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And here we are at the conclusion of the first run.

















Here's how everyone is looking going into the endgame. I'm glad I ended up with a good, strong party for this - the thing that surprised me the most about this run is how fucking incredible Neimi turned out to be. I was so worried about how she'd be after she lost, like, half of all her stats, but she's up there with Artur and Tana as the god-units of this seed. Also, for as good as Seth has been, I did end up buying an Angelic Robe for him with the money I had left. Him having lower HP than Strength/Speed is only funny for so long (even if his HP is still lower than his Strength).

I was considering bringing Dozla to pick up the treasures on this chapter but ahahahahahaha fuck that I'm buying keys instead.

Now, let's end this.



My strategy here is just to split into two groups and bring everyone up the sides, and then catch Lyon in a pincer attack.



The first casualty is this General guarding the treasure on the left.



Then a Wyvern Knight attacks Eirika. She has the Runesword equipped, which trips Warding Blow, but...



...Lethality kicks in to give her a bad level.



And then she does it again! Off of a guy who triggered Bane, no less, giving her a free full heal.



On the player phase, she shanks a Ranger to get all the stats except the ones she really needs.



Neimi update: Still godlike.



This dude is capable of doubling Seth, buuuut he has a Dragonspear which means he'd never have hit him anyway.



It's almost cruel that Vanessa's growths are so skewed towards Skill, the one stat she literally does not need.



Oh, come on, Iron weapons in the endgame? Where's all the Silver?



Tana smites another Wyvern Knight for more bulk.



Well, this sure would have come in handy at literally any point before now! I can't really think of anything I'd want removed at this point.



Remember how the vanilla game had a nigh-useless Master Seal in the final chapter, too? It was in the other chest, but it's almost funny that this "reward" stayed the same.



Neimi and Artur take up positions at the very edge of a Draco Zombie's range.



Damn, these guys are way more threatening than Morva. Both this one and an identical one on the other side of the map are packing Chivalry, Countermagic, and Quick Blow, giving them +4 damage when they start the battle. This translates to 32 unmitigated damage to start, 36 if it's the one attacking, and 38 if the enemy is at full health.

It's a damn good thing Wretched Air has only half the accuracy it used to is what I'm saying.



Joshua is still pretty amazing, too.



Ephraim is one point off of his Strength and Speed caps now, which is pretty great.



Ah, there was another Wyvern Knight, too... Artur is at least fast enough that he could reliably dodge Wretched Air, fortunately.



Seth's dragon slaying adventures continue, as he dodges and double-crits this Draco Zombie.



Or it could... go for Neimi instead? Artur even has Provoke, but I guess the AI saw a potential kill and went for it.



And so did I!



And that's the story of how Neimi one-rounded yet another imposing enemy.



Still getting plenty of use out of the Tomahawk!



If only it could fix his growths, though...



Seth shows this Ranger how to really fire an arrow.



And that's Strength capped!



Artur fares less well, level-wise, against a different Ranger.



Well, hello, reinforcements and enemy Super Recruits. Gee, Dazzle, Spectrum Stance and Barricade+? The game really is pulling out all the stops.



The Generals are far less interesting, as they're not the Life and Death version that we saw in Chapter 17. Those are on this map, too, but only the ones by Lyon.



These guys, though? Chumps.



Also a General with a Heavy Spear is rich when they're equally as vulnerable to one themselves.



There's only so much Barricade+ can save you from, and this much damage isn't that.



Especially not if you get one-shot anyway.



It's still funny to me that the Iron Axe, of all things, has been one of the most reliable weapons this whole run.



So, Lyon's group. The Wyvern Knights and the Ranger aren't really anything to worry about this late in the game. As for the Generals:



The middle and bottom ones are on the left, and the top two are on the right. There's actually quite a few skills we haven't seen yet, here. The female Generals, in addition to having Life and Death, also have Quick Burn and Savage Blow, on an enemy that can actually attack this time! The former gives them +15% Hit and Avoid, dropping by 1 each turn, and the latter deals 20% of max HP to all enemies in a 2-square radius after initiating and surviving a fight. The male Generals, in addition to Capture and Rally Spectrum, have Discipline, a skill that doubles weapon EXP gain.



The Wyvern Knights go down pretty easily, leaving just the lone Ranger, the Generals, and Lyon. Also Vanessa hits S in bows, which makes me wish the self-randomizer generated a log file like Yune does so I can at least see how Nidhogg looks.



Vanessa dodges, but Savage Blow kicks in causing Vanessa to take some damage regardless.



Oh boy, more reinforcements, and they all have Bracing Stance! Screw this, I'm just gonna kill Lyon and be do-



ooooh my, this seems like kind of a bad idea actually!



A real bad idea, actually! Not even hard mode Lyon had stats this high... Fortunately, he only has Nosferatu and not Naglfar, for... some reason. He's switched out Black Magic for Quick Burn, but still has Sure Shot and Bracing Stance, so he's technically breaking his caps in Defense and Resistance.

And because I never actually mentioned it, his second skill is Summon, which lets him summon Phantoms. I don't think enemies can do this, though it would be interesting.



Well, we can get to work on dismantling the rest of his defenses, anyway.



Come on, Eirika. Strength.



Lethality chance: 14%.



And here's how things are looking at the end of the turn.



It figures that the one other thing to hit Artur this whole chapter is an Iron Axe.



Round two: Warriors that all have Killing Machine.



But my killing machines don't need a skill to say that's what they are.



Ephraim caps Strength too! Joshua's level is also pretty nice.



Artur was in range of Lyon, but he has the Light Brand for a reason. Lute and Neimi are in support range too, so he'll be just fine.



...except for the part where Lyon lands a 27% hit chance and the Light Brand somehow can't get over his Resistance.



And then I mash through menus and leave him in range for another attack, but I can still just rescue or shove him out of the way.



Ephraim is more than a match for Lyon, especially when he lands both crits.



Lute gets in on the action and Poison Strikes him down to 1 HP...



...so Eirika can come in with the cherry tap.







Beautiful! And now it's time for the real finale.



Hi, Fomortiis!



You've been the MVP consistently for the past, like, 7 chapters, why are you having doubts now?







Fomortiis still hits like a truck, especially against our defense-deficient party, but the real challenge here is in just whittling his HP down. He has way more defensive stats than normal (peep that 52 Resistance - even with Ravager equipped instead, he has 47), and Warding Blow means Ross, Kyle and Saleh need not apply to this fight. Plus, the game has seen fit to introduce one last "fuck you" skill, even if it's on someone who can't really make use of it - Desperation. When Fomortiis is at less than 50% HP and can double, he gets both hits in consecutively. From the icon and description, I thought it would also give him a Vantage effect, but fortunately that isn't the case.



And his exclusive weapons. Even with the low accuracy, these aren't things you want to get hit with unawares. Also, he's inexplicably lost Nightmare, but I'm perfectly fine with not having to deal with status bullshit on top of everything else.



Neimi will be our bait of choice for Fomortiis. Lute gives her a dose of Rally Speed, but she probably won't get doubled anyway.



...or Fomortiis could spawn a Dracozombie with more HP than himself right in front of her, that works too.







Oh boy, a Gorgon, too! So much for not having to deal with statuses...



Tana sneaks behind it to get one last point of Strength for the road.



Part of this is Audhulma being crap, but still, seeing Fomortiis take this little damage even with an A support right by Artur is just a tad discouraging.



Neimi fares better, getting a double crit against him.



She unfortunately took the hit from Demon Light, but Kyle tops her up for a minimal but good level.



Eirika picks off one of the reinforcements instead of fighting Fomortiis, but...



...Ephraim is probably better off attacking him, anyway.



What's the worst that could possibly happen here?



He spawns a General, who immediately suicides on Artur to let him cap skill.



This one suffers the same fate.



Eirika and Ephraim hit their A support just in time for the game to end.



A Wyvern Lord gives Vanessa some more Strength, just a little too late.



Lute fails to kill a Super Recruit, but hits Level 10, caps speed and gains Wary Fighter. Again, too little, too late, and her speed is high enough that it would hinder her if anything. But hey, at least now I have a use for that Amnesia Scroll!



Where was I? Oh, yeah, Fomortiis.



Joshua gets in on the action too. He misses one shot, but every little bit helps.



Another Super Recruit goes down to Seth! It's a shame he's pretty useless against Fomortiis, because he's really come a long way.



This fight really is just the death by a thousand cuts.



But Vidofnir helps speed things up, even if only by a little.



And he... continues to just spawn enemies...



Oh well, works for me. Eirika gets to cap speed right at the end!



Artur brings him down low...



...and Neimi gets to finish off Fomortiis. It's what she deserves.







...Um. Thanks...?



It is!!!



Oh shut up, none of you did a damn thing.









Everyone goes their separate ways, but they'll be back together before long.



And then the stats roll. Yeah, 5x taking the longest checks out, as does 14 being the second-longest. The prologue took 5 turns and the endgame took 13, bringing the turn count to a nice even 400.



I'm not gonna go through these for everyone, but I'll give some final thoughts on some relevant characters. I'm glad I was able to bring Seth back into the fray for the endgame, because he really was excellent... it's just a shame about his HP.



I so wanted to use Gilliam more, but Kyle's skillset was just so much more appealing to me. There's no fixing that awful palette, though.



Moulder was probably the biggest disappointment of the run. I really wanted to keep using him, as Mogalls are one of the better monster classes, but his magic growth held him back a lot.



How could I have said no 100% accuracy 100% of the time? As soon as I saw Vanessa had Hawkeye, I knew I was taking her to the endgame.



What more can be said about Neimi? She went from having some of the worst bases of anyone to easily the army's MVP. Part of that is due to Critical Force, yes, but she was easily the nicest surprise of the run.



I also knew Artur would be an endgame contender from day 1. Lute I wasn't so sure about, but she ended up being the best of the like 4 dragon/flying lance units I got.



My biggest regret of this run was not making Joshua a Super Journeyman, if only so he could actually use Garm, but he ended up turning out really good regardless. It's just a shame his levels near the end were so bad.



It took some time, but Kyle ended up being pretty competent once he promoted! Too bad I didn't get another Stone to make him able to actually use dark magic besides Evil Eye, but oh well.



Tana was amazing from the get-go, and her getting Life and Death right at the end felt like a natural culmination of her being absurdly powerful even if she (at first) didn't have the HP to take it in return.



Here lies Knoll. He never scored.



Ewan was one of a handful of units who were cursed with amazing bases but god-awful growths. I did the best I could with him, but there's only so many HP-only levels you can take from someone.



I didn't expect to use Saleh nearly as much as I did, though I feel that's more a testament to how awful my other healers besides Kyle ended up being. Gerik might have made a good stand-in for him, but I really didn't feel like manipulating his skills just to make him a functional healbot.



And, of course, the Lords. I feel like Eirika definitely got outshone somewhat by Artur, but she made for a damn good Assassin.
Ephraim was pretty much just vanilla Ephraim but More, which definitely isn't a bad thing. I just wish he was a different class, partially because him randomizing into himself is boring, and also because of how inundated this seed was with lance users.



And that'll about do it for this run! But the game's not over yet. Thanks again for following this LP so far, and stay tuned for the Ephraim run!