Tips For a First-Timer

[Foxy-Woxy The Sandwich Scout]

 I'm just barely starting my very first playthrough of Fuuin, and I once again find myself faced with that terrible feeling of cluelessness that I always get when playing a new Fire Emblem. This time, however, I will not be blindsighted by terrible units! Nor will I fail to miss the Member Card; no, not again! I seek general advice and tips, you know, from your own personal experience. Don't just spit growth rates at me, mind you!

I thank you all for your suggestions!

[Pukachi]

As to not spoil the gameplay experience, this game is more difficult than FE7 and FE9(E). There's also a Silver Card hidden in the game along with the Member Card, which the Silver you'll get first, so don't miss it. Thieves can't promote, magic tomes are paper-weight, and axes are awful. Lots of weapons have low Hit, so be cautious about that.

Some random tips for you. Anyway, good luck to ya.

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

It's more difficult than the other GBA Fire Emblem games, so if you're playing regular mode... get used to the good units. Focus on a few, and soup them up with steroids. Enemy Priests are very annoying, and enemy Bishops always, as a rule, use Divine.

Marcus sucks must worse than in FE7. The axe users are pretty bad. If you need axes, use Dieck or Oujay. Flying units are pretty good... Yuno sucks, and Thany <<<< Florina, but even Thany is one of my better units in the beginning. The mages are all pretty good :lilina: :hugh: :lugh: although they are not as drugged as Nino. Miredy and Zaiss may take some effort, but they are really good. Both Rutger and Fil are make really good Swordmaster. The nomads are good (again, not the last one, Dayan). Roy is a toss-up. He can suck or he can be good. He's only really good when he's got Sword of Seals, and that's limited in usefulness as you get it near the end. Clarine's magic may suffer, but she's really good, and her supports with Rutger are fast. The archers... Wolt, Dorothy. Neither outshines the other by much. I prefer to use nomads. In the desert chapter, Klein and Igrene are both acceptable substitutes, though magic takes care of enemy dragons easily. Thieves are all pretty good; Chad is the best. Nino's other son Rei is decently good. Between Rei and the other shaman Sofia... Rei is much easier to train. Neither is "OMG HAXXORZ", but... Dancers (Lalam) and Bards (Elfin) are pretty bad compared to Ninian/Nils and Tethys. Their speed caps at 20, and they don't have rings. Support Elfin with Klein if you want some story value though. Fa is cute and insanely awesome to watch, although her Dragonstone is very limited. Between Sol and Elen, I prefer Sol as my Bishop. Social Knights... Some people like Noa for his support with Fil. I don't really care. Alen and Lance are fine; they can support each other, Roy, Wolt, and another girl (Tate for Alen, Clarine for Lance)... and I think one more person, can't remember. Just whoever's supports you're curious about. Both Alen and Lance are fine to use, and don't have noticeably large advantages over the other. Dieck and Oujay are both fine to use. Some prefer Dieck for more Con, but I'm not tossing Oujay the Durandal anyway --- I have other sword users. If you want axe-users Geese or Gonzales is your guy. Merlinus is a pain in the ass to haul around. The good thing is you can send items to him even if he's not on the map. The bad news is you can't take things if he isn't. He levels by getting hit 100 times. Do you have that kind of time? Didn't think so.

Maps: If your Thany and Tate have gained more levels than Sue and Shin, you take the Ilia route and go meet Yuno. Otherwise (obviously) you go to Sacae and meet Dayan. Ilia route is easier.

Enemies/Bonus Chars: Idoun is a joke with Sword of Seals. You'd be cruel not to use Sword of Seals, mind you. Brenya, the dark pink haired sage, isn't completely a pushover. Zephyr might take a few hits, but he's easy. Guinivere isn't an enemy, but she is one of the characters you get in the bonus maps. Her hp is really low, but she is --- without hacking --- the only character who can use both Light and Nature magic. Hector and Eliwood are respectively a General and Paladin, nothing like the glorious Lords graduates of FE7 have come to love. Gale, Miredy's boyfriend, comes in late in the game at Murdock's chapter, with a bunch of reinforcements, and they will take a chunk out of you if you're not careful.

Usable prepromotes: Karel, Klein, Igrene, Perceval

[Somewhat Overcooked Cheese]

Eh let's go for some general advice:

You've been told not to use a lot of prepromoted units in FE 7?  Guess what, they're worse here.  Percival is an exception, however.  Some people praise Klein but his bases are bad for a prepromoted unit so I'd rather use Igrene over him.  Dayan isn't bad if supported with both other Nomads and sent into the fray in chapter 21.  Karel's useful, too, for the 2 chapters he's in.

If you like to spend a lot of time to create supports, know that you have a limit of maximum points.  Therefore, you probably can't have a lot of As by chapter 4.

Get the Gaiden chapters and don't use the weapons you get there too much/at all until after chapter 22.

Your Orion bolts are better used by Nomads ( and even then, probably only Shin ).  Your Elysian whips should be used by your Dragonknights, and finally your Knight Crests by your Socialknights.  Archers, Pegasus Knights ( who lost their huge resistance ) and Armorknights aren't that good in this game.

For Hero crests, pretty much everyone is good except Wade.  Since you're a novice, I'd rather have a Swordmaster, a Hero and a Berserker ( they promote with Hero crests in FE 6 ), preferably Rutger, Dieck and either of them ( Gonzales if you get him at level 5, otherwise Geese ). Warriors are nothing special here with Berserkers clearly having the better hand in axefighting, Nomad Troopers with bows and Paladins/Dragonknights ( if you gave one the Delphi Shield, of course ) in durability. You get only two before that, so you can sell a promotion item you think you won't use, buy another one with both Silver and Gold cards in chapter 16x's secret shop.  Swordmasters and Berserkers get a very useful 30% boost in critical instead of 15%, and all units available in those classes have an affinity that raises critical hits.

For Guiding rings, a lot of units are great here, so it can be tough to decide.  Generally, Lugh and Clarine should be promoted, while other good candidates include Rei, Hugh, Saul and maybe even Lilina.  Rei and Saul are the easiest to use in their respective magic disciplines.  Anima users with B and above are excellent against Dragonknights and masters, which you will fight somewhat often.  As with the Hero crests, you might want to sell some of the other promotion items if you want a lot of promoted magicians.

For Thieves, Chad has the best potential, but Asthol is there if you don't want to train Chad/want to make a chapter easier.

Train Roy as early as possible.  If you don't go for ranks and use save states if the worse comes, there's an arena in chapter 7.

Some interesting supports include:

Roy with Allen and Lance ( Allen and Lance with an A )
Rutger with Clarine and Dieck ( Rutger and Clarine getting an A )
Lugh with Hugh and Rei ( Lugh with Rei getting an A.  Hugh can be replaced by Chad )
All 3 Nomads together, Shin and Sue getting an A
Both Dragonmasters together.

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

Oh, I forgot something that KLP reminded me.

The supports. The points go up and are deducted from your chapter-ly rationed points as long as you have people next to each other. So... if you want supports, do not put Roy in the midst of Alen, Lance, Wolt and Lyrina, and then put Marcus between Alen and Lance, and throw in Oujay and Gonzales next to Lyrina, etc. They'll all get whatever points they get each turn, and in the end, your allowance will be gone before you ever get a support.

You also do not get a Support room in this game, so... <.< don't expect one.

Watou is 40 crit, not 35 as in FE7.

You do want several usable thieves for the 12x chapter (meaning mass-feed experience to Cass in chapter 12 as much as possible) because that 12x has thieves who will annoy the shit out of you. Large-movement units are also recommended.

[St. Pius X]

Alan+Lance with A support=win
Clarine sucks at healing, but support her with Rutger and someone else that gives a evade boost and you WILL love that dodge, especially on Hard Mode.

Miledy is the most useful flier, period.

Don't neglect Roy because once he's behind, it's tough for him to catch up.

Some chapters will piss you off...like the one where Klein shows up and chapter 21.
Keep a nice stock of Javelins.

Units can S-rank multiple weapons.

Keep a couple Restore staves handy because Berserk is one frickin' annoying status effect and there is plenty of it in the last chapters.
You'll start to fear enemy Berserkers(especially that one with the Killer Axe.)

You really don't need to sell a White Gem for items if you're careful with spending. Red Gems+Silver Card whoring the money from the Gems should be sufficient.

[The Paladin]

Roy, Alan, Lance, Rutger, Dieck, Clarine, and Lugh can handle the earlygame.

Shin, Fir, Miledy, Gonzales, Chad, and Lalum can fit in somewhere too.

If you're trying to rank, Ellen, Percival, and Echidna are good choices too.

[Mekkah]

You won't be trying to s-rank first time obviously, but if you are then Ellen is pretty horrid. Clarine > all.

Units you don't want to touch:
- Bors
- Barth
- Wendy
- Every prepromote not named Echidna or Percival
- Sophia
- Yuuno

If you're playing for the first time, try not using your Nomads. At all. Give Thany or Tate (the Peg Knights) of this game a very tiny little bit of EXP, and you'll find the chapters 17, 18, 19, 20 and 20x much easier. This takes you to the Ilia route (instead of the Sacae route) so you'll fight ballistae and weighed down Peg Knights instead of Sacae's extremely fast Myrmidons and Nomads.

Get all S-rank weapons, which means you must get every gaiden. Look up their requirements  on Serenes Forest. This makes the game longer (by 3 chapters) which is fun, and also gives you a better ending.

Units you cannot really go wrong with are Lance, Alan, Percival, Dieck, Rutger, Clarine and Miledy, and obviously you should train Roy though he promotes late. Shin is very good but using him for more than you use Pegasus Knights takes you to Sacae, which is harder than Ilia (though still very doable in Normal Mode). Some others are usable (Lot, Zeis, Saul).

[St. Pius X]

Ellen and Saul are pretty similar actually in terms of healing ability until promotion(and then Ellen's 50% beats Saul's 40%), but in normal mode, Ellen wins the backup role because of better dodge and supports. Her 42.8 avg. evade at Lvl. 19 beats Saul's 36 avg. evade at Lv. 19.
She can support Lugh, Miledy, and Zeiss at a reasonable pace as well. She won't get full evade due to her affinity, but giving Lugh full crit(assuming he's getting an A with Chad) is nice. Saul's only not-slow support is Dorothy, and that's pretty much it.
Oh, and she has a slight level lead over Saul.

[Mekkah]

Kinda depends. I prefer Saul because he doesn't get OHKOed ever, and I also like to save up Ellen's Heal staves for when Clarine comes so I don't healspam as much with her (but also because I don't like Ellen at all, to be honest). Also, getting doubled in Sacae is argh.

She'd need to heal like 19 times to get ahead of Saul, and then she's still doing worse because of her frailness.

Also, endgame and without supports, the evade difference is still less than 10, which I find way less significant than Saul's concrete durability lead earlygame. And he's actually doubling.

I really have a strong personal preference for Saul even if the gap isn't that big.

[The Paladin]

No Ellen isn't bad.

She is a good extra healer, with good supports. She's doing better when Saul joins. When she promotes, she gets 1.5x exp when she fights, meaning her speed isn't as bad as you think.

Saul is fine, though. But his supports are shit. That's no good.

[St. Pius X]

I've never used Ellen as a primary backup either, but I do have her levels in my two playthroughs of this game(one Hard(but that one's not too relevant because she does absolutely suck that mode), one normal), and she's at level 6 before she was dumped. That's about ten turns of healing ahead of Saul. Experience rank isn't that hard, but I like to get as much of it as possible.

Her speed sucks, but then again neither her nor Saul is going to see much combat.

[Mekkah]

As far as I can see on Serenes in FE6 both male and female Bishops get the class bonus. In FE7 only females do, probably because the only male Bishops you get (Lucius and Renault) could always attack, so they "didn't need to catch up in level" according to Nintendo logic.

[The Paladin]

As far as I can see on Serenes in FE6 both male and female Bishops get the class bonus. In FE7 only females do, probably because the only male Bishops you get (Lucius and Renault) could always attack, so they "didn't need to catch up in level" according to Nintendo logic.

That's why Saul, Ellen, and Clarine are all good.

IIRC, all the healers in FE7 were female, so yeah they get EXP bonus. Lucius starts as a monk, and we don't know what Renault starts as.

[skeptical]

I'm not averse to either armor or pegasus knights as classes in general. Other, harder, or just as hard FE games have had some or even all playable members with redeeming features or more at least........but that's not the case here. They all suck terribly.

Characters I highly recommend against promoting:

Barth - badly, badly lopsided, even for his class.
Bors - probably the best and certainly turns out the most well-rounded out of this sucky batch. Yet he starts out a below average tank, and has to navigate such a slippery slope that lasts at least two-thirds of the game, just to get on par (and nothing more) with the competent frontliners, that he isn't worth it.
Dorothy - underlevelled, modest gains but uninspiring bases, worst class.......you do the math.   
Lilina - one of the worst promotable magicians in the series' history, by far. Base speed nearly as low as Bors' with merely moderate growth married to durability that stays inferior to almost everyone else's forever, no matter what. However, she's needed to recruit Gonzales (one of the best units in the game) and Garret (not so much, but you want him pacified), so level her up a bit so she's not a complete liability during her joining chapter, the Western Isles or 15. Then bench her at once.
Sophia - a trainwreck. Craptastic bases and growths that never salvage them.
Tate - lousy joining time, never becomes remotely good. Horribly outclassed by the wyvern riders.
Thany - stays worthless at fighting, so just let her visit villages and rescue if absolutely needed, you can forget about her after chapter 5.
Ward - not even supports or high HP can fix him.
Wendy - she's even worse than Sophia and restricted to close combat.......worst unit in the game period!
Wolt - he has like the most playtime in the worst class to fail the hardest of anyone.

Others you shouldn't really be deploying at all, let alone maining (i.e. I'd be srsly tempted to bring Merlinus instead):

Cath - unless you let Chad or Astol die or something (for shame!), avoid this pitiful wench.
Cecilia - uh, well, she can perform staff stuff, arrives before Niime/Yodel, and doesn't need truckloads of experience poured into her or a promo item.......
Douglas - apart from the chapter he's forced into and maybe if you go to Sacae (have him rescue your weakling Roy on 18 and/or 19 then let him decoy).
Fa - not an important unit insomuch as a fairly disappointing one for a mamkute. Her dragonstone has a measly 30 charges, and you can't remotely call her starting or ending stats good for fighting anything bar enemy mamkutes, or surviving. Still, she's forced on you come the final showdown (aka mamkute neighborhood), and she packs a missile of a punch when she does hit, so level her up a little in one convenient enough chapter outside of the final.   
Niime - unless you really want a third magician lategame with C-A staff rank for insurance, don't bother apart from her joining chapter.
Yodel - he's even worse than Niime.
Yunno - this one should be self-explanatory. 

Just rounding out the lesser half of units apart from that crowd of phailure (in no particular order), there's Karel, who makes a decent cameo; Marcus, who's good for first-quarter weakening; Zealot, who's okay for doing the same until chapter 12; Dayan and Sue, both good for nothing except shooting down enemy flyers or improving Shin; Klein, strictly average but HM boosted and better gains than Dayan/Sue; Garret, very dubious statwise but HM boosts, certain offense and certain durability on his side off the bat; Igrene, who can easily nab supports with Saul/Fa and serve as passable filler; and Bartre, who almost never exists but is basically the next step up from Zealot.

[Foxy-Woxy The Sandwich Scout]

Goodness, I didn't think I'd get so many enthusiastic responses. Thank you all for your suggestions; I'll try to remember as many of them as I can.

I have a specific question that needs answering, however. Pukachi mentions that the Silver Card makes an appearance in the game. Where, exactly?

[Somewhat Overcooked Cheese]

Desert chapter, so 14.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/elaice/fe6/desert.html

[theshim is the shimiest shim of all the shims that ever shim]

Wow, Sue's getting a lot of hate here.  I found her to be quite useful.

Avoid the knights - all are terrible at being knights. 

I dropped Alan and Lance at about chapter 9 or 10, and the only Paladin I used was Percival. 

Mages, and by that I mean anima, will rock, except Lilina, glass cannon that she is...and she's still usable.  Lugh is probably the best, and one of the best units in the game.  Light magic is terrible; I'm not sure it's even worth leveling up Saul or Ellen to use Auerola (the only good Light tome in the game) especially as they are far outclassed by the dodge machine Clarine, who WILL cap speed and luck.  Support her with Rutger (another good unit) and she's golden, even if her magic can be a bit low.  Rei makes a good shaman, but Sophia is crippled by lousy growths and terrible bases.  She'll become a glass cannon much the same way that Lilina will (Great magic and resistance and that's about it) and she too is usable, but it's really not worth the time.  Cecilia and Niime...you can use them if you want stomach ulcers.  Otherwise, ditch.  Same for Yodel (when nine hundred years old are you, look that good you will not, mm?).

Ditch the Pegasi!  The two Wyverns rock!

As far as bows go, I found Wolt to be pretty lousy, Dorothy not much better, Igrere suffers from prepromote-itis and Klein's bases are just too low.  Go with Sue and Shin...forget Dayan.

I did Sacae on my first time through, it wasn't that bad.  (I was actually using Sophia ...that was fun.)

Rutger and Fir rock, and Dieck and Oujay aren't bad at all. I ended up using them all for most of the game.

Axes?  Just stick with Gonzales or Geese.  Because axes sucked, and most of the axe-users are below par anyway.

I didn't bother with Lalum/Elphin.

If only thieves could promote...because Chad is an amazing combat unit, for no apparent reason.  But, as they can't, he'll get outclassed later.  Early on he's useful for more than just raiding chests, though.

And watch out for that support limit per chapter!  That thing's bloody annoying!

[Neofox]

Wow, Sue's getting a lot of hate here.  I found her to be quite useful.

I'd argue that Dorothy is better. I realize the archers are getting a lot of hate as well, but I really think that she's underrated. Sure, she doesn't have Sue's movement, but she has more of a vital stat: strength.

[Somewhat Overcooked Cheese]

As far as supports go, you could pair Dorothy with Saul, but aside from Yodel and him, her supports are slow, and with mounted units to boot.

She's pretty decent on average, should you start to train her ( IIRC 8x is good for units like her and Oujay ).  She still suffers from no counter attacks, and ballistas are rare, either hard to reach or in a Fog of War chapter.  She also needs an Orion Bolt, which is good because only Shin is without a doubt better than her.  However if I train Shin, I'd rather get Sue there too for their support.

As far as her stats go, she kind of reminds me of Wil with decent to slightly above average stats, with lower defense and luck.  Also something good for her would be the fact that you fight a lot of Dragon Knights and Masters later on.

Therefore I'd say she's good and requires some training, but often overshadowed by the Nomads.