Part 67: Treason (Gameplay)

Before this chapter starts I need an extra Mend and an extra Entrap. Entrapping Hans is vital, so it would be nice to have a second spare just in case the first one misses.



I'll go with the standard speed and resistance since getting wheat from the lottery is a pipe dream at this point. I've been having extremely good luck with the chef I get - normally my attempts to cook good meals are foiled by rotating kitchen squad of Keaton and Felicia.



I get the same number as slots as last chapter, so that means the same team as last time. Jakob once again is here but doesn't get to fit on screen.



All the doors here have 50 HP and can be opened or broken. In most cases whoever opens a door will be at the mercy of the enemies on the other side, so having a bulky Locktouch user could be handy.



Turn 1 goal is to dispose of the Hexing Rod Maid right outside the door, but this Entrap user will complicate things. Advancing too far beyond the door will get a unit taken away...



Xander will rush ahead to take out the Maid. He will eat a stat drop from her knife, but Iago's going to slap him with Enfeeble on turn 1 anyway. His range covers most of my units but since Xander's in range of so many enemies and has low res he's the juiciest target.



That's a very nice level, and his defense capped. He'll need all the bulk he can get to tank the room before the boss. Axes don't scare him so Axebreaker means nothing.



Azura dances Midori away so I can form a defensive wall to keep all my army safe. Xander is going to get grabbed by Entrap so he unfortunately cannot be part of it.



Right on cue he gets Enfeebled, Entrapped, and... Frozen? Oops, I guess I was wrong about the Maids in this room, they will still use their staves on units outside even before you open the door.



Being frozen doesn't matter so much though, Xander's fine where he is. His dual guard gauge would have allowed him to survive two hits regardless, but it's weird how one of the Sorcs deliberately declined to attack and instead moved just to set up a dual attack for his friend.



Ophelia is in no danger from these Heroes...



And yet they all neglected to attack Silas because they wanted to hit the squishier target instead, ignoring that after every hit she could heal herself back up to full.



Time for all my filler units to shine as I clean all these guys up. If nothing else, the kids make good high level backups to fill out my deployment slots and deal with stragglers.



Now to move onto the next room before Iago breaks out the more menacing staves. As you move around this map you'll go inbetween safe zones and danger areas where he can hit you.



Xander's on low health, but Peri is ready to take a few hits. Once again her servant murdering experience comes in handy. Every staff user gone from this map is a weight off of my shoulders.



Dwyer gets slapped with a Freeze, meaning it's Silence time next. Iago himself can't freeze a unit to hex them next turn thanks to his attack order, but another staff user might end up sticking someone in place for Iago to be free to hex them.



Popping open these doors will trigger reinforcements next turn, but sticking these two on the stairs blocks them from appearing. Normally I'd be happy to farm them for EXP but a significant number of my army is already level 20.



Now to open up this room. Whoever lockpicks or breaks open these doors is most likely going to get frozen and enfeebled, as well as being in range of whatever Iago's planning on using. It's very important to make sure you know what staff he's about to use...



Next turn will be the Hexing Rod. I'll wait a turn until he's back to Enfeeble, I don't want Ophelia or whoever having their durability cut in half.



Percy's the target with the lowest resistance right now so the poor boy is constantly getting hit with whatever. I think the Maids would rather status someone in range of the Sorcs once the door's actually open, but right now Percy's their main target.



It's actually quite hard to break this door in one hit. Ophelia's the only decently resistant who can do it, so I guess she's my best candidate...



Horse Spirit in hand, Dwyer giving her -4 damage taken. I'd have given her Nosferatu but I want all these enemies gone by next turn. I think she'll be fine!



And of course she's hit with a bunch of staves. That's fine, all it does is counterract her rally.



Ophelia's not quite strong enough to cleanly ORKO, but her crit rate is so high and Vengeance is a thing so most likely she'll destroy her attackers anyway. Some of these units have Inspiration or Malefic Aura, so making sure they don't survive to make their allies stronger is paramount.



Seigbert is helping! I don't think he makes a very good Dark Knight...



The one spot where Ophelia stood also happened to be out of range of this one guy with a Mjolnir tome. Crits are bad so not having to deal with him is nice, although now she's frozen in place and needs her allies to clean up while she waits to become unstuck.



So close to being a one shot... Maids aren't threatning damagewise, but their high accuracy means you'll most likely eat a slight debuff if you can't take them out in a single hit.



One last wet fart of a level for Silas. Boo... or maybe not boo, he has capped like 3 stats already.



Now I have a nice little safe zone for my units to rest up in. Reinforcements are going to appear as soon as I open the door to Hans's room, so I can't be too careful, but for now I can heal and wait for debuffs to wear off.



Speaking of Hans, let's invite him over!



oh fuck off



Good thing I bought that second staff. Forrest, you are now promoted to Jakob.



He's an Inspiration to us all. This is one of the best skills in the game so I'm glad he finally has it!



There goes 1 of 2 of the War Crime Bros. Dancing Xander to attack him twice was the safest way to go... I had the brilliant idea on a previous attempt to double and kill him with Corrin's Levin Sword to deliberately activate Countermagic to get her HP below half, but it turned out she dealt more magical damage than she had HP. It was an embarrassing defeat.



Nobody in my army can use this. I wonder if I can sell it? Only Berserkers can raise their axe rank to S rank, and I don't have any. The S rank weapons in Fates tend to have a large amount of drawbacks that make using them difficult so most people don't consider them worth it, but they are at least good for killing bosses.



Here are the reinforcements. The ones with ranged weapons can be baited through the door, the other 2 will just sit there until you open up the room.



Welp, there goes my last chance to lower her HP below half before the big room at the end. Perhaps if the enemies that attack her through the door can hurt her without killing her...



This one section of the map is stuck in both Iago and a Freeze Maid's staff range... I guess Jakob lives here now. He's got every curse known to man slapped on him right now.



Nice. I don't know how much chance I'll have to use this, or if I've got room in anybody's inventory for it, but nice.



Time for operation lure. Both units here are in Freeze range, but at least they can't be hit by Iago. Taking out all the enemies with ranged weapons may take a while...



That was disappointing. I guess I can use that Speedwing now? Not sure why I didn't before...



Wary Fighter is the worst. Ophelia could shred these guys easily, but they have Countermagic and she does not have the HP to survive her own attacks.



A carefully calculated attack gets Corrin down to very low HP, therefore activating VoF. Now I can switch to Silas...



...or not, because now she's ended her turn and will get killed on account of being in range of enemies at low HP. Time to heal her back up! I really didn't think this through.



A mediocre last level. Speed is cool I suppose.



The Freeze Maids are also packing Physic staves. On one hand this drags out the battle even more, on the other it gives my frozen units an oppurtunity to escape. Staff Savant applies to these too so they won't run out.



That's everybody gone who will move, which means it's time to kick down the doors. This second half of cleaning out the room will be much trickier - not only are the 1 range weapons much harder to deal with, but I won't be able to have any units directly adjacent to my front line without them being in danger too. That means no Azura dances or 1 range heals...



The reinforcements will be on their way from the upper room, but I think I can handle them. Corrin's not below half health, I'm not 100% sure Silas will be able to tank for long...



He can just about tank the Generals but I'm much more concerned about the Berserkers. They're on the opposite side of the room but they'll get closer...



That Sol crit was very cool but I'm not sure killing all your attackers is a good idea!



Oh, so they do come from the upper stairs, not the lower ones... I may have given incorrect information before. It's possible the second wave the turn after comes from the lower stairs instead, but any units I place there will be in Iago's range.

The Sorcs aren't super scary but that Maid has Freeze and will move. She might be an issue.



At least Jakob's finally free to move again. I should bring him back to safety...



Rallying with Shigure and dance him away with Azura helps keep my units bulky enough to survive. Xander is under no threat, but Silas I'm more worried about...



Elise will boost his bulk, and Percy's passive will boost his crit avoid. Those Berserkers are scary and I do not want Silas getting one-shot by a crit.



And just to be absolutely sure I'll give him a sword so he's dodgier. This does mean he won't be able to counterattack all the spears that get thrown at him...



The reinforcements decide to bully Jakob from afar. Better him than someone useful!



Elise can only be targetted by one enemy at a time from her current position. 2 hits would kill her, so that's definitely for the best!



If I hadn't swapped Silas's weapon, the Berserkers might have been throwing themselves at him only to die and free up a space over and over, instead of doing the same to Xander. I wish I had 2 Xanders to choke this point with.



Oh yep, the second wave does come from the stairs! This is quite bad, I may be in trouble here.



Time to do some inventory swapping and create a makeshift chokepoint. Ophelia stands next to Elise to receive boosts from her passive, Elise takes the Horse Spirit to boost her own resistance.



It's not quite a chokepoint but it's good enough. I'll really need to take out the Maids next turn.



Just a quick top up before they face the front lines. I'm glad I had all these to waste.



Ow. I didn't expect her to attack. Not a problem, but it's very rare to see a staff user not take a chance to use their staff.



I didn't actually know what staff Iago was about to use when I set this up, I was just hoping it wasn't Silence or Hex. Thankfully it was Freeze and nobody is dead!



Silas really needs to move, it'll only take a few unfortunate hits to finish him off. I said I wanted Xander to choke this by himself, if everybody else runs away I can do that...



First step, clear some room for my units to run away to. Elise finishes off an enemy and caps her skill, something I never thought she'd manage to do. All it took was like all my secret books...



A frozen Nina pairs up with the adjacent Jakob to hitch a ride over to this Maid to take her out. I did not plan this but I am glad it worked, now my units can all retreat to relative safety...



Without allies close by to rally him or block off potential attackers, Xander's not quite as good at tanking as he was. I think he's going to have to retreat too.



...luring the rest of the enemies over for my entire army to descend on them all at once and take them out. I could try to set up yet another chokepoint, but I think I'll take this chance while I have it.



Maybe if Camilla had choked the point instead of Silas things would have gone more smoothly. Her low luck was the one thing that made me not want to use her, the Berserkers could potentially crit her...



That's almost all the enemies gone, with one unfortunate exception with a clear shot on Azura. It's okay! There's so many defensive passive abilities in my army that Azura's a lot bulkier than she appears.



Still though, I shouldn't have tried pushing ahead so soon.



Dwyer takes the kill and levels up enough to get Tomebreaker.



Now to clean up and prepare to take on Iago. Getting in range of the second Maid will put the attacker in Entrap range, so you have to be careful.



I thought I was free of Jakob levels! At least he got magic.



Camilla invites herself into the leftmost room and lays off the cleaning staff. This'll be as far left as I go - those Stoneborn are scary and I do not want the Spy's Yumi that badly.



A load of rallies and Spendthrift are all it takes to turn Iago into a complete joke. Look at his face! That's the face of a man who knows he is dead.



An undignified end is what he deserves.



Finally, the map is purged of green. I sure am glad to see the back of Staff Savant! I bet it and Inevitble End will never come back, certainly not at the same time as one another...



Time to steal Iago's retirement fund. If he were a good friend he would have used Bifrost on his buddy Hans...



Okay now can we kill Garon



Of course Corrin can't be the one to kill him, Leo has to steal it at the last second. I don't know why they did it this way, it's so much less satisfying.



It's about dang time.



...or I could fight some purple guys in my magic castle. I think I promised to show this off?


Next time: Garon gets to live a little longer