Laguz aggression in chapter 15

[Areth]

I'm having one heck of a time trying to get every hidden item in chapter 15 plus keeping all of my units and as many of the enemy units as possible alive...

The problem is, sometimes the enemy Laguz play defensively (retreating when heavily wounded even when they could have killed one of my units, etc...) and sometimes they play aggressively (attacking my units even when they're sure to kill themselves, etc...)

The enemy Laguz are much easier to keep alive when they play defensively, of course, but I have no idea how to make them do that.

[Saeclum]

Use a resilient unit with the Laguzguard, a couple of potions, and someone with a physic nearby if you can, and draw the ennemy?

[SlippyToasterTrooper_UK]

Personally I never considered going through the hassle of keeping the Laguz alive.

At the most it is 60 per Laguz and how much actual EXP are you getting for just killing them? Comparable or more (and remember 60 bonus EXP/=/60EXP except it you're level 8 unpromoted).

As for the Laguz erratic AI my only advice would be if they advance make sure they can't retreat (i.e. kill them). At that stage in the gfame you should have a few Laguz weapons since they can still pose problems.

[YokaiKnight]

As I've found the hard way, keeping any beneficial amount of laguz alive while getting all treasure is pretty much impossible (realistically, anyway). Either you can decide to give up some of the lesser prizes like coins to save more laguz, or you can sacrifice the BEXP to get everything. I've pretty much decided to just kill whatever I can't effectively avoid, because at I think all difficulty levels most units gain more experience from the kills (it helps to not one-round them, which is hard anyway) than they would from the BEXP.

[Areth]

Thanks for the advice, but I think I've got these guys figured out now: They play defensively as long as they have vulneraries. They only become suicidal when they run out of them.

Anyway, I get tons of experience just from wounding them, so I think that I'll stick to my original plan, and make sure not to deprive them of vulneraries. I'll probably be back to tell you all how it turns out...

[YokaiKnight]

Please let us know; if you can get wounding EXP, all the items, and sizeable bonus EXP as well, I'd like hear how.

[Areth]

In case there's anybody who hasn't yet played chapter 15, SPOILER ALERT!

Okay... I guess I'll start with my conclusion: I got all the hidden treasures and killed about five of the enemy Laguz (not counting Muarim, whom I didn't really kill anyway...) for a grand total of 1008 Combat EXP and 1275 Bonus EXP.

My lineup was undoubtedly less than optimal, but I'm so obsessed with Supports that I went with it anyway. I brought along Oscar, Titania, Kieran, and Astrid for their Supports, even though as knights and paladins they were pretty useless. I also brought along Marcia, Ilyana, Rhys, Sothe, and Volke. I'd recommend Jill and Soren for those of you who are less obsessive than I am. I also brought along Mordecai to recruit Stefan, but in hindsight it probably would have been better to bring Lethe, since her speed is more in line with that of the cats that she (or Mordecai) will inevitably have to fight.

Some tidbits that might be important: I had used BEXP to promote Rhys to Bishop and Ilyana to staff sage, and I had armed Volke with the Laguzguard. I had also bought a Light tome for Rhys, which was vital to defeating the boss... but I'm getting ahead of myself. Oh, and I had a Fire tome for Ilyana, too. I'm sure I needn't tell you how vital THAT was...

Setup and Turn 1: I arranged Sothe and Volke so that Sothe could dig up the Guard scroll in the southwest corner, and with a shove from Rhys, Volke was in range to snag the Physic staff from the middle of the map. By coincidence, Rhys happened to dig up one of the Coins as well. (Thank you, serenesforest.net, for telling me where they are!) My knights and paladins trudged north, and Ilyana headed north to face one of the birds near Muarim. Mordecai moved eastward and used a Laguz Stone to transform instantly. (Another reason why Lethe might be a viable alternative.) Marcia flew west and attacked the untransformed bird tribe Laguz in the southwest corner, heavily wounding but not killing him. I shoved Rolf westward in anticipation of...

Enemy turn: The bird tribesman whom Marcia had attacked flew north, towards one of the cat laguz who had a vulnerary. The bird in the northwest came south to attack Marcia. One of the cats attacked Volke, and I think the raven in the north-center attacked Ilyana. (I also think Ilyana killed him in retaliation.)

Turn 2: I kept moving Mordecai and Volke westward, and I sent Rolf to shoot the bird who had attacked Marcia, heavily wounding him. Marcia attacked the untransformed cat laguz in the missle of the map, and Sothe headed north to dig up the Silver Blade.

Maybe I'm getting into too much detail here... Here's the gist of what happened next, to the best of my memory.

Turn 3: Sothe digs up the other Coin; Volke digs up the Statue Frag and resists the temptation to steal the Vulnerary from the untransformed tiger laguz in the vicinity. The cavaliers keep trudging north, wounding enemy Laguz as they go. The previously wounded Laguz head north and drain their Vulneraries as they go. Cat Laguz in the west harass Mordecai and Volke, and I think Mordecai killed one of them.

Turn 4/5: Sothe is too far away to dig up the Shine tome, but Kieran ends up digging it up anyway as he gets into striking range of one of the now-transformed cat laguz in the northwest. Volke and Mordecai head north. Ilyana equips her Fire tome and gets into range of another of the cats. The bird in the northeast attacks Volke.

Turn 6: Mordecai recruits Stefan; Volke digs up the White Gem. The cat nearest the Boots comes south and gets killed, but the hawk makes me reluctant to send Sothe north just yet. Skirmishes continue, with plenty of injury but few casualties.

Turn 7: Ilyana and Rhys attack Muarim, but fail to kill him. The hawk is heavily wounded and about to transform back into human form. Sothe digs up the boots. The northeast bird has heavily wounded Volke, so Stefan finishes him off. Kieran kills one of the tigers. On the enemy turn, Ilyana kills the other. The rest of the laguz, being wounded and/or about to transform back into human form, head for the last remaining Vulnerary in the southeast, ignoring even my wounded.

Turn 8: Ilyana defeats Muarim.

Again, I might have been off in a detail or two, but I'm quite sure that I killed as few laguz as it is possible to kill.

[YokaiKnight]

Wow. And in 8 turns too? Not bad. Definitely Ilyana and Rhys being promoted will take down Muarim a lot faster and save you dealing with the laguz around him some, but that's not a bad job at all.

What difficulty level were you playing on?

[Areth]

...easy...

[Ayanami]

...easy...

You don't get Bonus EXP in the easy mode. -.-

[Neofox]

You don't get Bonus EXP in the easy mode. -.-

Erm, yes you do... In fact, I'm pretty sure the BEXP gain is *DOUBLED* in easy mode.

[YokaiKnight]

You don't get Bonus EXP in the easy mode. -.-

Which easy mode is this?

Anyway, Areth, that's still a solid 600+ in normal mode. Though I guess with laguz transformation timing changed that would be a lot harder...but thanks for the idea anyway.

[Areth]

I'm pretty sure that BEXP is halved in Hard Mode, but I don't think it's doubled in Easy Mode.

Nevertheless, I could try it again on Normal Mode to be sure... though it will take a while...

Oops! I AM ERROR! Another look at serenesforest.net informs me that you get half again as much BEXP on Easy Mode as on Normal. So if I had done everything on Normal Mode, I would have gotten 850 BEXP (and who knows how much Combat EXP?)

[Neofox]

I'm pretty sure that BEXP is halved in Hard Mode, but I don't think it's doubled in Easy Mode.

Hard move gives the same amount of BEXP as Normal mode. It's Maniac Mode that halves it.