Fire Emblem: Sacred War + Fire Emblem 7 Randomized Part #7 - Update VII

Part 7: Update VII - Breaking News: Ephraim Still Good

Update VII - Breaking News: Ephraim Still Good

Alright, let's see what Ephraim is up to.

This map doesn't seem to have gotten much of an upgrade in difficulty, but I guess since the units haven't had the opportunity to profit from the extra EXP from the extra enemies, you can't really kick it up that much.

Now, let's take a look at our units.

Ephraim - Lord:

STATS:

LV: 8 (+4)
HP: 25 (+2)

STR: 10 (+2)
SKL: 11 (+2)
SPD: 12 (+1)
LCK: 9 (+1)
DEF: 8 (+1)
RES: 5 (+3)

MOV: 5
CON: 8

GROWTHS:

HP: 65% (-15%)

STR: 55%
SKL: 50% (-5%)
SPD: 45%
LCK: 55% (+5%)
DEF: 35%
RES: 25%

Noble Lance: Rank Prf (Ephraim only). Range 1. Weight 8. Might 10. Hit 90 (+10). Crit 15 (+5). 50 uses. (+5) Effective against cavalry and armor.

So, Ephraim got slightly worse with his growths, and his auto-levels have slightly worse luck with much better resistance. I'd say it's a wash, which means he's still regular old Ephraim. Which means he's still a wrecking ball. And his Prf weapon got even better, which is also a boost.

Kyle - Cavalier:

STATS:

LV: 8 (+3)
HP: 28 (+3)

STR: 10 (+2)
SKL: 7 (+1)
SPD: 9 (+2)
LCK: 6
DEF: 11 (+2)
RES: 2 (+1)

MOV: 7
CON: 9 (-1)

GROWTHS:

HP: 80% (-10%)

STR: 55% (+5%)
SKL: 50% (+10%)
SPD: 40%
LCK: 25% (+5%)
DEF: 40% (+15%)
RES: 20%

Steel Lance: Rank D. Range 1. Weight 10 (-3). Might 9 (-1). Hit 75 (+5). Crit 0. 50 uses (+20).

Kyle seems to be boosted towards being more like what you imagine a green cav to be like - boosts to strength and particularly towards defense. He did get a bit lighter though, which isn't that handy, but it more than evens out with the steel lance getting much lighter.

Forde - Cavalier:

STATS:

LV: 8 (+2)
HP: 26 (+2)

STR: 8 (+1)
SKL: 9 (+1)
SPD: 11 (+3)
LCK: 7
DEF: 9 (+1)
RES: 5 (+3)

MOV: 7
CON: 9

GROWTHS:

HP: 70% (-10%)

STR: 40%
SKL: 50% (+5%)
SPD: 55% (+10%)
LCK: 40% (+5%)
DEF: 25% (+5%)
RES: 40% (+15%)

Forde has seen a big boost to his speed and his resistance. Will it help him be not disappointing all the time? We'll have to see. 55% speed growth is pretty crazy, to be honest. It'll help a lot with the raised Paladin speed cap.

Orson - Paladin:

STATS:

LV: 10 (+7)
HP: 40 (+6)

STR: 15
SKL: 13
SPD: 16 (+5)
LCK: 4
DEF: 14 (+1)
RES: 12 (+5)

MOV: 9 (+1)
CON: 12

GROWTHS:

HP: 80%

STR: 55%
SKL: 45%
SPD: 40%
LCK: 25%
DEF: 45%
RES: 30%

CAPS:

HP: 60

STR: 24 (-1)
SKL: 26
SPD: 28 (+4)
LCK: 30
DEF: 24 (-1)
RES: 28 (+3)

SKILL:

Crusade:
- Equipped weapon's Might x2 against Mages, Magic Beasts, Zombies, Skeletons and Dragon Zombies
- Terrain magic RES bonus x2
- +5 crit

Silver Sword: Rank C (formerly A). Range 1. Weight 8. Might 11 (-2). Hit 75 (-5). Crit 0. 50 uses (+30).

So, Orson. The chapter really could have been made more perilous since the player could always lean on Orson, who's gotten a great boost to speed that makes him even better. Not that I'll be doing that - I have him on designated chest opener duty with his 9 move.

Also, note the new Paladin caps. More speed is really important here, and Paladins getting 9 move is also pretty great. In my first playthrough, I had Franz, Kyle, Forde and Amelia all as Paladins.

In the early going, the cavs do a lot of the work since we've got a fair amount of axe users mucking about. Note, we're going to be burning through a lot of our vulneraries here. There's going to be a lot of attrition going on, and we'll need to heal a lot.

Ephraim gets his first action taking out a soldier.

As we move down towards the knight to get that key, it becomes noticeable that Forde's speed boost compared to Kyle has Forde doubling where Kyle doesn't. But since we're largely moving slow again, it's not that big a deal.

Ephraim still opens cans like no other.

And then, because I'm a dipshit, I get to toss an iron lance because of full inventory. Oh well, we still have Orson's 50 use silver sword and silver lance to go around that everyone can use because the weapon rank change.

Somebody's going to face weapon triangle disadvantage here on enemy phase, but I'm sure it'll be fine, these guys aren't super deadly.

And in fact nothing at all happened. Forde had two enemies miss, and Kyle took no damage from the myrmidon.

Kyle levels up on the cleanup.

Kyle and Forde again set up for some incoming enemies.

Forde gains a very Forde level.

And in the end, this got fairly hairy. If Forde had not missed a counter on the cav, I think the one cav in the corner was only one tile short of getting a shot at a kill. I did not consider this possibility at all.

Ephraim just gets better by killing an archer. Also, the archers are the ones that hold the chest keys. Orson gets to grab that, but sticks around to maybe be an unarmed target for enemies.

Alas, the enemies don't bite. Though they then attack Ephraim, who just wrecks them.

Forde sets up to save us some time by taking out the other archer from across the wall with his javelin, so we get the chest key quicker.

Orson gets the first chest, and would you look at that, another Dragon Tear!

Forde gets preference in taking on mages, with decent resistance and the only ranged weapon in the group so far.

And then, like a dipshit, I move Ephraim down so much that he gets in range of three magic users and kinda gets fucked up a bit.

So for now, we set up in a way to stay away from those pesky shamans, because those can do some decent damage.

Ephraim gets everything he needs on taking out a mage.

Orson catches up with the main crew, and I give the Dragon Tear to Forde because I feel like it.

We keep moving forward. The fighters and soldiers here all have ranged weapons.

Forde, despite doping, is still Forde, it seems.

Orson moves in and draws a fair amount of fire, including a shaman. Ephraim takes a hit in taking out the shaman, leaving him in a slightly precarious situation.

Thankfully, Orson can still rescue just fine.

Orson then picks up the second treasure with Ephraim in tow...

...while the cavs get to work on cleaning out the chaff.

And so eventually we're left with a shaman and the boss.

Kyle burns through his entire vulnerary on this chapter.

And Forde deals with the shaman, so let's look at the boss.

+13 HP, +2 STR, +5 SKL, +3 SPD, -5 LCK, +3 DEF and +1 RES compared to vanilla hard mode. Looks like this hack really likes its bosses with at least 40 HP.