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One-Off Test Update: The Many Bows of House Ylisse, Or In Other Words, Alas Poor Virion; Sometimes Known As The Tale Of Buff Lissa
In the snowy tundras of Regna Ferox...
: No! Spears that can fly?!
*Narrow rescue happens*
: By the gods, you saved me from those... those ranged weapons!. Curses, this could be difficult to overcome...
: Wait... ranged weapons. We have those, don't we? That gives me an idea...
: Even excluding that, I still think this is a terrible idea. Just being honest.
Welcome to Fire Emblem: Awakening, But Everyone Is An Archer Now.
Given that this is just a one-off update, it would only be polite for me to explain what this means in the terms of the game.
Put short, Fire Emblem has a long history of the archer class and bows not really being very effective for a variety of reasons (damage output, range, inability for the unit to defend themself, the list goes on,) and though some games in the series have tried to fix them, they still remain at a severe disadvantage in most games. Awakening is no exception, and among its many mechanical imbalances, magic being far superior is a major issue.
Put even shorter, I'm doing a needless gimmick challenge because I'm a masochist, I guess.
I've played this file somewhat normally up to Chapter 3 here, (though I did hold back on getting Robin too much boosted XP,) and now since our access to the inventory is actually unlocked, I can start the challenge. Why? Because I can actually hack usable bows into my inventory at this point. You don't get to buy anything until after this map, I believe.
The rules are simple:
1. From this point on, the only units allowed to use weapons or intentionally participate in combat must be an Archer class.
2. Given that due to circumstances of using a save editor, I can only change the class of people in my party before a map starts. The characters who join just after a map starts are subject to rule number 1 until I can switch them over.
So she's not going to be helping out any. It's fine though, this map is really bad for her to begin with.
And that's about it. If I ever did this more, I'd have to see whether or not I'd permit Bow Knights participating with their sword proficiency. For those of you who don't know what that means, Bow Knights are an upgraded Archer that gets a horse and the ability to use a sword which is a drastic benefit given the game balance.
For reference, I'm playing on Hard difficulty with Classic turned on, so this is a no-sacrifice run.
Oh, and our Robin is actually Hatsune Miku now. I don't know why I did that, but I did. Might as well be the most anime of animes if we're gonna be an anime.
Boring technicalities out of the way, we get this fancy light show. This is Citra being really buggy on rendering the tile highlights.
Turning on enemy ranges fixes it for some reason.
Because of the unsureness on what to do with Bow Knights, I made good old Fred a Sniper instead. His health is amazingly bad without Great Knight bonuses, though that Skill is kinda ridiculous... you know, if Skill was really worth that much. At least it's in bulk, which at least makes it noticeable. Fred's still going to be pulling Jeigan/Seth duties though.
Oh, hey Virion, the only normal archer on the team, let me have that fizzy soda so I can bring it to Fred. He might need it.
Here's our Chrom by the way. I fed him a good deal more EXP like I usually do, though that is partly in fact to that I found a Leif's Blade early. I always let Robin stay behind on levels a bit at first, mostly because the Veteran EXP boosts are insane and s/he can catch up easy. Our Chrom is an incredibly skillful guy like usual, and also one of our top SPD characters. His DEF is only okay, and honestly, for this challenge, DEF matters the most which has me worrying a bit.
Saving you some time, (look how generous I am,) I'll omit some of the positioning stuff as we go along. For this to work out well, I'll need to keep units un-paired often so I can get as many attacks in as possible, so I've formed a defensive line using Kellam as a dividing wall and piled most of my units behind it.
Fun fact, until you talk to Kellam, he won't do anything, and enemies will completely ignore him. He's basically a free wall, and is instrumental for Lunatic gameplay on this map for it.
Because of Kellam's awesome defense skills, I only have to put Fred and Hatsune Miku up front to take the hits. Miku's got some of our best DEF despite only being level 4, and also our highest STR despite me giving her a DEF boon. It's really odd.
You know, I've never seen this character model before. I've never had a female archer in this game.
I suppose I ought to get used to seeing it.
Oh, and Miku kinda eats a nasty hit here, but these jerks have some pretty high STR thanks to Hard Mode. At least it's not Lunatic. They'd be wielding forged Steel weapons with it or something by this point.
Sully returns fire on the enemy archer. Defenses-wise, she's probably the worst off on our team, but her STR and SPD growths are hard to pass up.
Fred can double these nerds, even.
Miku says this despite already being paired up and having used pair-up on previous maps.
As noted before, Kellam won't do a thing until we talk to him, so Chrom uses him as a wall to get a shot on that archer while picking Sumia off of Miku.
The pair-ups make this really easy sometimes, and I'm trying to avoid using them where possible so I can spread out damage taken and dealt across my characters. I have no healing aside from the healing items after all.
...And Chrom disappoints me with a very Lord kind of level. He's gotten a single point of Skill as a level already, and also has hit nearly every stat in a level already, so I can't complain too much.
Fred's not disappointing me though.
so much faith in him, I just skip the animations
So here's another fun thing. You know how Lissa usually struggles? She's actually a pretty good archer all things considered. I think this Lissa is a little blessed given her usual stats, but she's actually a big contributor on this team right now.
I'm just worried about her growths holding out.
This is enough proof for me that giving her a staff was a mistake :V
I mean, I'll take it for now. I just hope she picks up more of those stats later.
Vaike and Stahl clear out a lancer.
And now we have to wait another turn to be able to have enough attacks to get rid of this last soldier. This just means defensive walling with our most resilient units.
Vaike's not that resilient, actually, he just happened to have enough HP to take it.
Another fun note, when I first swapped their classes, their current health didn't get updated to match their new maximum. Strangely, this was visually represented in both the bars on the map units and the status screen. It was even proportionally scaled- Vaike's near 30 HP was bleeding into the rest of his stat page.
Kellam, I do see ya, buddy, and you're doing a great job. Stay right there for a bit.
Actually, I might as well recruit you. On Lunatic, I'd be tempted to leave you here longer to help defend the assault from the other side, but we got this.
Chrom drinks a soda.
Sully and Vaike get to taking down this one soldier.
And somehow Vaike got a point of MAG and nothing that mattered at all but an HP point.
Yep, that's a lot Vaiker in my experience.
Kellam paired to Fred makes an impenetrable wall to the majority of these enemies, so I go ahead and do that to weather the start of this assault as we move right.
*tink*
And then I forget that the boosted damage means he just outright counterkills this enemy archer.
Oops.
Lissa does some work.
Just like a normal playthrough, giving Chrom a speed partner really helps on this map.
That's just two 8s, not an 88.
The situation's still looking good, honestly.
Hatsune Miku is pretty good at not taking too much damage.
Without Kellam, Fred's going to eat some damage from this guy. He'd actually be incredibly dangerous to most of our team, so it's a good thing I set this up.
Fred can return the payback though.
Lissa helps out.
Miku shoots a man.
Chrom being MVP for the current moment.
I hand Stahl some EXP. Will he get any levels? Maybe.
The EXP spread isn't too nice in this game early on, and people are bound to get left behind.
That statement reminds me that Miriel isn't present because they won't let you field everyone on this map, and honestly, I don't have much faith in Miriel's STR growth.
On any other run I'd have her here though.
Sully finds me some cash. I suppose it goes with the Leif's Blade and the Celica's Gale. It's rather a shame because those items are exceptionally good to get this early.
Hatsune Miku drinks a soda.
She's gotta facetank this jerk after all.
ow
This guy's got a lot of STR, so not many of my units could come out of this with half health like this.
Fred drinks pops another in prep for a bit of facetanking.
Miku runs and hides behind Stahl.
this is image 69
nice
hrk
Yikes, if this guy's this much of a pain, Raimi is going to be a hell of a fight.
Fred's got my back though.
I mentioned that Hatsune Miku is the strongest unit present, right?
Because she is, for some reason.
Seriously, I picked DEF as her boon and MAG as her flaw, I don't know why she got so buff so quickly.
Chrom shakes off that bleeding wound through his abdomen. It'll be fine with a little vulnerary.
He actually dodges this time.
Miss Spaceman finishes.
I think this is just the default F-archer win pose, but it works. Some characters retained theirs, like Miriel and Lissa.
Miku downs another.
Look, we're all jammed in the staircase.
Chrom and Miku stand out as bait.
Do they take it?
The answer is yes.
It hurts though.
Like, a lot.
Luckily, Chrom decides to be a hero or something.
Down in one, a perfect shot, and an exact kill.
I don't really mind though, having this guy out of the way might help some while I'm clearing out the other chaff.
Chrom's safe from the incoming hammer fighter, so he puts an arrow in this merc.
Arrow put.
It's not hard to get these screenshots as the particles and weapon trails briefly jolt the FPS down to one when anything gets hit. Thanks, emulation.
Oh, you want to know something else I found regarding FPS and this game?
So when playing, you might've noticed that the level up screen seems to lag a bit when playing with animations on. There's actually a reason for this.
(Ouch, that Atk value is scary)
So, apparently, the game slows itself down to 30 FPS when rendering the combat scenes and some cutscenes. Normally, in menus and on maps, it runs at 60.
You'd never notice it on the original hardware, but Citra really struggles with this rapid change in FPS lock. I can understand why though.
The things you learn.
Evidently, this guy didn't learn anything.
The hammer guy would nearly one-shot Vaike if Stahl wasn't hanging out with him, but luckily the thing has garbage accuracy.
Chrom resumes shooting despite being critically wounded. I need the firepower.
And he delivers.
Miku takes this one anyways.
Don't let the HUD fool you, he's gone.
Apparently being a vocaloid means hitting the gym.
I never know if actually including this helps flow or not. I assume it's kind of a mess anyways.
Chrom's the first to pop some of the good stuff.
Also, we approach.
This fool dares challenge Hatsune Miku to an archery contest.
Yep.
Oh, and Sully pitches in too, nearly wiping this guy.
It takes a lot of effort to take down one fighter.
Sully is graces us with this quite good level, though it's severely lacking in defensive ability. She's not going to be doing much archer dueling, it seems.
Because this really hurts.
Chrom pokes this merc with an arrow and gets a defensive level from it. I won't lie, for level 8 his stats suck a bit, but that's also partially to blame on the bad class bases of archers.
Hoo boy, this ought to be fun. She's actually got 14 DEF, thanks to that annoying throne tile, and she has regen.
I've still got two units to clear out before we worry about her.
We need all the EXP we can get, after all.
Fuck it, you can have this one, Lissa. Something tells me you just want to be a god unit.
You do okay enough as is.
Yikes, not even Fred can touch this lady.
Chrom, Sumia, and Hatsune Miku stay back here...
Before eventually moving up as well, because to heck with strategy
I need more arrows.
Kellam blocks this hit for Lissa. Thanks, 2% chance!
*ding, tink*
Hey, look at you go!
Also why are you so buff
At least nearly everyone can double this nerd.
Bud, that armor's really not helping.
Especially when Fred helps.
Virion makes his first shot today.
It hits.
Stahl makes an attempt.
Vaike finishes the job.
Everyone migrates to stand just outside of Raimi's range. Miku's gonna have to be our ringer.
Unneccessary Screenshot.jpg
The Sequel to Unnecessary Screenshot.jpg
Well, these numbers aren't so bad. At this rate, it'll only take 5.5 turns!
I mean, she could just sing some J-Pop for you too, I think that usually convinces people.
Making progress, yeah! Let's tip some scales!
You know, I think I might be forgetting something.
...Oh right, Raimi heals 6 HP per turn thanks to the throne regen.
That's exactly how much damage I do!
So, let me do the math on this.
Each Player and Enemy phase combined, Hatsune Miku will deal a total of 12 damage to Raimi. On each Enemy phase, she heals half that back. She also deals 3 damage to us on the regular, though her accuracy sucks somewhat at a 65%, (70% or so with really rough estimation true hit,) meaning we also take 6 back.
Miku only has 22 HP while Raimi has 33 HP. Provided she never misses, we won't win a damage race.
Provided she misses, we need 5.5 turns to drain her health to zero. Her formula of damage dealt then will be: Damage * ((turns until she falls * doubled because of two phases) * 70%)
She will return approximately 3 * ((5 * 2) * 70%) = 21 damage provided we're at full health and basic probability works. If at any point we have to stop to heal, we will have to use an Elixir because the Vulnerary's 10 healing will not give us enough of a margin, but doing so will un-do the progress of one of our combat rounds.
...and I have to heal anyways because I went into this wounded.
What does this all mean?
1. I will be here for a long time chipping away with only one character.
2. I probably should've got those support bonuses before starting this.
3. Lissa is buff.
4. Hatsune Miku is buff.
5. 
Viron is nearly the worst archer on this team.
No, seriously. He got one, level that wasn't good, and even his default stats compared to default stats worse at his job than most of the people present. I think he's around par with Stahl (less DEF though) and somewhere around Miriel (who is not built in the slightest for physical). I think he's closest tied with Vaike, who even still had 1 point of HP and SPD over him by level 3.
Alas, poor Virion. You gave a good effort.
At least you got to shine in the spin off pop idol game :V