Part 26: Voice of Paradise

Time to visit the opera house and add some class to this LP. Every single route visists Nestra, CQ in chapter 14, Rev in chapter 13, and BR in chapter 12.



I looked up a map of Fates land because I had legitimately no idea where Nestra was...



Turns out it's below the rest of Nohr. I'm surprised Garon hasn't taken it over yet.



Azura sings a magic song that spoils the game's plot and Garon gets upset and starts making some very suspect noises. I really recommend you check out the cutscene if you haven't seen it already, it's worth watching both for the song and for Garon's... groans of discomfort.



Time to save Garon from an assassination attempt, completely unrelated to Azura's little song just now. The objective is to defeat the boss by navigating across all these little boats. I'm not really a fan of this map for a few reasons...




Here are four of those reasons. That's four different offensive staves to navigate through on your way through the map... There's actually a second Freeze Shrine Maiden near the first just to ruin your day even more.



A fifth reason is all the Sky Knights. Fliers are really weird on this map - they can cross over the open water easily enough, but the ends of each little boat count as walls they can fly over but can't occupy the same space as... It is surprisingly difficult to tell where fliers can and can't go at a glance, which makes them annoying to plan around. Their low strength only complicates things further because they'll often fly past your defensive juggernauts to go harass your weaker back line instead.



Here to recruit is a Wolfman. Why is he here? I don't even think the developers know. Corrin recruits him, but he'll also naturally head towards Corrin to recruit himself. The enemies on the map will target him, so be careful!



Finally joining is Leo, the younger Nohr brother. He's a slow and powerful horse-mounted mage, and the first royal we recruit to have a unique weapon. Brynhildr might be the worst of the four in Fates thanks to its rather unreliable ability (a Skill% chance to half magical damage, different from every other legendary weapon in that its effect doesn't always activate), but at the end of the day it's still a more powerful tome than Fimbulvetr and lacking any of its drawbacks.

Leo's high movement and strong 1-2 range will be a huge help to you in this chapter against all the Onis and Archers you'll face. He won't be earning much more than 1 or 2 EXP per kill, but don't be afraid to have him make things easier for you if you need the help. Just like Camilla his internal level is slightly lower than what his displayed level would suggest, so he'll earn slightly more EXP than a 20/1 promoted unit would!



Yeah, they really didn't have an actual reason for Keaton to show up. Panne's reasoning and the Taguel as a whole felt rather out of place in Awakening but even they tried at least a little bit.



Odin and Nyx shall go north to tank all the low-res axe users. There's absolutely no reason not to switch to her and waste one of the enemy's Hexing Rod uses, she's not in any danger and she won't be entering combat ever.



Azura boosts the Corrin Silas combo to recruit Keaton as fast as possible. He's not in much danger, but it's better to have him under your control as soon as possibe.



The range of these fliers is highlighted in red. At a glance you'd think Keaton was in danger, but the edges of the ships near him protect him. If you need to work out where they can and can't go it's easiest to look at the map on the bottom screen.



Corrin equips the Levin Sword and blocks the Archers from hitting him. She's bulky enough to take a few hits.



Everybody else waits near the centre to await the fliers that will soon descend upon them.



The Levin Sword doesn't quite KO, but it does deal some very nice damage. A slightly faster Corrin could one round them...



A slightly smarter me could have avoided this. Baiting this duo of Sky Knights over to Corrin wasn't what I wanted to do...



Keaton recruits himself without taking any damage. This is even sillier when you realise he's the head of an entire tribe which he's just kind of abandoned for no reason.



Keaton! Keaton is a Wolfskin, a class that uses stones to transform. He hits hard and tanks hits well, but he's a bit slow and lacks any sort of 2 range. The Beastbane skill his class gives him makes his weapons twice as effective against other beast units, which includes Sky Knights thanks to the mounts they ride. Depending on what weapon he has equpped, his stats look slightly different...



The two different weapons he joins with change his stats in different ways. The Beaststone is for speed, and the rune is for bulk. The Beastrune is kind of like Corrin's Dragonstone in the boosts that it gives, but it can still allow the user to double if they're fast enough!



Right, time to sort out this mess. There are lots of fliers and I would like there to be less.



Leo teams up with Peri to give her the bulk she needs to survive the front lines. She and a few others will rush ahead while the rest of the squad moves back.



Some of these Samurai have Pass, so they can walk right through my chokepoint to attack my units from the other side. Pass is one of those skills that will absolutely cause you a game over if you're not paying attention, so keep track of which enemies have it!



I swear Peri isn't normally this good. I'm glad to show off her potential usefulness but this feels like false advertising.



Bloodthirst combined with the extra strength turn her attacks into OHKOs. It's a really good skill!



Keaton can clobber the Sky Knights in this chapter and take little damage in return, but his accuracy leaves something to be desired. That is a werewolf he's transformed into and not a yeti.



Tanking these guys is what Odin was sent here to do, although he can't enter the green zone without taking a Hex. One of these Onis has a weapon that deals effective damage against any unit with a lance, which can be a really nasty surprise.



A good Corrin level makes me very happy, because she's going to need high stats for the next chapter. Good enough to take out an entire map on her own.



Somebody needs to brave this danger zone to take out that Shrine Maiden. Thanks to Leo, it shouldn't be too hard to ferry someone over...



Leo could have done this on his own but Niles actually gets EXP from the kill. One thing I do miss from the Outlaw class is the extra movement Niles gives...



I can take stupid risks like this if dual guard's guaranteed to activate on the next hit. Behold the power of the Bolt Axe!



Wow, Elise! What do you think you are getting those kind of stats, a Wyvern Rider? And check out that capped luck! I probably could promote Elise right now and not miss out on much to be honest. I won't though because I want her to cap more stuff.



Keaton's unique ability gives him a small chance to find resources randomly during the first 7 turns of a chapter. It's nice, but not something you can rely on to give you something specific.



A minor miscalculation on my part left Niles in range of an Archer with Lunge he didn't ORKO, who could have lunged him over the water to be beaten to death by two other enemies. Thankfully the other Archer who didn't have the skill decided to attack first, blocking Niles from further harm. This won't be the first bad decision that nearly kills me this chapter!



Once Odin mops up at the top that'll be one half of the map clear. The second half is where it gets tricky - that big cluster of enemies is full of 2 Freeze staves and an Enfeeble, and they won't aggro until you enter their range. Getting frozen and having your stats lowered is obviously not a thing you want to happen to you.

Passing some threshold in this chapter will also cause 3 pairs of flying units to appear behind your starting location. I'm not exactly sure where it is, but it's safe to assume that once you aggro the enemies on the right you'll spawn them in too.



Included in this unruly mob is a Swordcatcher Sky Knight and Pike-ruin Oni, which means sword and lance users both have to be careful. It makes tanking the entire right side of the map with Silas not as good an option as it could be.



I think it's possible to enter the green staff radius and not trigger the reinforcements and aggro the enemies, although I'm not 100% sure exactly where's safe to stand. It might be everywhere that's not in range of an enemy, it might only be the outskirts of the green zone. I won't take any chances.



Silas waits behind to intercept the reinforcements with the Beast Killer I bought last chapter. He's tanky, he'll do fine. Keaton's not a bad choice for doing this either, although he might want a defensive pair-up just to be safe.



Odin is stuck up here and I don't want to spend 5 turns moving him back. I'll have him approach from the top rather than meeting up with the rest of the army...



azuralevelazuralevel



The Entrap user is right next to the boss. Be careful around her range. It is fairly easy to end this chapter early by flying over to the boss or letting someone get Entrapped and then killing him with them, but I want all the EXP and all the treasure!



First of all I'm going to make sure nobody gets Enfeebled. Leo doesn't mind getting frozen thanks to his good bulk, but even he'd turn into a sitting duck if he got his stats lowered.



Everybody else can now get a bit closer to the action now that green cloud is no longer hanging over them. I'll still need to take out the other two Shrine Maidens of course...



A large number of the enemies in this group have either Poison Strike or Lunge... but they can't activate them if they can't survive a round with Leo.



He is however now glued to this spot thanks to the two Freeze users in range of him.



And now these guys are here. Say hello to the first promoted generic units in Conquest! Kinshi Knights might not have good stats, but they are 8 move fliers with ranged weaponry and they will be very annoying unless you're prepared.

They also spawn in a place where only fliers could reach them, and they have bows to discourage said fliers from trying to reach them.



Niles takes the lead to snipe a single Sky Knight. He's just going to get frozen the next turn and he doesn't have the bulk to survive out in front for long, but he does more damage than Leo can.



Camilla shall also help.



She gains more EXP than Leo despite her higher level. I'm glad she's getting progressively better levels, but it would be nice to see some strength...



Keaton can stand here to lure a pair of fliers to take the pressure off of Silas a little. Although I'll soon regret luring high movement enemies towards all my squishy units...



Odin enters the right side from above to take the heat off of Leo a little. Turns out he's not as great at nostanking Sky Knights as he is most other classes.



Neither Keaton nor Silas fear the Kinshis all that much. Their chip attacks do eventually rack up damage though, and they are annoying to take down...



...if you don't have a Beast Killer. Byeeeee



...or I could have just hit her with a sword. A much more accurate sword.



My poorly thought out Keaton plan has now lured two deadly pairs of units over to me. Silas whiffing his attack also means there's a third Kinshi pair hovering a few tiles away... It is going to be difficult to solve this.



Worst case scenario, I just have Jakob Freeze the two of them. But I'll happily fish for unlikely hits like these if it potentially saves me two uses of a valuable staff...



Freeze isn't 100% accurate though, so it's not an entirely reliable escape plan. Camilla flies over and takes the one shot she's in range of taking.



That's one down! Thank you Peri for being awesome.



Unfortunately Camilla was blocking Azura from dancing Peri and having her move again, although a danced Peri wouldn't have been able to reach the remaining Kinshi anyway. Best I can do is dance Camilla and have her take out this Sky Knight...



...and hope the Freeze lands on this one last enemy.



Leaving me in this situation. Two Kinshis left, one frozen, the other just in range to assist in a dual strike against Camilla. Thankfully by sticking Elise next to her and passing Arthur to her, she has her bulk increased and will be immune to the dual attack. I'm going to pretend this was all intentional to show off the tools Conquest gives you to improvise your way out of a bad situation.



...

I didn't plan this. I did however survive it so you can't call me a bad strategist.



This part I did calculate. The combination of Elise's personal skill and Jakob's Gentilihomme allowed her to survive this hit...



Keaton gets a cool level to sweeten my undeserved victory. Maybe he'll be a member of my team, maybe he won't. I think I want to marry him to Camilla, but I also want Kaze to marry her just so I can get his paralogue...



All that could have been avoided! What I should have done was have had Silas distract them all to keep them away from everyone else. If he ended up being in danger I could have paired up Camilla with Keaton and sent him over to help. Alternatively, I could have given Keaton some tonics and left him there to be bait, freeing up the rest of my army to take on the right side... Or hell I even could have just rushed the boss to end the chapter before the reinforcements caught up with my army.

Oh well!



At least these two are doing fine. As always, things would have been easier if I had sent Niles over in the direction of the flying units I wanted dealing with. Maybe one day I'll learn?



slowdin dark



Only the boss and his cronies remain. Kumeraga's a bit scary - he's got the very annoying Countermagic skill, which reflects all magical damage dealt to him on enemy phase back at the caster. He's also got Darting and Certain Blow, which will make him faster and more accurate when he initiates combat. And then there's also his two Archer flunkies and the Entrap Shrine Maiden to make approaching him much more difficult.

He's not a bad capture target if you want a bulky unit. He'll learn Shove if you level him up a couple of times too, which will help with positioning.



Oh and there's also the two treasure chests. Money is nice, Seraph Robe increases max HP. I'm not sure who would want that the most...



Bye bye Archers. It's very satisfying to take out a bow user with a flying unit.



Bye bye Entrap! Elise might be in range of the boss but don't worry, she's perfectly safe. Taking this unit out means the rest of my army can approach with no risk...



Without his posse to back him up the boss isn't so scary. Just watch out for his skills and you'll be fine. He can't even one-shot Elise!



This for example is something you'd want to pay attention to. The combined effects of Countermagic + his counterttack would equal one very dead Leo if you tried this seemingly safe option.



Camilla and Silas set up the kill for Elise to make. This guy just tried to kill her father, it's only fair!



Elise finishes him off and gets a very Elise level.



That... could have gone better. But it also could have gone worse and it did not go worse.



Woah, slow down there Dimitri.



Oh right, I completely forogt about this. Leo's arrival causes the Yato to upgrade into its cooler, Conquest-unique form. The stat bonus it provides doesn't require it to be equipped, only held in Corrin's inventory, so they don't need to be a sword user to reap its benefits. Keep in mind that it's still a katana and therefore will lower her defensive stats by 1 each when equipped in addition to the buffs it also gives.


Next time: Corrin goes for a swim