say more? Once seized, Fury should be able to take out the boss on the second castle. Lance > Sword, and if she has the Barrier ring, she shouldn't have to worry about Meteor or the Sleep staves. Also, Cuan and Ethlin will be killed by Dragon Knights who come charging you! Your army for fighting these guys should consist of: No mounted units (all wield Horseslayers) No wusses (like Tiltyu) Okay, so you can use mounted units, just make sure they can't be attacked by any of the Dragon Knights EVER. You saw what happens to horse people, right? Once that's taken care of/While that's being taken care of Fury should take out all Fire Mages. Pegasus Knight > Mages AND Light(Light sword) > Anima. After that, your party is ready to take care of the final boss, Reptor. Oh, and by the way, Reptor wields Thorhammer, a thunder tome. Levin wields Holsety, a wind tome. Wind > Thunder. This game was obviously rigged to play out one way. If you didn't notice already, when Reptor mobilizes his troops, the fire mages turn on him. Have Sigurd talk to the leader of the Fire Mages and you be done. Now go tell all your friends you beat the first generation! My turns:41-45 ======================= IV. HARD MODE ======================= "Hard Mode?" you ask. "I don't see a level difficulty choice..." Well guess what? There is a hard mode; however, you have to make it yourself. No arena The arena not only levels up your characters, but also units who are successful in it gain money, which is very beneficial. You won't get Holyn, but if that bothers you choose one character to beat the arena only on chapter2. He isn't that important anyway once you've made the basic pairings with him (Aira, Brigid, and Tiltyu - apparently this makes for a 'wicked' Arthur but I'm not so sure I want to test it...) Really, this makes all the difference, but just to make this section longer and seem more official... No stalling What I mean is, when the castle is open for taking, seize it. This makes preparing for another enemy's attack more difficult since there is no time for configuration. Also, it makes pairings occur later. No cheating (obviously) This involves drawing out battles just for experience. Any enemy that heals or gets healed can be repeatedly attacked until your weapon breaks and your characters will gain extra levels. When it comes to cheating, think of it this way: what would Sigurd do? Surely he isn't going to play with these rogues... Or is he? Also, do not reset unless Sigurd dies. "Whoops! Tiltyu died so let's bring her back to life" is not going to cut it. Besides, with sub-units in the second generation, life is much harder. Or you could just use the Valkyrie staff like you are supposed to... No reseting in the second generation Okay, so this one is just plain ridiculous, but when you save and load the game, Celice gains a 3rd leadership star. I don't need to tell you what this does to the game. (Even harder) Only substitute units for the second generation. You thought your children were awesome? Well, you are right and these substitutes lack the awesome but they do substitute 'awesome' with 'WTF?'. Only use six characters. Chances are, some will die. On the bright side, you have plenty of replacements but, unfortunately, replacements are usually at low levels, unless your original unit died early on. And if that isn't hard enough for you... MASTER MODE!!! No Holy Weapons Good luck, I'll be praying for you. ====================== V. STORYLINE ====================== I think it's pretty obvious that this contains spoilers... Prologue - Sigurd is fighting to rescue his friend, Aideen from Verdane. Ardan is chosen to guard the castle since he is slow and strong. Midir, the last knight protecting Aideen, is killed and Aideen is taken back to this thug's castle so she can be his woman. Azel and Lex (at the request of Azel) arrives to assist Sigurd. Ethlin and her husband Cuan arrive to assist her brother. Fin comes along with them as a trusted knight of Lenster. After seizing 1st castle... Apparently, Midir isn't killed and joins to help rescue Aideen. Alvis comes on the order of the king "Sigurd, you don't impress me much." to give him a Silver sword. After seizing 2nd castle... An envoy of Sigurd's king ordains him as Holy Knight. The envoy says he will be compensated if the castles are protected. Chapter1 - Eltshan visits Sigurd to find out why he seized Evans castle. Kinbois forces Aira to fight so that Shannan, her cousin, is unharmed. Kinbois moves out to take Evans. After seizing 1st castle... Shannan informs Sigurd of the situation with Aira. Elliot and his men plan to seize Evans castle while Sigurd is off fighting. A Cross Knight runs to tell Eltshan and he comes out to stop Elliot. After seizing 2nd castle... A rogue is harassing Dierdre when Sigurd comes and scares him off. Dierdre quickly flees to the forest since she is forbidden from contact with men, according to some old man. Jamka confronts his father about his raid on Grandbell when Sandima shows up and insists he lead an attack to protect his kingdom. Sandima kills King Batou, Jamka's father. Archbishop Manfloy of the Lopt Clan arrives and they discuss the revival of the Dark Lord. "By uniting the blood of her (Sigyun, the last descendent of Loputosu) children, the Dark Lord Loputosu shall be revived!" When Dierdre appears and talks to Sigurd... Dierdre warns Sigurd not to fight Sandima, but Sigurd insists on fighting him so Dierdre decides to help him out by Silencing him because "I couldn't put you out of my mind." They fall in love. After seizing 3rd castle... King Batou informs Sigurd of the plan to resurrect the Dark Lord (dunno why he hadn't died yet...) and dies. Unfortunately Sigurd doesn't know anything about him "What IS the Dark Sect anyway?" Chapter2 - Sigurd is ordered to preside over Evans Castle. He marries Dierdre. Eltshan visits the new King Shagall, who killed his own father to become king, to stop his military buildup. Shagall decides to put him in the dungeon. He thinks he can become emperor of the world if he can take Grandbell. Manfloy seems to be playing with him... "Hmhm... Yes, consider that a possibility." Eve tells Lachesis that Hierhein (Elliot's men) will attack if they find out about Eltshan's apprehension. The Cross Knights had left for Silvail, so Eve and his brothers protect the castle. Elliot found out and mobilizes his army to take Nodion. Sigurd finds out and runs off to aid Lachesis. After seizing 1st castle... King Shagall is furious since Herhein was taken while General Macbeth was off theiving. He deploys Voltz and his mercenaries. As Voltz says, "Ain't a soul alive that can take me!" Levin, disguised as a bard, is updated on the actions of Macbeth and decides to go take care of him when, unfortunately, Sylvia, the dancer he's been going out with shows up and insists on going with him. "Yeah! I like it rough!" (Yeah right, just watch.) After seizing 2nd castle... Lord Filat arrives and tells Sigurd there are rumors from Duke Reptor and Lord Langbart that say he, Cuan, and Eltshan are conspiring against Sigurd's king. Also, he tells a story... Sigyun, the Duchess of Velthomer and Alvis's mother, fell for Prince Kurth. Eventually, Prince Kurth fell in love with her too and as a result of this, her husband, Duke Velthomer denounced them and committed suicide. This perplexed Sigyun and she left. Clement realizes Anphony was seized and takes up arms. Shagall lies to Fury, saying that the Granbellian army has captured Prince Levin and is getting ready to execute him. After seizing 3rd castle... Shagall gets all worried about Sigurd's army. Archbishop Manfloy discovers that Prince Kurth is dead, and only one descendent of Narga remains. After seizing 4th castle... Eltshan protected Shagall from death because he is the last of Agustrian royalty. "I don't care what he's done, he's still my master, and I can't sit back and let him die." Unfortunately, Eltshan doesn't approve of Grandbell taking over Agustria. Sigurd convinces him that he will only hold the capital for one year, until everything dies down. Chapter3 - Sigurd persists in negotiations to return control to Agusty. Shagall arranges his forces at Madino to take back the capitol. Orgahil pirates also arrived to take advantage of this situation. Brigid, their leader, refuses to pillage the villages, causing disagreement among them. Dierdre stays behind at the castle to protect their baby boy. Shannan is put in charge of looking after the her and Celice. After seizing 1st castle... King Shagall has fled for Silvial. Father Claude arrives to tell Sigurd Prince Kurth was murdered. Evidence suggests Sigurd's father is responsible. Father Claude heads for Blagi Tower up north to find out the truth. Dierdre has a sudden urge to go see Sigurd, leaving Celice with Shannan. Archbishop Manfloy intercepts her and erases all of her memories. Shagall arrives at Silvial and convinces Eltshan to attack, saying that he is conspiring with the enemy to take Madino. After seizing 2nd castle... Brigid finds out that she is not the daughter of the previous captain and all the other pirates turn on her. Father Claude finds out the truth and the Valkyrie staff. After seizing 3rd castle... Langbart and Reptor have come to apprehend Sigurd since he is now considered a traitor for killing Prince Kurth. Queen Rahna's troops come to rescue Sigurd, even though he is a traitor. Chapter4 - Silesia, the country that Sigurd has now taken refuge in, was founded by the Wind Crusader, Sety. (I think the game is trying to tell you something...) Levin left the country because his uncles protested his succeeding of the throne. Queen Rahna has been insisting to King Azmur (Sigurd's king) that Sigurd was innocent. On the bright side, Prince Kurth's daughter has reappeared and has the symbol Narga, meaning the bloodline is not lost. She is to marry Lord Alvis. Fury, although one of Silesia's Pegasus Knights, stays to protect Lord Levin. Cuan, Ethlin, and Fin all leave for Lenster to bring reinforcements Maios prepares to take bounty for 'the traitors' (meaning you). After seizing 1st castle... Zaxon attacks Silesia and does well until Zaxon brings in mercenaries (Archer Knights) that take out Silesia's squad. Mahnya, Fury's sister, is the leader and dies along with them. Zaxon sends their army to take over Silesia and the mercenaries seize Silesia. After seizing 2nd castle... Not much happens here unless you have Fury and Levin talk about Mahnya's death. They fall in love instantly because Fury thought Levin was in love with her sister but the truth is, he is in love with Fury. After seizing 3rd castle... Sigurd sets out to fight Reptor and Langbart before they come to attack Silesia to get him. Chapter5 - Lord Byron, Sigurd's father, has been fighting to try to bring the holy Tyrfing to Sigurd. He is near death, but Langbart knows Byron will keep fighting as long as he has life in him to bring the holy Tyrfing to his son. (Langbart is Lex's father) After seizing 1st castle... Cuan arrives with reinforcements. Ethlin comes with him against his wishes and with Altenna, their daughter. Cuan left Leaf with Fin. Trabant and his Dragon Knights arrive to take them out. Once Ethlin dies, Cuan surrenders the Gaeborg to Trabant so that he won't kill Altenna. Trabant then takes Gaeborg and Altenna back with him. Upon reaching Reptor... Velthomer's army betrays Reptor. Once you beat this chapter, Alvis invites Sigurd for a 'ceremony'. The truth is, he kills him on the basis that he is wanted for treason, but not before he shows him his new bride... Princess Dierdre! She starts to remember Sigurd, but he has her taken away. The generation ends by Alvis killing him while his army ambushes all your other units. While Sigurd's death is certain, the fate of the rest of your party is unknown. ============================ VI. SPECIAL THANKS ============================ FEA Fire Emblem Averages for growth rates (sorry, but I still think your average base stats for the children are faulty) FEPlanet.net :: Your Doom Awaits You... for conversation effects information and generic unit replacements Serenes Forest for data on skill activation% and inheritances Fire Emblem English Documentary for love point bases and growths data Iavasechui for clearing up faulty data I received from other sites Intelligent Systems for making the game so awesome Gamefaqs for inspiring me to post this guide And of course, you, the reader just for clicking on my guide. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to post on the FE4 Gamefaqs board. I only have one e-mail address (which I use to login here =P) and do not check it very often. Oh, and by the way, All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. This guide may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. Copyright 2007 Patrick Louis