Where do you go to train your units in SS? Arena or Tower?

[Rewjeo]

I REFUSE to EVER use the stupid arena, 'cause for me, you can't retreat (isn't the b button supposed to do something?) and even if your opponent has a 2% chance of hitting, they ALWAYS hit, and if they have even 1% chance of critical, it's always critical, while I have like a 60% of critical, it never is, and with a 92% chance of hitting, I always miss. When Duesel is fighting someone with a 17% chance of hitting, no chance of being critical, and only does 1 damage when it hits and LOSES MULTIPLE TIMES, you kinda figure the tower is more useful.

[arashisama without the decorative symbols. RANDOM ENOUGH?!]

^ When you press B, it cancels after the current turn finishes. If the enemy doubles you, they will get in their second hit before you can retreat.

[Rewjeo]

What if I try to leave when they can do a max of 16 damage in one turn (even if they hit me twice) and my guy has 17 HP left and it won't let me? Whatever, I have personally decided not to go to the arena, but you can do what you want.

[lulilly]

tower because there are too few arenas in the game, and you can't use it after you complete the chapter for the map.

[kibasoul]

what about the lagdou ruins

[CrypticGirl]

Yeah, the Lagdou Ruins will provide more Exp, but it doesn't even appear until like Ch. 20...way too late in the game to be of any use.

[CrazyDitto]

I do the towers, if just for convenience's sake.

I find the arena a bit nerve-wracking, if you ask me.

[arashisama without the decorative symbols. RANDOM ENOUGH?!]

Well I like the fact that the arena nets you money. The biggest problem I have with FE8 is running out of gold, and then getting stuck sticking people like Marica and Eirique with heavy weapons until they can't even double (not a problem on monster enemies...).

[Fariscus]

I really prefer tower or ruins, since if you die there's no need to start the training all over. The only thing about the tower is that it slows down as you get to higher levels, and it costs money, as where in the arena you actually win money.

[SacredSage2]

I go to both. I've found the easiest cheat ever for the arena however (only the second one). Use a sniper. Whoever you use, give them an angelic robe, and you're good to go. Innes works better. But anyway, (and this only works for snipers, not archers) enter the arena. No matter who you face, even level twenty snipers, you always seem to win. I quit maybe three times while fully promoting L'arachel, halfway promoting Natasha, and netting like two-hundred thirty thousand in cash. The only enemies that gave me any trouble were the druids with more than half of my life in attack and a decent hit percentage (40) for the arena, and the snipers who had a little bit more than me in stats. Otherwise, you far outclass anything else, and all but Valkyries you hit twice. Also, those weak Valkyries are the only enemies you  face that have a really good hit percentage, and they only have like five or six attack. Snipers own everybody due to their ability to only face ranged enemies in the arena (and no, anything that uses another weapon like a ranger or warrior will not appear). And to anyone who feels like telling me that this is mindless, staring at the screen for hours on end, it took me about an hour per hundred thousand, while watching T.V., while with the tower or ruins, you get barely any money, slower leveling up, and, and you need to do more work, not to mention blow your funds on weapons.

[Superbus]

Just a reminder to the plethora of people that reported this post, I'm letting it go as a bit of an experiment; I know it's over the necro limit, but it's a good post, and I'm going to approve it.

Now, instead of reporting it, let's see if we can respond to it.

[arashisama without the decorative symbols. RANDOM ENOUGH?!]

^ It looks like only four people or so including myself...

I'm glad to see someone else who sees the value of the arena and its money-netting abilities over the money-sapping Tower/Ruins. I disagree about using a Sniper as a cheat; it's just luck. Granted, there's no more Nomadic Troopers to own you... They decide what shows up by weapon level, though it's been awhile since I experimented; do Forest Knights show up as melee enemies? Bishops also have decent chance of hitting you. Also, when it comes to damage, you're really fighting to get the low wagers; otherwise, the enemies get stronger weapons like Silvers, Divine, Elfire, Fimbulvetr... Thank God I've only seen Flux when it comes to Dark magic. I somewhat agree about the Druids; that's caused me problems a few times in FE6, but not really in FE8. As for the mindless grinding, I managed it many times... It's monotonous, but not all that bad if you multi-task.

Also, on the topic of ranged vs melee weapons... When I gave Warriors higher Bow level than Axe, they couldn't attack in the arena, even though it was a ranged fight. The same thing happened to Nomadic Troopers when I gave them a higher sword level than bow; they just couldn't attack and became fodder.

[Once]

Just a reminder to the plethora of people that reported this post, I'm letting it go as a bit of an experiment; I know it's over the necro limit, but it's a good post, and I'm going to approve it.

Now, instead of reporting it, let's see if we can respond to it.

I should've listened that inner voice of mine.


I use both because I can. I love the fact that you're not actually using your weapons in the arena, and the fact that you can get a lot of money if you can put in the time. Sadly, you cannot use the arena in every single chapter, and it is very nerve wracking if you put one of your seemingly "weaker" units in it (or probably any unit for that matter).

I like the Tower because you can use it at nearly any time after it is unlocked. The one major problem I have with it is that the accumulation of exp. points will gradually get slower and lower as your unit(s) level up, which is where I believe the money problem appears. I do know that there are other factors which could also contribute to the money thing, but they aren't as severe as the exp. issue (for me anyway). There are workarounds to this which I think many people have figured out, yet have found it to be quite annoying and quite difficult for non-promoted units, and some promoted ones.

Each has its own advantages and disadvantages which the other can weigh out. I like both, but frankly I don't think one should get more praise than the other. Some people may think otherwise because of the way they play, and that's perfectly fine. I stand firm on my statement because of what I have seen/experienced on my playthroughs.

[hamy777]

I didn't know you could gain exp in the arena but it just didn't work

[Mekkah]

If you want EXP and you cannot or do not want to use the arena, I would recommend leveling up on the first map of the tower for a bit, then when the EXP gain is getting too slow for your tastes, start going for the boss (possibly by using Tethys) and retreating right after killing him. It's much faster than any other kind of tower/ruin leveling and costs less weapon uses.

[arashisama without the decorative symbols. RANDOM ENOUGH?!]

^ I use Tethys exactly for that trick.

When the unit is unpromoted, sit it directly in front of the boss and move it five units, then have Tethys move beside him/her (she must start right next to said unit). Have that unit kill the boss. There must be at least one more unit so that you can retreat the same turn.

Once promoted, I think usually Tethys is directly in front of the boss, and the training unit is on her side, but that's only because the branched promotion paths allow for so many mounted/flying units.

I usually do not fight the other enemies unless one is carrying a droppable Killing Sword or something.

[Foxy-Woxy The Sandwich Scout]

I train my first-tier guys in the tower as soon as it pops up. When they get to level fifteen-plus, I go around killing to promoted zombies and the boss, then retreat, repeat, until level twenty. I don't train past the first floor. I train my promoted units in ruins using a similar method, though I use the ruins for them. Seems like the standard method, doesn't it?

[JohnMichael]

I exclusively use the tower for a number of reasons.

First of all, I can't for the life of me place any of the arenas in FE8 from memory. Also, I prefer not to take gambles if I can help it (that applies to anything, not just playing Fire Emblem). Does the arena in SS work the same as the one in FE7? I never really used the arena in FE7 because I was always concerned about losing a unit and having to restart the chapter when I would have been fine to continue otherwise. I abused the arena as much as possible in FE4, but that's only because I was able to abuse save states on the Snes9x as well.

Another reason I prefer the tower is because those battles are like additional chapters for the game. It can be quite fun at first, picking a handful of your best and letting them loose on the army of monsters you have to face. But having said that, it does get tiring after a while, especially as the game overdoes it with just how many enemies you have to face in one battle. And of course there's little sense in using anything more flashy than iron weapons in that place, which in turn means you can't destroy the enemies as quickly, which makes it even more of a grind...

I just don't play SS anymore.

[arashisama without the decorative symbols. RANDOM ENOUGH?!]

^ The system is the same as in FE7. The only difference is the lack of Ninian's Arena Abuse rings... The fact that there are so few arenas was a put off for me at first, too.

[hamy777]

with arena I uh was thinking about the link arena do'h