Part 6: Mother

Mum.



Spoiler: The entirity of this game's plot is trying to get a guy to sit on this chair.



New party member! It's a Dragon/Water type, weak against Dragon and Fairy with a whole load of resistances. Some people don't like the newer Pokemon designs but I'm fond of this one. It's got that weird otherworldly vibe that Ultra Beasts do.



Just kidding it's Corrin. She has turned into a dragon because she is upset. In this form she has absolutely jacked stats and a 1 range magical weapon that can kill almost anything in one hit. Unfortunately she earns very little EXP in this form so she should only kill enemies that other units can't handle. Would you believe she doesn't get to stay like this forever?

I'm not actually sure how her stats are calculated in this chapter. Her HP is the same as always, I don't know if the others are fixed or based upon her actual stats.



The boss of this chapter is a Purple Guy. His stats are appropriately jacked to rival Corrin's, although they deliberately gave him a crappy sword that lowers his speed and his avoid. He and Ryoma will duel for a few turns until he wins.



This chapter is pretty small, but it's also pretty tricky. It's kind of a puzzle to teach you the game's mechanics. The first time you figure out how to do it on Lunatic it's fun, not so much the second time. Or the third. Or the fourth. Or the... you get the idea.



Here's someone new! It's Sakura, who we saved last chapter. She'd still be here even if we didn't. Obviously we don't get to keep her since she's the princess of a country we're about to betray, but for the one chapter we are allowed to use her she'll be very handy to have around.

Her Bloom Festal allows her to heal a unit from up to 2 tiles away for a small amount, and her personal skill Quiet Strength reduces the damage any ally within 2 tiles takes in combat by 2, which is very helpfully equal to the maximum range of her healing rod. She also comes with Miracle, giving her a luck% chance to survive a lethal hit at 1 HP. There's no consequence to her "dying" here but there's also no reason for her to enter combat in the first place.



Here's another princess that will join our team... eventually. Azura is a Songstress, AKA a dancer. Dancers are a staple of the Fire Emblem series that have been around since FE3's Book 2, and can make one of your units move a second time in a turn. 99% of being a dancer is using that ability, so they're all kind of the same. There are some aspects unique to both Azura and the mechanics of Fates that make her even better than normal, but I'll get into those when I give her a proper analysis when she rejoins the army for real.



There are two types of guy in this chapter, Mercenaries and Dark Mages. Many of the Mercs are carrying Wyrmslayers that will hit Corrin for a nasty amount of effective damage despite her insanely high stats in dragon form. The Dark Mages don't deal any sort of effective damage (this isn't Radiant Dawn), but they do target her lower Resistance stat and they all come with the Malefic Aura skill, reducing the effective resistance of every enemy within 2 tiles by 2 points. Conquest has a lot of little skills like this to punish you for not paying attention.



Rinkah faces weapon triangle disadvantage from every single enemy here, so her first action is to dedicate herself to providing stats to Kaze who faces weapon triangle advantage against each enemy instead. Corrin is too angry to have friends and therefore cannot pair up with anyone right now.



Corrin will earn 1 exp per kill here, but Kaze's still relatively low leveled, so he gets to bait the enemies. He will be our best unit against the mages, and enemy stats are still low enough across the board right now that a single level could significantly improve his usefulness here.



Meanwhile Ryoma and purple cowl man very ineffectively duke it out against one another. Ryoma's scripted to survive for the first 3 turns but once those are up he's highly likely to get himself KO'd. Not that there's any consequence in him doing so.



Now some of the units on the right side are on the move. Their range is short enough that I can have my army move left to deal with the units they engaged last turn while being safely out of reach of these dudes.



bap

I should avoid giving her kills if I can help it but it is very satisfying to KO enemies in one hit like this.



This HP tonic will increase somebody's max HP by 5 for the duration of one chapter. It won't heal them when you use it though. The enemy kindly drops this to make this chapter a little easier for you.



"Breath" is the only weapon type available to Feral Dragons, although I don't understand how that relates to straight up goring suckers with your horns. I don't know if gaining weapon experience in breath will translate to dragonstone EXP for Corrin later...



Azura warns you against letting Corrin fight enemies with Wyrmslayers, but she can tank at least one hit from them. In fact I'm pretty sure this map on lunatic difficulty outright expects her to in at least one situation.



A Kaze who could one-round these mages would make this map much easier. A Kaze who had gained resistance alongside HP could also avoid the 2 hit kill from them... Support from Sakura's personal skill is enough to let him not die, but having her near him isn't always easy to make happen.



I think he's hit his str growth twice in a row, so I shouldn't complain... But he didn't get res which I wanted so I will. Life is unfair and the RNG has it out for me!!!



Oh no, Ryoma!!! (he is fine)

This is so likely to happen it may as well be scripted. Not having to watch him fail to hit the same boss over and over helps save time so honestly I'd rather this happen as soon as it can.



Entering this danger zone will trigger 4 reinforcements in all four corners of the map, putting you on a timer of sorts. There are three Dark Mages to lure, although if you stand on the edge of their radius then only two can attack him that turn.



He actually could have survived all 3 of them. I forgot to take into account his guaranteed dual guard however so I played it safe for no reason.



There is now 1 mage in each corner, and they'll slowly begin to approach us. One single mage doesn't mean much but most of my units can be 2HKO'd by their magic, so I want them gone before they start to group up.



Their reach is marked on the map in bright red. I need to sort out this clogged chokepoint so I have somewhere to escape to before they arrive...



Kaze takes out a mage to allow Corrin to clear the blockage, and then Azura dances Corrin so she may choke the point with her large dragony self. Teamwork!

Both of those Mercs have Wyrmslayers but Corrin can tank one hit and kill in return.



Azura gains a level in the process. Leveling her up is important, but what stats she actually gets doesn't really matter.



Corrin finishes off the slayer duo and marches west to take out an encroaching mage, while Kaze takes over chokepoint duties on the other side.



He still doesn't want resistance.



Sakura's one level this chapter means nothing to me, but I may as well show it off. Her chances of gaining strength aren't all that unlikely, although her magic stat is still much higher. Statwise she's actually pretty amazing, even her bulk is decent once she gets going. A shame we cannot use her!



Aw come on, 1 HP away from a clean kill? Thanks for nothing, Ryoma! Unless...?



...thanks for nothing Ryoma!!!



Purple guy dies and Corrin becomes a little faster and bulkier. Nice.



Mother's death avenged in 10 turns. Yay! Now it's time to ditch this country forever.



Even Corrin's already sick of that song


Next time: Corrin makes a bad decision