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So, right. We got this annoying little girl that can't fight at all last chapter. Let's see if we can't make something out of her yet.



But first, let's fix Cormag's pesky HP problem.


(6 levels, +5 HP, +2 Str, +1 Skill, +2 Speed, +4 Luck, +3 Def)

Well, it wasn't awful...I guess...Okay, that was a pretty terrible showing. But that's why she has an extra 10 levels of growing room.



Oh yeah, there was also this guy. Don't know where he came from, but he managed to be a thief with a 65% speed growth that's gotten 3 points of speed in 9 levels.



Amelia's promotion options are unchanged, so even though the cavalier has a hilariously huge base Res in the hack, she still gets her standard promotion bonuses. Besides, if I want a general, my choices are Amelia or "Fuck You" so Amelia it is, I guess.

Next stop: Floor 6.

Floor 1


(2 levels, +2 HP, +1 Skill, +1 Speed)

Floor 4


(3 levels, +2 HP, +1 Str, +1 Skill, +1 Luck, +2 Def)

Floor 5




(7 levels, +5 HP, +1 Str, +4 Skill, +2 Speed, +3 Luck, +1 Def)


(13 levels, +5 HP, +5 Str, +7 Skill, +6 Speed, +7 Luck, +2 Def, +2 Res)

Okay, seriously. What the fuck is this bullshit? I mean, yes, technically she's pretty much right on her averages. But the enemies are so buffed that average doesn't cut it. You need to be extraordinary if you want any kinds of accolades here, and my knight getting 2 defense in 13 levels does not bode well for her future.


(3 levels, +3 HP, +3 Str, +3 Luck, +1 Def, +1 Res)


(3 levels, +3 HP, +2 Str, +2 Luck, +1 Res)


(6 levels, +3 HP, +6 Magic, +3 Skill, +2 Speed, +4 Luck, +1 Def, +5 Res)


(5 levels, +1 HP, +2 Skill, +2 Speed, +1 Luck, +1 Def, +1 Res)

Have I mentioned I'm not really a fan of the trainee characters lately? Ewan at least has the excuse of having capped Magic and Skill.

One last thing before the update proper:



See, I mentioned a while back that the Silencer skill was exclusive to male heroes, which led to the obvious question of "What happens with a female hero?" Well, our hacker extraordinaire came up with a novel solution to that problem. Namely, there are no female heroes. That's very obviously a male hero sprite that Marisa would have. This might lead you to ask: "But Artix, what if there is no sprite set for female heroes?" And you would have a point if FE7 didn't exist.

In FE7, there are no playable female shamans or druids. In fact, you'd be forgiven for assuming there weren't any in the game at all. Their sole appearance is in Cog of Destiny, as a pair of druids flanking Lloyd/Linus, and only in Hector Hard Mode. Not in Eliwood Hard, not in Hector's story. Obviously, IntSys didn't sprite up an entire class set just so they could be used once in the ass end of a hard mode, so where did it come from? FE6, naturally. And that brings us full circle. "What if there is no female hero sprite sheet?" Well, there is, also courtesy of FE6. Given FE7's precedent of keeping around sprite sets even if there is no playable unit to use them, I find it incredibly hard to believe the female hero sprites aren't hanging around somewhere in the game data. Rather than make it so that female myrmidons promoting to hero would at least have the right default sprites, he just made them all male.



With that, Marisa slips ahead of Josh and Forde to have the highest HP of anyone in the army. She's not the tankiest unit ever, but it'll do.

Tower 6: FE6 had great map design, let's reuse that



Today's floor is all about skeletons. Aside from a single rogue revenant, it's all Bonewalkers and Wights, all the time.



The Bonewalkers are just fast enough that you're probably not going to double them without 20+ speed, but otherwise they're not much of a threat. Wights are a little more dangerous, but still nothing to really write home about.



And the grand gimmick of the chapter, the map where you have to break a bunch of walls. It was so popular in FE6 and FE7, IntSys had no choice but to acquiesce to fan demand and bring it back.



Forde, Amelia, and Cormag are making the trek north. Marisa, Rath, Ewan, and Eirika are heading west, with L'Arachel in tow for now.



Fortunately, unlike its FE6/7 cousins, certain skeletons will help destroy the walls. Unfortunately, it's like one or two skeletons at most, and they're only going to cut down the walls that stand between you and them. Still, it's better than nothing.



And that's all the help you're getting from the AI. That top one only leads to another Bonewalker/Wight, so that doesn't even help us any.



There are a couple archers backed up behind those two skeletons, so even Marisa would be playing with fire if she went out to attack. Better to play it safe this high in the tower.



And then this guy goes back to the corner. I don't know if he's supposed to be trying to break the wall where the Wight is standing or what, but yeah.



Amelia's levels have been really sparse, but she's getting to those caps, slowly but surely.



Rath has surprised me as well. He's still probably never going to amount to anything other than B-Team material, but it's nice to see him making an effort.



Marisa heads north to deal with the skeletons hiding in the corner, while Ewan busts through to the far left corridor. We could theoretically swing north and attack the boss now, but that would probably end badly.



The north team busts through the wall to the chest area. Turns out the locals don't really appreciate that much.



L'Arachel does her thing and gets a mostly terrible level.



Eirika shows her up with a perfect one, and the southwest corner is cleared out. Unfortunately, Marisa has my chest key and she's occupied with the Wight.



The guy in the corner has a Killing Edge and the north group has no healer, so I have to step very carefully here.



Cormag knocks out the Wight, and Amelia steps forward to cover for him.



With a longbow archer coming to play and everyone already being a little beat up, the north group makes a strategic retreat.



Fantastic, Marisa. At least you stole the guy's Steel Lance while you were at it.



pre:
Physic:   40%
Silence:  20%
Fortify:  20%
Restore:  20%


...Goddammit!



Marisa and Rath stay near the chest, and L'Arachel, Eirika, and Ewan move north to join up with the others.



Ewan and friends finally reach Cormag, and help dispose of our Killing Edge friend.



This is the other one that's not random.



pre:
Steel Sword:  10%
Steel Blade:  10%
Brave Sword:   5%
Steel Lance:  20%
Brave Lance:   5%
Steel Axe:    20%
Brave Axe:     5%
Steel Bow:    20%
Brave Bow:     5%


Not the best prize, but I guess it could have been an Axe. That would have really pissed me off.



pre:
Elfire:     25%
Bolting:     9%
Divine:     25%
Purge:       8%
Nosferatu:  25%
Eclipse:     8%


Thanks game. Dark Magic, just what I needed.



We're just about done in the north. Once we kill that last Wight, we're ready to fight the boss and get out of here.



Speaking of the boss, he's no stronger than the other Wights, but he is carting around a Brave Sword. Marisa will get the honors of dealing with him, while the north crew takes care of his sniper buddies.



Speaking of the snipers, they are the most dangerous thing on the map. While they can't double my entire army like the Gwyllgi, they can double enough of them to be a serious threat.



Now that's much better, L'Arachel.



The boss goes down without any problems, but Marisa's down to 9 HP, so she's basically useless for helping kill of the last few skeletons.



Amelia gets an alright level to set up for Cormag maxing out. And we all know what that means.



Wyvern Knights are still a totally valid option for Cormag, as Pierce is still very useful. However, it doesn't give him any extra Con, and the caps don't really fit with Cormag's growths. Wyvern Lords are a lot slower than Knights, but they get much better Strength caps, and the ability to use Swords is nice. Nothing hack-related either, they're just bigger, badder wyvern riders.



Fantastic.



Okay, now we have a problem. That was my last Mend staff and the convoy doesn't have any healing staves left. So from here on out, I'm stuck with any damage I take unless I want to burn some elixirs.



To take some of the heat off the north group, Rath grabs his Bright Bow and lures away the lower skeletons. Note that the guys in that room off to the right will stay there until we break them out, so they're not an issue.



With a little help from Cormag, Ewan picks off the sniper and gets a fantastic level to max out.



We've seen Sages more than enough by now, so let's talk about Mage Knights. They get much lower stat caps in comparison to Sages (24 Magic cap, in comparison to a Male Sage's 28) and no Light magic, but they get a horse and extra point of Con to make up for the losses. In vanilla FE8, the lower magic cap really isn't that big of a deal, but here you probably want to lean Sage.



So yeah, promotion gains not so hot. The extra Con is appreciated, but Ewan doesn't need it nearly as much as Lute does.



They also get jumped to Staves-A and Anima-A, which is really nice. I definitely can't complain about having a battle-ready Physic-bot. But that's not the biggest reason to use a Mage Knight in the hack.



No, that would be their 11 movement. The 17 Aid is a nice bonus too.



From there, all we have to do is break through to the last two skeletons and we're done.

Next time: It's a one-two punch in Jehanna.