Part 66: Treason (Map Overview)

It's treason, then. Time to finally do what was advertised as the goal of this route and change Nohr from the inside...



This seems like an obvious setup for Anankos to tell Garon "hey don't sit on that throne, it's a trap!". Iirc it was literally a gift from him to the Hoshidan royal family, although he might have gone so mad by this point that he's forgotten he ever gave it. All it is in practice is an excuse to stall the final confrontation for one more chapter.



Iago has been asking for this all game. Whether or not you're actually invested in this path's stupid plot, the chance to finally shut him up forever is very satisfying.



I don't even think Garon would care if you killed this guy right in front of him. He certainly doesn't care when he dies in the other two routes...



Hoshido may have fallen, but it's not the endgame just yet. There's a lot going on in this chapter so just like the last one I'll split it into two parts. Somehow in between us threatening Iago and us fighting him he managed to find a throne and put many rooms and enemies in our way.

There are two paths to the boss, one on the left and one on the right. Normally I would show off both paths, but I have never managed to beat the left path on Lunatic. I have no idea how you are even supposed to.



Staff Savant is an enemy only skill that increases the range of all staves to 1-10 tiles away from the user, and prevents their durability from lowering, effectively giving the user infinite staff uses. Standing on the edge of a staff user's range and hitting end turn until all their uses are gone won't work any more... Iago has this skill on all difficulties, but only in Lunatic is he also packing a Hexing Rod. If you don't pay attention you could get your entire army hexed, and that would be bad!

The reason why this one guy with super high magic and a staff range that covers half the entire map is not completely undefeatable is because he'll cycle through each staff in order rather than using whichever one he pleases. So he'll start with Enfeeble and finish with Hexing Rod, and then start his cycle again. I'm pretty sure this cycle goes by uses and not by turn number, but I could be wrong. If you're unsure or you've forgotten which one he last used, you can always stick a fodder unit like Azura in his range who won't care about getting her stats lowered or whatever.

He's also packing the S rank tome Excalibur. High crit rate + capped magic is not fun, but at least they didn't give this guy Vengeance. You'll want your highest res unit or someone with Tomebreaker to fight him. Weapon triangle advantage will also strip away all the power and accuracy boosts his capped weapon rank will give him.

And yeah Sorcerers cannot use staves normally and this guy is totally cheating. I always assumed Staff Savant gave any unit that has it staff access, but he does have a staff rank in Birthright and Revelation too.



Hans is also here, and he's hanging just outside the throne room. This guy is one of the 2 enemies you want at least 2 uses of Entrap saved for. There's a very small section of the eastern corridor where a unit can use Entrap to grab him, allowing you to fight him in an empty room instead of a big mosh pit full of horrible enemies. Engaging him in combat spawns reinforcements from the central room, but this is actually good - if you grab Hans early they won't spawn on top of you, and their aggressive AI will make them run to the edge of the room to attack you through the doors, allowing you to pick them off from relative safety.

His skills are... yeah. Armoured Blow, Death Blow, Certain Blow, Counter, Countermagic... He also has 64 attack and a crit rate of 38! Entrap makes him trivial to deal with, but this feels a bit too much like ROM hack difficulty otherwise. At least all of his stats beside strength and speed and HP are bad? The only way to soften him up for the kill without getting hit by his counter skills is to attack him at range with physical weapons, but if you've got Xander or any good bow or knife user that won't be too difficult.



Iago's two General friends will also move the moment you aggro him. Letting them chuck Spears at you through the door is by far the safest way to fight them, just watch out for Countermagic.



The throne room also contains 2 Maids with Freeze and Staff Savant. Every enemy in this map has Staff Savant on Lunatic.



There's even a Maid with Entrap here to mess you up if you go too far to the left! If you approach the boss room from the left you can defeat her before arriving there, but you are probably not approaching the boss room from the left. Watch out for her or else you might have a weakened unit get frozen and dumped alone in a room with an angry Faceless.



Otherwise this room is a clusterfuck of horrible Generals and Berserkers. None of them besides the reinforcements or Hans's posse will move until you enter the room they're in, so there's no luring them through the doors. These two in the middle both have Inspiration...



All the Generals on the right have Beast Killers, and all the Berserkers on the left have Hammers, limiting who you can use to tank the enemies in this room. Surviving this onslaught involves either setting up a defensive chokepoint at the doors and very very slowly whittling down all the approaching enemies, or using a combo of Azura's dance, Shelter, and the Rescue staff to blitz through and seize all on the same turn.

Basically this room is what Xander was made for. As a Hero he won't take damage from any effective weapon, but even as a Paladin with his HP cut in half with a hex he can tank Beast Killers if you stack enough boosts on him. Otherwise you'll want units like Camilla or Beruka or maybe a particularly blessed Corrin on the front lines. You might be able to Nostank your way through it too, just watch out for Silence from Iago.



But before you can even reach this room you've got to muscle your way through the rest of the map. The first thing you'll encounter is a locked door, behind which are waiting this Hexing Rod Maid and a whole load of Heroes. Taking out this Maid turn 1 is vital, but be warned that she is in range of Iago and whoever attacks her will get slapped with some form of status.



Taking out all these Heroes on turn 1 is impractical, but you should try to clean up as many as possible. Most of them have Wyrmslayers and ranged weapons, and a few of them have Counter too. Xander and bulky units like Benny and Keaton will be useful. Corrin and Camilla might be able to take a single hit from a Wyrmslayer, but probably not more than that!



Oh and don't go too far to the right or you'll get grabbed by her. The unit who gets snagged will be in range of a couple of Sorcerers, but they will also be whisked far away from the fight and unable to help the others until they get back.



Reinforcements will spawn from these stairs once you break down the door. Two consecutive waves will also spawn from stairs lower down in this room after you open the door to Hans's room from the east side, so be sure to cover them up.



None of the units in this room will attack until you open the door, at which point they'll all pile on you. Conquest gives you plenty of units who can deal with mages, so rally one of them up and send them in to take them all out. Whoever opens the door will also be in range of Iago so you'll have to watch out for him.



The sorcs themselves carry a horrible mix of various tomes, but honestly without any skills like Poison Strike or Seal Resistance they're not so hard to deal with. Kaze or a Tomebreaker servant shouldn't have too much trouble, and if you've got a few mage killers you can have them rush in after the door is opened to take out the most troublesome attackers before they can act.



The left side of the map is a big horrible pile of monsters. Anybody who dares approach will be pummeled to death by long-range Stoneborn, and a mix of Faceless all with stat sealing and damage dealing skills. The way you deal with all this is... don't? I really don't know what they expect you do counter this with. Even Xander's going to get pummeled to death very quickly.



The one suggestion I have seen is to use Keaton's Grisly Wound skill to goad the Stoneborn into attacking you without having to open the door. After enough attacks they'll be at 1 HP, at which point you can send in Flora who can finish them off with Icy Blood. All of this can be done without entering the room and aggroing the enemies inside. I've never actually tried this.



Oh and this Maid with Entrap will also mess up whatever you're planning. If you really want to rout the left side it's best to approach from the south instead - breaking down the door from this side will aggro all the enemies and make them start busting down doors themselves, ruining their fortified position and letting you bait them one by one. The Stoneborn don't move fast so with enough running you can put a lot of distance between them and the Faceless to pick them off.



Your reward for putting up with all that horrible bullshit is a Spy's Yumi! Or a Spy's Shuriken if Kaze has a B rank in knives. Would have been useful last chapter, is not worth getting now. Don't bother unless you really want it.



The right side has a Venge Naginata, a Hoshidan lance that deals extra damage on counterattacks. It's alright I guess.



The middle has 20,000 gold, a Seraph Robe, and Bifrost, a one-use S rank staff that can bring back a fallen ally, but only if they died in the map you use it on. Once you've defeated Iago you'll have all the time you need to grab these.


It is possible to change difficulty between chapters in Conquest and there's no shame in doing that here. Hard mode is mostly the same but with less reinforcements, no Hexing Rod, and no Staff Savant on all the generic Maids. Normal mode is a lot nicer but still complicated enough to be challenging. No difficulty changing for me though, Lunatic is in the title...