Considering a speed run

[Garlic Butter Popcorn]

Now that my Thracia 776 guide is finished (Needed a week off to rest my hand; was starting to bother me) I was considering doing a Speed run to AAA rank FE4. I understand that very few people have ever attempted it. I will be trying it when Twilkitri translates and fixes the bug in the Epilogue (So I can actually see the scenes you unlock).

For an AAAA Rank, you need:

1) 1000 Level ups. I calculated that using everyone possible, assuming I paired every female, would end up around 1094 level ups possible in one play. That is about 94 throw outs- Meaning that I can scrap some units. I was trying to figure out people who would be hard to keep up with the group (My ideals being people like Ardan). Alec and Noish where also slipping in my head as problems to level up, as I barely promoted Alec on my last playthrough.

2) Pairing situations. (Not required, just need to know what to do) I don't know exactly who would be good to match; I was thinking about not pairing Sylvia in the first generation because I feel Laylea is better then Leen and Sharlow has Elite, which is a hard to find skill. Seti was also telling me by doing this there is the Berserk trick on final to make killing Julius easier. On that note, I was thinking pairing Lex would be important for units that are hard to level up.

3) Survival and battle losses. Survival is easy, it's not too hard to keep everyone alive. However, the battle loss system puzzles me. Does the Arena count as a loss when you lose? I have also heard accounts that FE4 has a system where even resetting the game keeps the battle losses. This is what worries me.

4) Turns. This will probably be the hardest thing. 399 turns for an A Rank. I clearly won't let any castle be destroyed (I think the only time I have ever had a castle burn down was Aira and Genova and when I had everyone depart from that castle in Chapter 4 up in the northeast corner of the map. The Pegasus Knight chick flew in with her squad and burned it down.) 399 turns for 10 chapters averages at 40 turns per chapter, but this clearly is flawed. The Prologue should only take like, 10 turns, and some of the maps I feel will be hard. I'm talking specifically about Chapter 2, 4, and 5 for the first generation, and then maybe Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 for the second generation. I know 2 is a problem because you have to rush so much in that chapter, the added stress of the turns only tops it. Four is a big map and has lots of woods so it would be hard to move; Five has the desert, that will be a HUGE problem. 7 only bugs me because of the desert section and the fact that magic is the most common enemy in this chapter; Thinking about taking that castle south of Darna gives me a headache. Eight seems a little hard because of Ishtar and that army that go with her.

So, overall, I would like to hear opinions and ideas on how to do chapters quickly, and how exactly the battle system works. Any help would be much appreciated.   

[Sir GTF]

The Berserk trick you were informed of revolves around using Sharlow's Berserk Staff on a dark mage carrying Hel.  It ignores Loptous's special effects and reduces Yurius to 1 HP like anyone else hit by it- and since the game as a minimum of 1 damage for any given hit, he'll be killed by the next attack aimed at him assuming it hits.  The problem is that turns are an issue for you in order to get the rank you want, and that mage will have maybe a 33% chance or so to hit Yurius with it.  Far from odds you can freely bank on if time is really really of the essence to you.  If you plan to rely on Hel being the main means of winning the final battle, then plan accordingly.

I don't think you'd be at a loss for not pairing Sylvia- Laylea and Sharlow are generally on par with many of the Lynn and Corples (for what they are needed for) and you'd need Sharlow anyway since he is required to gain the Berserk Staff.  I think you can pull it off with the Berserk Sword, but that's even more unreliable and requires Femina, and nearly any Fee is more efficient than Femina.

Pairings I'm not too sure about- you'd have to find a balance between speed to make and the usefulness of it.  Ayra's probably better with Lex or Holyn- they're her fastest and result in some of the most lethal Lakche and Skasahers overall.  Holyn might have an edge since he'd be able to pass down his swords to Skasaher, saving time with equipment management midchapter.  However Lex would give Elite to them and allow you to gain level ups quicker- though they level up fast naturally due to their innate awesomeness.  Those are my two suggestions for the Odo kids since they will definitely be important to you aims at killing everyone faster. 

Again in the interest of killing people fast, Holsety is probably a must and Fury is the fastest option.  Tiltyu would give it to you quicker through Arthur, but I'm not sure you'd be able to quickly get them up to 500 while blazing through the 2 chapters you have them around for when they are 120/3 and have no conversations to speed it up (Fury is 210/2 with a +290 or something absurdly high like that conversation in Ch 4).  Ichival is a similar want for fast kills- Mideel is the fastest lover for Bridget: 100/3 with a +100 conversation in Ch 3.  Beowulf will be Lachesis's quickest option, 50/2 with a +100 in Ch 2- also gives very good results for Delmud and Nanna- trying to work with Tristan and Janne will slow you down.

You may want to also not pair Tiltyu for Amid and Linda- Amid averages better than a lot of Arthur options (and has a better class) and Linda is more or less a flimsier Tiltyu with Elite.  Your main issue with them is getting them the Pursuit Ring and ring combos to compensate for their innate lack of Pursuit- money shouldn't be a problem though.  You probably won't need to care about Edin and just settle for Dimna and Mana- Rana vs Mana is insignificant for what you mainly use them for, and Dimna is pretty competent compared to a lot of Lesters because he always has Pursuit and can get a very large Str boost right in Ch 6 (+5, send him to Isaac, which isn't out of your way and guarantees him a 14 Str minimum before the chapter's close)- which should allow him to fight well with normal bows until you can pick the Hero Bow off a corpse.

Take much of this with a grain of salt- I've never really thought about a speed run with such an objective so some of those suggestions might not be practical or possible.

[Neofox]

3) Survival and battle losses. Survival is easy, it's not too hard to keep everyone alive. However, the battle loss system puzzles me. Does the Arena count as a loss when you lose? I have also heard accounts that FE4 has a system where even resetting the game keeps the battle losses. This is what worries me.

I believe arena battles do not count against your character's win/loss record.

[SlippyToasterTrooper_UK]

What interesting timing. In my occasional trawl for interesting FE playthroughs over at Nicovideo (I should really put the bookmarks up somewhere...maybe when I get a few more) I came across this.*

From what google translate tells me they are trying for 4A in the shortest amount of turns. Hate how they leave animations on and don't skip text ...at least the whole thing is about triple speed. They managed:
Prologue-11 turns
Chapter 1-22 turns
Chapter 2-?? turns...i'll have to watch it to find out as it hasn't been added to the mini-description

They are certianly not hitting the targets for shortest turns (end of...total turns 164, rank isn't AAAA though I'm sure some of would work in an AAAA environment) which was achieved by Xgerde down at Fireemblem.net.

Are you planning a turns speed run or a time one? With time it can be faster to take a few turns longer in places in an almost illogical step...

*-Remember how it goes, Nicovideo needs you to register before you can watch anything and unless you pay has peak-time restrictions (which probably won't affect you due to timezone differences). I used this guide to register.

[Garlic Butter Popcorn]

However Lex would give Elite to them and allow you to gain level ups quicker- though they level up fast naturally due to their innate awesomeness.

Bringing that up, maybe I should do Holyn x Aira and Lex x Briggid. It would give Patty Elite so she wouldn't be as big of a bitch to level up; I'm not too concerned about the Odo kids, most of the time they hit Level 30- only in a few instances has Skashara not hit level 30, but he has been close to it.

The problem is that turns are an issue for you in order to get the rank you want, and that mage will have maybe a 33% chance or so to hit Yurius with it.  Far from odds you can freely bank on if time is really really of the essence to you.  If you plan to rely on Hel being the main means of winning the final battle, then plan accordingly.

I see. Doing this as Julia is turned enemy would still cause a problem- She isn't a recruited character unless you seize Velthomer and talk to her from there, but if you do the Hell trick right away and not recruit her would it count as death? If I do the Hell trick I don't have to wait on Julia getting recruited AND getting Narga (Which takes a good 10~ turns).

You're right about Arthur; having Holsety from the start is a HUGE help. Especially later when Arthur gets mounted and can move quicker around the maps with it. I don't know if it would be a big stretch trying for LevinxTiltyu- I thought about it, and it probably would end up causing problems if they didn't get it fast enough.

You may want to also not pair Tiltyu for Amid and Linda- Amid averages better than a lot of Arthur options (and has a better class) and Linda is more or less a flimsier Tiltyu with Elite.  Your main issue with them is getting them the Pursuit Ring and ring combos to compensate for their innate lack of Pursuit- money shouldn't be a problem though.  You probably won't need to care about Edin and just settle for Dimna and Mana- Rana vs Mana is insignificant for what you mainly use them for, and Dimna is pretty competent compared to a lot of Lesters because he always has Pursuit and can get a very large Str boost right in Ch 6 (+5, send him to Isaac, which isn't out of your way and guarantees him a 14 Str minimum before the chapter's close)- which should allow him to fight well with normal bows until you can pick the Hero Bow off a corpse.

I could pass down the Pursuit ring to someone who doesn't need it, have them sell it, and then have Amid or Linda buy it later. This is assuming that I didn't pair Tiltyu; I have never tried not, so I will go research their final averages. Money isn't that great a deal, all you really need to do is avoid the shop and play in the arena till you have the cash.

I don't have a problem not pairing Eden; however, I noticed that there would still be plenty of options open for her. Azel, who would give Lana some nice growths and a B in Flame after promotion- probably would screw Lester up. JamkaxEden is another one, making Lester incredible, but that makes Lana worse. When you pair Eden, typically one child is getting screwed.

Starwolf, I was talking about turns. And man, 164 turns sounds inhumane. I am watching the Chapter 2 video and the person doing this confuses me (He keeps sending Dew into the arena where he will always lose with a broken sword? x_X) I think there must be something wrong here- I have never seen a Midale or Finn that level and that strong. They would have taken 0 damage from the Ballista! They had quite a number of RNG blessings- Sylvia beat the Lance Knight in the arena? I thought I had seen it all...

Inbtresting videos, anyway. Also, I am going for turns (Not time, it could take me a week and I wouldn't care).

EDIT: I was thinking about it and came to the conclusion that Dew, Ardan, and Diadora would be the three hardest to levelup. After watching these videos, I wonder if I was wrong x_x.

[Sir GTF]

I ignored Tiltyu because you may not have the time to dick around for her to love somebody.  She's 120/3 with most of her options and 500 is your aim-> you're going to need 48 turns or so to get 500 assuming you always glue the two together.  Azel has a +100 bonus, cutting that down to 35 turns under the same conditions.  While moving through the chapters quickly, it's improbable for you to keep her glued to somebody every turn and still get through efficiently.  Azel seems to be Tiltyu's most reliable option here, which will give good Arthur and Tinny results anyway- high Mag, Skl, and Spd with A ranks in Fire and Thunder on promotion.  Lex and Levin have no conversation bonuses with Tiltyu making pairing them with her hard under your conditions.  I don't think her Subs would hamper you too much. 

Amid and Linda are pretty good Subs- Linda has the perk of being able to use Torron the moment you pry it from Ishtor's cold dead hands and functions like a faster leveling Tiltyu (as far as Arenas go).  Unlike Tinny, Linda is a Thunder Mage and therefore has an A thunder rank thanks to the Minor Tordo.  After promoting, Amid can use it too.  The general gist would be to give them the two Speed Rings and one the Pursuit Ring.  One uses Elwind and a Magic Ring (effectively a 19 might spell now, only 1 less than the A rank spells) the other uses Torron- whoever uses the Elwind gains 3 Spd, the other gets Torron with the same Spd penalty as if it were a wind spell, a mere -2.  I'd suggest Linda gets Elwind + Magic and Speed Rings- she needs the extra Spd and then rely on her Continue and Wrath to get by- Amid with Torron + Speed and Pursuit Ring.

Levin/Fury is practically instant through their conversations- an easy no worries pairing with good results.  Lex/Briggid is slow, 50/4 points and no conversation boosts- 50 turns needed assuming they are joined at the hip ASAP.

Pairing Edin's a slow effort- her more effective options for good Lesters all have 1 growth (Azel is a terrible option despite being a fast pairing, it screws Lester horribly, who is the more important sibling for killing effectively since Rana can't do that until she promotes-and fire specialty isn't exactly great anyway).  You have the time to make it happen with Midayle or Jamuka no problem and Rana is fine regardless of her father since she's perpetually Edin 2.0.  But you'd have to either really expose Edin to danger or hang her lover back to stick to her side- hurting your advancement speed if the latter.  Turns are a big deal under your condition.

Dierdre is easy to level since she can spam staffs and practically one shot some arena guys.

[Garlic Butter Popcorn]

Just tried a run on the Prologue, 15 turns and 15 Levelups.

I do like your ideas on Linda and Amid, GTF. It sounds like not pairing Tiltyu would be a wise idea. I also thank you for your idea on leveling Diadora; that cuts one loose end off the people I can throw out. I still think that Dew and Ardan are going to have trouble leveling, so they can probably just slip off (Maybe get a few levels, I will be keeping track through the whole game).

So, my general pairings are looking like:

Tiltyu- Not paired
Levin x Fury
Sylvia not paired
Briggid x Lex?
Aira x Holyn
Lachesis x Beowolf?

Spare units: Claude(!), Azel, Jamka, Noish, Alec, Ardan.

Eden is still up in the air. Since you are right on the account that she cannot keep up with the other units due to her dismounted status, I could always try pairing Dew with her. That would get Lana and Lester Bargain (Lana could use it for the staves, and Lester for the more expensive bows like Hero).

I would like to try to get Claude to father someone so that I have access to the Valkirie staff if worst came to worst. I put question marks next to pairings that seem up in the air to people who can be switched.

[St. Pius X]

Alec has Pursuit. He should not be too difficult to train. Noish, on other hand, needs plenty of kills from the Prolouge and Chapter 1 along with a Hero Weapon and/or the Pursuit Ring...

A Battle loss is incurred when a unit dies on the battlefield. So if Sigurd dies and you restart, he'll have one loss on his record at the end of the game.
You could give Dew the Light Sword in Chapter 3 and have him snipe off the Pirates...

Chapter 2 - Lex and Sigurd (and probably Cuan as well) should take the enemy attacks first and then you're weaker units finish off the enemy units. Zyne is probably going to be killed by either Fin or Lex; you're foot soldiers won't be able to survive the swarm he has.
Chapter 4 - You should leave behind a Sniper and a couple other units that aren't necessary, won't be able to keep up with your guys, or in the case of Lex, overleveled, on the way to Zaxon Castle.
Chapter 5 - Don't wait after capturing Lubeck. You should have enough time to engage the Horseslayer-wielding Dragon Knights at Phinora.
Leptor should be killed with Levin, with Lachesis  and his lover providing backup support to boost his hit and dodge. 

EDIT: I have not done a speed run per se, but I have done all-A rank runs.

[Sir GTF]

Tiltyu- Not paired
...

Lachesis x Beowolf?

I suggested going for Amid and Linda instead to spare you the worry of trying to make another pairing under very restricted time- Amid and Linda happen to be very competent Subs compared to their counterparts, the biggest flaw they have is a mutual lack of Pursuit, which I already accounted for.  If you think you will be able to make her love Azel within time, then work it out and see who you'd prefer to have. 

This is a strong contrast to Lachesis's kids, who have Subs that will hamper your efforts: Tristan is a good Sub, no major, major stat flaws and very strong HP growth for having no holy blood at all- but he lacks Pursuit and that puts another person demanding for the ring when you already might end up with 2 wanting it as well.  A Hero Sword helps, but since this is physical damage, it won't help for too long- enemies have more physical defense than magical most of the time- 2 shots physical are worth less than 2 magical, in general.

Janne, on the other hand, is complete garbage, she heals a little better than most Nannas, but that's not worth much when she's so trashy in everything else.  Almost any Nanna will be more helpful since she'd at least be able to fight back because her Minor Hezul guarantees she physically hurts shit.  Unlike Tiltyu, you have a good deal more time to work a relationship with Lachesis- Beowulf not only is her fastest option, he grants some of the best results anyway- win-win.

Just to explain my rationale a little further.

Eden is still up in the air. Since you are right on the account that she cannot keep up with the other units due to her dismounted status, I could always try pairing Dew with her. That would get Lana and Lester Bargain (Lana could use it for the staves, and Lester for the more expensive bows like Hero).

I would like to try to get Claude to father someone so that I have access to the Valkirie staff if worst came to worst. I put question marks next to pairings that seem up in the air to people who can be switched.

If you end up needing Valkyrie, then you'd probably already blown your survival rating.  Only Corple and Sety can use it anyway- you've resigned yourself to pass on Corple for Sharlow and Levin seems to be set as Sety's father.

Dew not being able to level sufficiently will hurt Lester's bases and Bargain isn't too helpful for Lester as far as Hero Bow repair goes, it's not too expensive for how much money one can easily make.  It's okay for Rana's staff abuse, but again, only so valuable since you aren't exactly in a rush to get her to 30, she just should hit it by the end of the game- she won't contribute any great deal in combat anyway even as a High Priest: C rank magic at best and no skills other than Bargain.  On a similar not, Lester with no inherited weapons and no combat skills is a sad sight.

Lex/Briggid seems to be thrown out there just for Elite.  Considering you'd need to level Patty, I can't blame you, but it will still be hard for her since her combat abilities will still stink until promotion.  Midayle is faster, time again being a very important factor, and will give Pursuit and Charge- Charge being nice for Faval too.  But in that same case, consider Jamuka an option too.  Being able to level quickly is fine, but being able to fight well is also important.  Don't forget you're going to have the Elite Ring to throw around too.  Again, ultimately your decision, you need to hammer out the details and logistics behind this venture of yours.  If you can allow enough turns in Ch 3/4/5 to pull off a 50 turn build like Lex, then by all means go for it- Faval will certainly work well enough; Patty can maybe kill steal with a magic sword, Elite would speed up that process and once she promotes, she should be able to fight better.

[Garlic Butter Popcorn]

Lex/Briggid seems to be thrown out there just for Elite.  Considering you'd need to level Patty, I can't blame you, but it will still be hard for her since her combat abilities will still stink until promotion.  Midayle is faster, time again being a very important factor, and will give Pursuit and Charge- Charge being nice for Faval too.  But in that same case, consider Jamuka an option too.  Being able to level quickly is fine, but being able to fight well is also important.  Don't forget you're going to have the Elite Ring to throw around too.

Don't forget if Lex and Briggid paired, he would pass his awesome strength, defense, and HP onto Patty and Faval, along with the minor Neir. They would be excellent fighters on top of Elite. The Elite Ring will probably be tossed to someone like Leaf, since he typically comes at a bad point pretty weak.

Patty and Faval's growth rates while Lex is the father:

Code:

1 Patty 125 50 22 40 30 50 60 7
2 Faval 155 55 15 35 30 85 60 7
3 

The Speed and Skl growths are both a bit shaky, but everything else is quite excellent. Lex as a father is one of the three that give Faval his highest HP growth possible. If I had problems, I could always toss a Speed/Skill ring to one of them if things turned out bad. I never knew Lex had a 20% Speed growth- He always turned out well for me. D:

Considering you'd need to level Patty, I can't blame you, but it will still be hard for her since her combat abilities will still stink until promotion.  Midayle is faster, time again being a very important factor, and will give Pursuit and Charge- Charge being nice for Faval too.

Patty will probably suck, but if Lex was her father at least she'd inherit some of his strength. I would probably pass off a Hero Sword to her for some time so that she can level quickly, and help her combat. You do get two, IIRC, one that goes to Celice (Who probably won't need it- I'd rather have him be running around with the Silver Sword Sigurd gets, as it should be getting close to 50+ kills by that point) and the one for Aira.

Looking and Mana and Dimna, I have never tested them, but Dimna seems to have semi-good growths while Mana is shaky. Rana will always have the same magic growth unless her father used magic (Claude or Azel, pretty much). Looking at Midale as a father, her growths are pretty nice, and Lester will inherit the bows with good growths.

Again, just throwing the idea out there. I need powerful, fast children who can hold for themselves.

[Sir GTF]

Mana's growths overall are as irrelevant as Rana's are.  They're only there for healing/staff spamming.  Mana does that job well enough- she's very similar to Edin in growth.  Rana isn't going to suddenly jump to your front line because she can use C rank spells either.  Mana would need Sety to inherit the Libro from Levin, otherwise it goes to the shop in Ch 10- the one significant advantage Rana would have over Mana really.

The bigger issue is with Dimna vs Lester- the children are more or less innately going to be better statistically in most cases (Arthur vs Amid being the big exception).  Your issue is with convenience and time saving.  Dimna has Pursuit and averages pretty solid, his worst stat being Spd, but Bow Knight doesn't exactly have a great cap there anyway- we're looking at around 17 or so out of 23.  The big perk with him is that he gets a lot of Str very quickly for no extra effort- he should be ending Ch 6 with no less than 14 Str. 

Trying to pair Edin with an important fighter would hurt your pacing but throwing one of the laggers to her does you no favors as you end up with an awkward Lester- like Deu giving good growths but no decent skills or weapons, or Arden screwing the pooch in just about anything useful aside from weapon inheritance.  My suggestion's emphasis was on settling for Dimna and Mana: you'd be giving up Lester and Rana for people who aren't as good, but good enough in of themselves in exchange for one less hassle messing into your advance and pacing.  If you have determined that pairing Edin will not cut valuable time out of your rush through the chapters, then by all means go for it- but remember you need someone with Pursuit since anyone not Midayle or Jamuka cannot receive the Hero Bow from Edin or pass down the Killer Bow (let's just ignore Arden's ability to pass the latter down, he's not going to be put out to stud).  Midayle is probably the best and fastest option for these circumstances since he has Pursuit, Charge, and can toss Lester both bows.

I'm not saying Lex/Briggid is horrible- statistically it's not; anything with Neir blood is a tank (remember, most of Lex's Def comes from his blood not his growths- the reason why he destroys Arden in the only stat he can decently contribute as a father).  The issue I mainly am concerned with is the time it will take to make it happen.  Assuming you glue them together for the entire time you have them at the same time, you're looking at 50 turns across 2 chapters, roughly.  Ch 4 doesn't look good in this regard since Lex is the ideal person to leave behind to guard Thove from Pamela and co: they'll never be able to mob him to death, he'll butcher them back, and he's going to have trouble crossing the mountains to Zaxon anyway because he's mounted.  That's my big concern since Briggid contributes better down south heading to Zaxon- Arden theoretically could hold Pamela off and maybe kill her goons with the Wing Clipper- but it would take forever getting him all the way up to Thove.

[St. Pius X]

Ambush+Sleep Sword makes Patty not so difficult to raise since that gimmick lets her get through the Arena much more easily, and Lex provides that said Ambush skill.

[Mekkah]

I've only done one ranked run and gave up somewhere during Ch3. It's a pretty painful effort.

Some tips/opinions (credit goes for Voltaire for the most part, who actually managed to get the maximum score, though by abusing the RNG)
- You'll want Holsety, and I think you'll want it on Arthur. The way I see it, Sety is going to be decent no matter what, but Arthur needs all the help he can get with his 5 movement and inability to frontline anywhere. Levin as his dad turns him in an insta-God - here we have someone who can one-round pretty much everything, always win arenas, and in the endgame keep up with Celice. The time he needs to spend with Tiltyu is worth it in my opinion. Doing it this way helps EXP and battle efficiency by a lot. In my opinion, the actual training of people takes priority over wanting to get a monster like Holsety Sety. You have enough combat adequate units to finish for the tactics rank, it's all about getting the maximum out of arenas and stuff.
- Speaking of which, please abuse the hell out of staves wherever you can. Give kills to people like Alec who cannot heal at all, while others should just heal arena-killed units, repeatedly Return someone to the base, Warp to the castle next to them. The Silence staff is expensive, but it's 100EXP a pop, so if you can afford it, go for it. I'm afraid this means that you won't be able to use the power of people like Levin and Sety as often as you'd like, but EXP is so damn limited.
- Lex must obviously be paired. I think she's best off with Ayra, so that her kids grow insanely fast and leave more EXP for others. They should be able to hit L30 with Ch6 and their arena performances alone. Otherwise I would suggest Brigid, but as has been pointed out, that pairing is pretty annoying to make in gen 1.
- Don't be afraid to pair Fin. He can be missed for combat sometimes (not in Ch2 obviously, but anything before and after is fine), since he has an awful load of arenas to level up in, and he doesn't get a massive gold cut from gen 1 to gen 2. Pairing him with Brigid might not be a bad idea, since those two fall in love extremely quickly, and it instantly frees up Brigid for the next few chapters, not to mention that you actually get a fairly adequate Patty (Prayer + Pursuit is ideal for her).
- I would recommend pairing Aideen, if only because she and her daughter are perfect Bargain Ring candidates (on account of not being able to arena). Nothing wrong with pairing her with Midir. Hero Bow Lester off the bat is quite an asset, even if his stats aren't so hot.
- Indeed, Sleep Sword + Ambush is great. However, I would use it on Leen rather than Patty, since Leen is even worse. This means that Sylvia is gonna have to hokey-pokey Ardan in order to pass on Ambush...not the easiest task though.

I would try to get Tinny the Pursuit Ring (everyone else who wants it has Pursuit the way I suggested).

For beating Julius, there's the alternative of using Power Ring max Str Celice. Not entirely sure if it's faster than Julia, but it's less risky than the Berserk method, and provides healing opportunities.

Try raising Ardan using the Pursuit Ring and the Hero Sword in the arena, at least as much as you can. Dew is a huge problem...but Voltaire says he's managed to promote him by Ch5.

[Garlic Butter Popcorn]

- You'll want Holsety, and I think you'll want it on Arthur. The way I see it, Sety is going to be decent no matter what, but Arthur needs all the help he can get with his 5 movement and inability to frontline anywhere. Levin as his dad turns him in an insta-God - here we have someone who can one-round pretty much everything, always win arenas, and in the endgame keep up with Celice.

I think that I am going to not pair Tiltyu and Pair Fury with Levin, as we said earlier. The amount of time really isn't worth it when you put it in retrospect; Everything would have to be almost exact for Tiltyu and Levin to pair, and with rush tactics I just don't think it will work. GTF seems to have the strong idea that Amid is a good Wind Mage and can hold his own just as good as Arthur.

You have enough combat adequate units to finish for the tactics rank, it's all about getting the maximum out of arenas and stuff.

Arenas take virtually no time out of the actual speed; you do it at the start, up to a point where you know your unit will lose, go through the chapter, and towards the end when your units are stronger you can finish it up.

- Lex must obviously be paired. I think she's best off with Ayra, so that her kids grow insanely fast and leave more EXP for others. They should be able to hit L30 with Ch6 and their arena performances alone. Otherwise I would suggest Brigid, but as has been pointed out, that pairing is pretty annoying to make in gen 1.

The Odo kills will pretty much always hit level 30 regardless of who their father is. The only reason I think that Lex and Briggid should pair is because Patty could really use the Elite and both her and Faval receive excellent growth rates from him. Holyn and Aira is going to be the likely pairing for the Odo kids, since she gets the Hero Sword from him anyway and it offers the kids Major Odo.

Don't be afraid to pair Fin. He can be missed for combat sometimes (not in Ch2 obviously, but anything before and after is fine), since he has an awful load of arenas to level up in, and he doesn't get a massive gold cut from gen 1 to gen 2. Pairing him with Brigid might not be a bad idea, since those two fall in love extremely quickly, and it instantly frees up Brigid for the next few chapters, not to mention that you actually get a fairly adequate Patty (Prayer + Pursuit is ideal for her).

I don't think pairing Finn would be a wise idea- he doesn't pass on his lances to any of his kids and that will probably make Chapter 7 harder because he will only start with an Iron Lance. With the Brave Lance or even one of the other ones he will get, he can weaken up the enemy units for Nanna and Leaf to sap some EXP.

- Indeed, Sleep Sword + Ambush is great. However, I would use it on Leen rather than Patty, since Leen is even worse. This means that Sylvia is gonna have to hokey-pokey Ardan in order to pass on Ambush...not the easiest task though.

I already decided not to pair Sylvia. I feel like Leen is complete trash when compared to Laylea, and Sharlow has Elite, making one less problem (Leveling Corple is a bitch, ESPECIALLY when I would be rushing.)

[Sir GTF]

Amid and Linda, speaking in the sense of their stats and skills, are pretty stable and competent, but like all the Subs, they are inferior to the Children they replace.  Amid is semi-infamous for being more desirable than most of Arthur's variations: Wind Mage is a better base class than Mage because wind is the better element and he'd have access to Elwind at base while Arthur wouldn't, and he promotes to Mage Fighter, which has better caps and therefore better promotion gains than Arthur's Mage Knight. 

This is because Arthur is completely reliant on his father being good and his mother cannot contribute much to save him (unlike in say, Skasaher's case, where even Arden produces a good Skasaher; or Sety who always has Pursuit, Continue, and access to Lightning at minimum; or Faval, who always has Pursuit and should have a holy weapon): he's in a magic using class and has no skills aside from Wrath, so his father needs to use magic and/or have decent combat skills.  Ultimately, only Levin and Azel pull this off in the traditional way with good Mag and combat abilities (and Holsety in Levin's case); Lex is the only decent physical father, but this relies on a very gimmicky approach to making Arthur combat capable- and even then, it works better for Tinny than Arthur.  Claude provides good stats, but is killed because he has no skills.  Arthur's one of the more infamous kids for being either pretty good, or absolutely terrible.  A great Tinny but shitty Arthur does no good here.

Tinny comes kinda late and it can be difficult to pair her- Levin's already been taken, and I did suggest Azel if that was deemed easy enough to make without killing the tactics ranking.  Lex is too gimmicky to work with efficiently in these circumstances I think.  Basically, within my assessment, it's either Azel, or just take Amid and Linda.  I've already set up how to work them (I advise Torron + Speed and Pursuit to Amid because he only has Continue while Linda gets Wrath and Elite in addition to it) and I don't believe they will slow progress down where Arthur and Tinny wouldn't.

[Mekkah]

Linda is pretty good with Elite/Wrath/Tron, indeed, but I'd say Amid is hardly worth calling a "good sub". His HP, Mag and Spd are surprisingly decent, but all he has for skills is Continue, which is unreliable, and he's unable to inherit the Pursuit Ring on account of being a substitute. It's also kind of a waste when you consider that his promoted class already had that skill built in to begin with. Speaking of which, stat-wise Magefighter does trump Mage Knight, but imo the mounted status of Mage Knight easily trumps slightly better stats. Not being mounted basically means lagging behind, since FE4 is so movement happy with a mounted lord, roads, gigantic maps and that damn tactics rating.

Arenas take virtually no time out of the actual speed; you do it at the start, up to a point where you know your unit will lose, go through the chapter, and towards the end when your units are stronger you can finish it up.

I know.

The Odo kills will pretty much always hit level 30 regardless of who their father is. The only reason I think that Lex and Briggid should pair is because Patty could really use the Elite and both her and Faval receive excellent growth rates from him. Holyn and Aira is going to be the likely pairing for the Odo kids, since she gets the Hero Sword from him anyway and it offers the kids Major Odo.

For Skasaha/Lakche, possibly, but if Lex is their father, they will get there with a minimum share of the limited field EXP pool. With so many units that need to level up like 25 times for you to max out EXP, this is quite a huge boon. Of course, if you think the Odo kids will be able to buy the Elite Ring often enough so that you can pair Lex with someone else, by all means go ahead...though in Lakche's case, she can put that money to better use by funneling it to Johan as her lover, who has trouble leveling up (when he has a level lead, he hardly gains EXP, and when everyone caught up so that his gains are equal, he's pretty bad at fighting, so he could use rings).

Lex/Brigid would be my primary suggestion if it weren't for the time it takes to do it. It really helps for Patty to climb out of her pit of suckiness, and Elite on Faval means that, like the Odo kids, he can just sit it out using the arena, taking a minimum of field EXP.

I don't think pairing Finn would be a wise idea- he doesn't pass on his lances to any of his kids and that will probably make Chapter 7 harder because he will only start with an Iron Lance. With the Brave Lance or even one of the other ones he will get, he can weaken up the enemy units for Nanna and Leaf to sap some EXP.

Kinda depends on Fin's level and Str - he might be unable to weaken the Armors and friends properly due to one rounding with Brave Lance. I wouldn't bother trying to kill anything with Nanna, since she can staffspam herself to 30 anyway, plus her defensive parameters are awful. Ch7 with father Fin may not even be a net loss compared to non-father Fin, considering Nanna instantly gains like 5 Str by talking to Fin, and gets Prayer to help her out of difficult situations sometimes (though this requires mental maths).

I already decided not to pair Sylvia. I feel like Leen is complete trash when compared to Laylea, and Sharlow has Elite, making one less problem (Leveling Corple is a bitch, ESPECIALLY when I would be rushing.)

For dancing utility and fighting, both are trash. Ardan!Leen can help EXP rank in the arena though. Whether you find that more valuable than Charisma is up to you - personally, I hardly ever find my dancers close enough to the fray for Charisma to do a whole lot of good. I understand wanting Elite on the late Priest though, plus the Berserk staff.

[Sir GTF]

Kinda depends on Fin's level and Str - he might be unable to weaken the Armors and friends properly due to one rounding with Brave Lance. I wouldn't bother trying to kill anything with Nanna, since she can staffspam herself to 30 anyway, plus her defensive parameters are awful. Ch7 with father Fin may not even be a net loss compared to non-father Fin, considering Nanna instantly gains like 5 Str by talking to Fin, and gets Prayer to help her out of difficult situations sometimes (though this requires mental maths).

Finn gives Nanna +5 Speed, not Str.  It's the only child talk bonus he gives that's actually worth something, he gives the other daughters he can talk to a boost to stats they specialize in, like Lakche needs extra Skl...

[Garlic Butter Popcorn]

Eden, Aira, Lachesis, Sylvia, Tiltyu, Briggid, Fury.

Okay, it's time to iron these out.

Eden: There are different options. Lester and Lana are both reliable units, and their subs Dimna and Rana are on the same level. The thing is, children always have an advantage over substitutes because they have the potential of stats and growths passed on (Lets not forget, if Eden and the father are level 30, Lester and Lana will have good bases). Lana will always have the ability to have a steady magic growth- Her father will only have an impact if they are a magical unit. Lana will always be able to staff spam to level 30, so it's more along the lines of Lester. If Eden is paired, we would need a father who can make Lester a powerful unit, since Lana has the staff card. Possible choices include Midale and Jamka, as they can both pass on good growths and bows to Lester and Lana.

Aira: I think the general idea is that Holyn will be the father. He combines with Aira to pass the kids major Odo, and he will pass down Lunar Sword. Stacked with Astra, the kids will be lethal. I don't think there is much more to say; I would be getting the Hero Sword for Aira via Chapter 3, so it would only help their growth.

Lachesis: Looking down the list of possible fathers, Nanna will always have a low magic growth rate, the highest being 40 while Azel is the parent. Most of the fathers offer her good strength, but she has the staff card, and regardless of her magic, can spam it to Level 30. Part of me worries that staff abuse won't be enough in some situations- but we'll see how it goes. Azel does offer some good growths for Nanna; If Azel did pair with Lachesis, Delmud would have a higher magic growth then Nanna (Irony, much?) and be a very destructive unit later in the game with the Fire or Wind swords. Since the Thunder Sword typically goes to Fury/Fee, I don't really see a negative to have Azel as a parent. Looking at the father of Delmud being Beowolf, the only powerful thing he has to offer is an 80% strength growth. Azel offers 50%- I am starting to think that Azel would probably be the best choice as a father for both children.

Sylvia: Sylvia offers both of her children the Prayer skill, as well as Continue (I believe). The Prayer skill, if used well in the arena, can guarantee a 100% evade in some chances. However, it takes perfect timing. Corpul comes rather late for a Priest, and would be quite hard to level while rushing the game. One positive of having Sylvia pair would be the fact that Leen and Corpuls growth rates would surpass that of Laylea and Sharlow. However, Sharlow is the only one capable of getting the Berserk Staff, and he does start with Elite, making it easier to get around. My general idea at this moment is not to pair Sylvia.

Tiltyu: This one is up in the air. Probably the biggest one, too. Arthur with Holsety does make lots of sense, however, the issue is the time required to make the pair happen. There is quite alot of pressure when you're rushing to have the two pair; There's Tinny too, but she seems like a capable unit no matter who her father is. If it where Levin, she could use Tornado after promotion. Linda and Amid are good substitutes according to GTF, but since I have never tried a substitute run, I wouldn't know. The thing is, the children will always have better growth rates are base stats then their counterparts, as everyone from the first generation should have capped their level and will pass down the maximum amount of base stats.

Briggid: There are a number of different ideas. The one leading my head is pairing her with Lex; Doing this nets both kids Elite, and very strong growth rates. Lex should be quite a high leveled unit by Chapter 4, and Briggid is already a Level 18 Sniper when you get her, so I could probably stick them together all of Chapter 4 and end it in Chapter 5. Finn is another possible option, netting the kids Prayer, but it kind of screws Patty out since she can't inherit anything from Finn, and then he loses all of his nice lances. Finn doesn't offer much besides Prayer and a nice Luck growth.

Fury: She and Tiltyu clash on who should have Levin. Pairing Levin and Fury is fast, which is much needed in a speed run. However, in the long run, it may turn out negative as Sety is already a destructive unit no matter who is father is (So long as he uses magic, anyway). Fee will always be a steady unit, and what I was thinking was Claude as a father. It offers Sety the good growths, and Fee can play the staff card after promotion, as she gains a B in staves. I have had good Fees while Claude was the father, and Sety will always turn out good in the pairing. I could try Alec x Fury, netting Fee Nihil, which would make her much more of a better flier as she can go anywhere and not worry about becoming one hitted. However, this screws Sety.


So, still up in the air for most. I am leaning on Lex x Briggid, Lachesis x Azel, and Aira x Holyn. Please continue to state your opinions, as it is helping very much.

[St. Pius X]

My thoughts on the pairings.
Aideen - I would pair her since she can pass down staves up to rank B, such as Libro, and possibly the Bargain Ring to Lana. Celice, Aira's kids, etc will be ahead of her and she won't catch up to heal them with Relive or Live.
If she's paired with Claude, Lana can Reserve-abuse.
Aira - Holyn's ok as a father, but I still think Lex is better since you'll be using your mounted units more later on. Chapter 10 is a chapter where I would expect her kids to see little action...

Lachesis - Keeping her together with Azel will be a tad annoying early on thanks to Azel's move.
Sylvia - Not being paired is fine. You'll probably want that extra hit on Alvis anyway. Claude's next in line simply because he passes down all his stuff for Corple to abuse and has a love point boosting conversation....

Brigid - I'm not sure. Lex should be at a really high level by Ch. 4, so he can afford sit back.
Holsety - If Arthur gets it, it speeds up Chapter 7 quite a bit, since recruiting Tinny becomes much easier. He could possibly gain enough HP to deal with Blume, giving him EXP that would have otherwise went to Aless or Shannan.

[Sir GTF]

I don't think there's a problem with the Odo kids not seeing action in Ch 10- there's a lot of forest and mounts take worse penalties.  The foots prepare to head north while the mounts attack the castle you have to seize in the west.  The foots have served their usefulness after driving away Yurius and Ishtar- the mounts and fliers will be rushing to save the kids and Palmarc and Aless and Celice are the only ones who can reasonably take on Alvis anyway, Shannan's likely to die in one hit if he fails to dodge.


There aren't a lot of bow threats to really merit Alec as Fee's father when it fucks up Sety so very much.  He is possible of sucking, don't fool yourself.  It's just that if the father has the right skills, he will be fine with Lightning + Magic Ring- Noishe for example does that:gives a pretty good combat Fee- they'd have Pursuit, Continue, Charge, and Berserk, which is a disgustingly good combination.  All the multi attacking skills and the chances for criticals compensates for the low Mag growth Sety will have, and just works well in Fee's favor since she'll actually have Str to kill shit with.  Claude is a favorite option of mine, but it takes longer to pair him with Fury than it does to pair most people with Tiltyu, and you already consider Tiltyu troublesome to pair in this context.  I'd still think Levin is the better turn saver.

I feel you overestimate Azel's contributions to Delmud and Nanna in this context.  I like the pairing in a casual game since it's creative and works pretty well, but the extra magic isn't particularly needed, the way I see it.  The thing about the Hezul kids is that they always are good physical hitters because they never have any Str growth under 50%, which is already huge by this game's standards.  Delmud caps Mag at a meager 15, Nanna isn't much better with 20.  Not really seeing how a magic sword is such a great option for Delmud when he'd have at most 23 Str and 15 Mag- physical weapons (like a Hero or Silver) seem like the better choice here.  Nanna's got at best C rank staves, assuming you Return Spam with her, she's gonna get just as much or more EXP from killing shit with her Str.  That being the case, I find Beowulf to meet your needs better since he gives Charge as well as Pursuit, provides better Skl (more for Nanna's sake than Delmud's, +9 on promotion kinda keeps him from being Skl screwed), get them higher Str faster, and has a conversation bonus to speed the love up and give Lachesis some much needed stat boosts.

Midayle is my recommendation for Lester's father because Jamuka's Pursuit is class based.  Continue is more or less moot with a Hero weapon, since it is basically an auto activate there- meaning Jamuka's only skill contribution is Charge, which Midayle gives all the same.  Midayle provides better Skl and Spd and identical Def; he offers less Luk, which isn't too important, and less HP, again, not a very very big deal on average.  The slightly lower Str isn't too significant because even though Lester would hit a little harder with Jamuka, he'll attack more with Midayle because of Pursuit and with better accuracy due to the better Skl: higher quantity of attacks at a slightly lower quality (talking roughly 2 points or so difference).

    Yes, the children always have better growths overall, but in Arthur's case, not always where it really counts for him, Mag.  Some fathers give him good all around but no more than 15% Mag- even if they gave him Pursuit (like Alec, Fin, Beowulf, Midayle), he's not hitting very hard for his entire lifespan and that's less efficient than tossing Amid the Pursuit Ring.  Similarly, if Arthur's Mag is so low growing that even with doubles he is still leaving things barely alive, it's not any better than Amid usually only hitting once and chopping the guy's HP in half: both still need the enemy phase or the next turn to kill the guy.  Tinny/Linda is a non issue- you treat her the same way you would Tiltyu, more or less- she's always pretty safe performance wise. 
    Since working with Tiltyu seems to be your bane right here.  I'd recommend Azel if you just have to have Arthur and Tinny because he can shave many turns off the growth time with his ch 4 conversation.  Offers a very traditional set up for the kids: strong Mag, Spd and Pursuit is all they'll need- Azel's piss Skl is fixed by the Minor Tordo.  Levin will probably pose problems making it on a rush schedule because Fury and Sylvia innately have a huge head start on him before she ever joins: 200+ base (200 Sylvia, 210 Fury) with +2 for every turn spent starting mid chapter 2, Tiltyu starting with 120 base and joining kinda late in Ch 3.  If Azel is deemed impossible to make even with a +100 boost, then Levin won't be reasonably possible either.