Fire Emblem 8 Sacred Stones: Low Level HM - Chapter 5x: Unbroken Heart

Levels at the start:
Ephraim - 4(0)
Orson - 3(0) + 20
Forde - 6(0)
Kyle - 5(0)

Same ones as always, d'oh.

Though the chapter has an 'x' in its name, contrary to what it might seem like, this is a map you can't skip. It has nothing to do with saving villages in the previous chapter.

We switch to Ephraim's story and finally we have a great Lord. Ephraim is just amazing - excellent growths (55% attack, 45% speed, 35% defence), lances and reliable 1~2 range. Since we're going to take Ephraim's path later on, we want him to have good growths on his first levels...

...and this is where things start going wrong. RNG rears its ugly head and insists that Ephraim doesn't get any good growths for 4 out of 5 level-ups in this stage. I actually restarted the map a couple times because the first two level-ups were always either just HP, HP and luck, or just skill, which I found infuriating. I'll let you decide which combination of the three above is the worst, but honestly, all three are as good as throwing 100 combat exp down the garbage can to me.

There's one time when RNG is condescending to me and gives me a really good level-up in, like, all the stats a melee unit wants and a few more. But overall it's laughing at me in this chapter, saying "oh, you restarted the chapter? well, you just wait until the new growths kick in and you'll wish you kept your earlier ones."

We also get Kyle and Forde, our Christmas cavalry. Cavalier is the one of the best classes in the game and you can't go wrong with any of them (besides Fiona in Radiant Dawn). Kyle has more speed and CON, meaning he'll be the one to double enemies first most of the time. Forde, on the other hand, has higher attack and defence, so he could tank hits. Both are really good, and if you ever feel like ignoring them in a normal run, it must be because you already have a trained Franz. But like they say, Cavalry is like a mother's heart - there's always room for one more.

In this chapter, we get to decide how much experience we feed Ephraim and how much should go to Kyle and Forde. Do we want to up their levels to increase the party average? Or do we want to keep them low-levelled, since a low-levelled Cavalier is way more useful than a low-levelled mage (this gets quite troublesome when you have 4 mages in the party at once)? Forde ended up being the low-levelled unit after the chapter was over, so we'll probably be seeing him soon on Ephraim's path.

Orson is a temporary member whom we don't want to give exp, but I send him to get the chests and, blasphemy - have him use the Silver Sword in the process. It's just really annoying passing those Steel Lances around until he catches up, that's all.

We're in no rush, slowly engaging enemies in groups up to three, and growing our units. After the boss is dead (a really slow Mercenary), I build the guys' support triangle, so that they have B support with one another during the next map. Kyle and Forde offer elements that are hardly the most desirable - wind and ice - but we get them so quickly that they're better than waiting for, say, Eirika's and L'Arachel's supports.

I make a stupid blunder once by positioning Orson into two enemies' range just as I unequip his Silver Sword (so that I don't forget to trade it to somebody else later), but two enemies isn't something we can't dispose of pretty easily.

I would say this chapter isn't very different from what you have in a normal game.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• fire
• emblem
• eight
• fe8
• the
• sacred
• stones
• tss
• ss
• eirika
• artur
• lute
• ross
• franz
• lowest
• level
• llg

[davideoman1000]

Haha Fiona.... God awful. Lvl 9 first tier when everyone else in your party is 2nd tier already.

[MoogleBoss]

@davideoman1000

Well, Edward and Jill don't mind being low-levelled... I think it's a mixture of base stats and the class they get (being a Cavalier only hurts during most of Micaiah's chapters).

[MoogleBoss]

@marthedge

She's about fast enough to not be doubled by anybody besides Myrms (unless you just leave her with Elthunder before you've proc'd enough Strength). The mages in Radiant Dawn have it way worse though, with horrible caps and in the only FE where caps actually matter.

[marthedge]

@MoogleBoss Yeah, her speed didn't turn out as great as I made it out to be but it's a survivable speed nonetheless.

[MoogleBoss]

@marthedge

If you give her an A-level tome and have her fight exclusively archers, cats, ravens and thieves, with a speed+ band equipped, her speed growth is altered to 45%. It's a while until you do get that tome, though. 40% speed growth is okay though, the same one as Soren, Kieran and Tanith.

[marthedge]

@MoogleBoss Oh right, I might have fought particular enemies in doing so during fixed mode.

I should pay more attention since it affects those, I always seem to forget that fixed mode can still be influenced by enemies fought.

[MoogleBoss]

@marthedge

Really? The difference is like 1 point of speed every 20 level-ups. Unless you do it one exp point at a time (in which case you might as well go random mode and reset until you get +5 each level). Ilyana's 30% growth doesn't allow 1exp point abuse, though.

[ErichtheTormentor]

Han har den fineste vogna på campingplassen

vogna mi den kallarn utedassen

forteltet han har er aller størst

og det var han som kjøpte gassgrill først.

[marthedge]

@MoogleBoss Yeah, I rectified her speed issues with a thief band, works wonders.

[MoogleBoss]

@Kainmaster

I'd use Orson only if I were going for some low turn record or something. Or, like in this video, I'm just too lazy to separate my trio even further to face the two enemies protecting the chests, not to slow down their progress.

Otherwise, train Ephraim and one of the social knights (it's usually a good idea to focus on one and bench the other, especially since you've probably been training Franz by now).