Part 8: Ep 8: Quan Leonheart

Chapter 3: Lionheart Eldigan Part 2



Time to start taking on Eldigan's Cross Knights. They were mildly threatening in the vanilla game, so let's see how they are now...



Oh boy, these guys aren't joking. They've received +5~6 in all their stats, and traded their Steel Sword for a Silver one. Then there's Pursuit, Adept and Elite. On top of that, they are cheating on their weapon ranks: Social Knights should have B Swords and C Lances. What about their leader, then?



Oh my god, we are so screwed. I mean, his stats are only a bit higher, but look at all these Leadership stars! And Charisma, and all those other combat skills you really don't want to ever see in action.



He's also got a Master Lance, a sort of throwable Brave Lance, so you can't attack him at range either.

And let's not forget the reason why you simply cannot defeat this Eldigan. Mystletainn lost its Critical skill, but has a new effect in Binary: it drains HP. Of course, it's going to be hilarious once we get Ares, but for now, we don't want to get anyone near to his father.



The good thing about this game's AI is that enemies won't move the whole way unless someone is in their range. Time to move everyone back a little so only a few of them can attack us.



Raquesis barely reaches level 20 on time before her brother's forces collide with ours. She wouldn't have really needed the additional mobility from her promotion to reach Eldigan, but I was mostly worried about her safety with the upcoming Cross Knights.



We weren't very far from the castle, but that should save us a few needed turns. Adean finally starts gaining some skill!



Raquesis, just like a few others, only has access to one promotion, and it's a a fantastic one.



Master Knight gives slightly more balanced boosts than in vanilla FE4: no more +7s in Str, Skl and Def, but she does gain a bit of Mgc and Res. Other than that, she receives the usual +3 Move, Pursuit, and A in most weapon ranks, with the C Light actually mattering this time, if you want to give her the Lightning tome. Overall: still completely broken.



Well, I was a bit close on the time, but everyone is now ready.



Three units are in range of Eldigan, but I trust Lex to survive a hit of Mystletainn, and the other two to survive the Master Lance.



Of course, if all his mooks block his way, that makes things even easier for me.



Oh, and these two have a talk once they're within a certain distance of each other. That's something I wish Fire Emblem games would use a bit more often.



8 Leadership stars + Charisma, ladies and gentlemen. Hopefully Aira can trigger a crit or two with her Killing Edge.



Booyeah! That's my girl.



Eh, it's fine. Can't get perfect rolls all the time, I suppose. I do believe that's Str, Skl and Spd capped for her.



And now, we talk Eldigan into getting the hell away from his troops, and trampling Chagall's while he's at it. Then comes the usual execution and tragic moment, yadayada, you know the drill.



What we do care about is this beauty. The Earth Sword now has the same characteristics as the other magic swords, including durability. That means it can last you longer than just 10 hits of Nosferatu-tanking, but also costs less to repair. Awesome.



What is less awesome is that... well, by talking Eldigan into leaving the battlefield, we triggered an event which caused Chagall to steal the Mystletainn for himself and replace his Silver Blade. The stat boosts don't seem to display until he's been attacked once, but they're there.



If you remember Chagall's minor Hezul blood from last chapter, it wasn't just for good looks. One of the most game-changing additions in Binary is that minor bloods can use Holy weapons, albeit with halved stat boosts. Not only is it a pretty impressive piece of hacking, it can change a whole lot of things in gen 2. Since you can actually sell Holy weapons now, there is some pretty crazy stuff you can do, like give the Tyrfing to Oifey, give the Balmung to any of Aira/Holyn's kids, or have Leif dual-weild the Tyrfing and Gae Bolg.



But Chagall and gen 2 are still far from the current concern of trimming down those Cross Knights. So while everyone is tearing these guys down, let's discuss a bit about Aira's shipping options in Binary.



Holyn is my designated choice for her, mostly for his Holy blood and his ability to transmit all the axes that Ulster will ever need. I also have plans to make Larcei my designated boss killer, and having Luna would help her more than anyone else. In Binary, sword skills can stack on the same hit, so having Luna on Astra users means a much higher activation rate for it.



Lex is another pretty great choice, especially if you want to go for the King Sword. The new and improved Vantage means the kids will kill things easily without even getting hurt, and Elite will let them save money from not having to pass around the Elite Ring. It'll also give a full A Swords, A Axes to Ulster right off the bat, although I'm a little iffy about having a father with low speed growth, as they won't have Pursuit until promotion.



The archery guys can pass down swords or axes to Ulster, and Jamke gives Adept to both kids, so Larcei can go for Mercenary or Hero and still be great. Charge would also be pretty good for their damage input, although a bit too risky for me.



If Finn had went the Paladin route, he could have given a bunch of swords and axes to Ulster, but I'd hate to have him naked in Ch7. Azel, Lewyn and Claud are also out of the picture as they need to transmit their stuff to magic users.



Of the three Chalphy knights, Alec is rather useless, with redundant skills. Noish can let the sword kids become masters of criticals thanks to their really high Skill, but Charge is still a bit risky. Arden is a crack pairing with surprisingly good results. The improved Vantage works great on the kids, and most importantly, you'll get Great Shield on two swordies, which is probably one of the weirdest things you can get in this game.



And hey, Beowolf is in Wrath range. Him and Dew are rather mediocre pairings for Aira. The skills Beo transmits aren't that essential for the kids, and Dew's Sol isn't fantastic on low-attack units. He really is more meant to father glass cannons.



And we're done for this turn. Only 4 of Eldigan's knights remain, and the Thracian mercenaries appear to confront Ferry.



Things I shouldn't do so often: staying at low health for the Vantage-Wrath combo on a sword user, when all the enemies are sporting ranged weapons.



There we go, much better.



Quan also gains his 20th level by slaying two of the Cross Knights. Another +2 HP trigger for the show.



Those guys really give a lot of experience. Maybe they count as promoted units? That would explain the inflated weapon ranks.



And now, we march on to Silvail. These Armors in our way are not only resilient, but sport weapons designated to stop most of our charging army.



Heck, the guy in the middle could almost have his own portrait, with stats and skills like that. He's another one of these cheating Armors, with the A rank in Lances that he shouldn't have.



Before we take care of them, though, there is someting interesting I'd like to show off with Quan.



You see, some prepromote characters in Binary are able to re-promote... or rather class-change into a better promoted class, I guess you could say it that way. Quan is one of them.



The default choice is a class which could be considered a 3rd Tier promotion in the FE4 universe: Master Knight. Quan's movement will remain unchanged, but he will gain a lovely bunch of stats, Pursuit, and a lot of weapon ranks which won't really matter much at this point.



The second choice is... wow, seriously? I mean, Baron is also what you could consider a Tier 3 class in FE4, and it comes with the crazy weapon ranks and good promotion boosts. But why on earth would anyone pick this over Master Knight? I mean, it's trading 4 move, Pursuit and 5 Skl/Spd for Great Shield.

Do I really need to explain which one I'm picking for Quan there...?



Now that we have another utterly broken unit on the mounted squad, our swordies will rejoin our other foot soldiers up north to meet with the Orgahil pirates later on.



Gosh, I love that Rapier.



The guys guarding the castle are really weak, compared to the previous Armors. A few Silver Lances scattered around, but everything else is basic Steel.



And Ferry is already in range of the Thracian Suicide Squad. Let's see what they've got on them.



Wow, that's some pretty garbage stuff. What about their boss?



Now that's better. Papilion got +4 in most of his stats, one more Leadership star and sports a pretty dangerous Killer Lance and droppable Life Ring. Pursuit/Nihil won't make any difference against the Wind Sword's effective magic damage, though.



See? She one-rounds all his mooks, and would do the same to him had she gotten one more Mgc point.



Damn, that would have been a perfect timing to get it right there. Oh well, she'll just play hit-and-run with them until they reach the coast.



Adean also gets a neat defensive level from warping Sylvia back to Madino.



Master Quan in all his glory, trimming down a General to 2 HP with a mere Steel Lance, thanks to Pursuit and a double Adept activation.



And Arden grabs the kill for what seems to be is favorite level. Hey, if he wants to keep gaining Speed, I won't complain.



Nor about this. Aside from her low HP, Ethlyn really seems to be my best jack-of-all-trades unit, both stats-wise and weapons-wise.



Yes, I do enjoy building very unecessary lines of defense with my mounted units.



Some Thracian riders come suiciding on Ferry, who can one-round them even at close range with their high defense. I wish she was a tad more creative with her levels, though.



I don't understand how Noish has obtained so much Speed, but I guess Binary has a sense of irony, blessing him and Arden while leaving Alec in the dust. In vanilla FE4, it would probably be the opposite.



Damn, you're amazing, Quan.



Now, on to Chagall. Show me these boosts you've got.



Chagall received buffs mostly in magic and defenses compared to his vanilla version, making him kind of a pain in the neck to deal with. Attacking him at close range is of course a big no-no, since he'll always regenerate his HP first, with Vantage.



I guess we can use Lightning from a distance? Although even with the magic triangle advantage, Ethlyn's odds aren't that fantastic. We'll have to think of something else.



I guess the Thracian guys are the priority for now, though. This guy almost killed Ferry there.



And this one just suicided by Vantage. Lex absolutely loved it.



Oh, and Alec missed a killing blow on the boss. That's perfect, I want the Life Ring for Ferry.



This way, she and her daughter will be able to leave on solo missions without needing any support.



Although I really wish she would grow some more Magic to make better use of that sword of hers.



Now that the flying lizards have been swept away, back to Chagall.



I don't really intend on having him summoning volcanoes every time someone attacks him. He really should have kept that Brave Bow from before.



Yay, another generic bad level.



The good thing about removing his use of Bolganone is that the Mystletainn will be tanking his avoid, so trimming him down should be less annoying.



Midayle, just because you're green on a white horse doesn't mean you need to act like Ferry.



Well, that took long enough to activate. With 6 HP left, anybody could go and kill him, now.



I suppose Raquesis is pretty damn fitting for the job.



Oh, the dramatic irony of leeching the life out of your lover's murderer...



Oh, the built-up rage from all those anti-climactic levels.



Whatever. Ferry, you just fly up there to give a hand to the Blaggi Tower mages. The Lady Sword thirsts for Pirate blood.



And thus, Silvail has been conquered. Did I forget anything important?



No, nothing of importance.