#awakening theoryposting

[pegasusknightsonly]

thinking about "everyone is suffering each day we let it continue" and how it relates to lucina's personal philosophy that we see her put into practice again and again: 'if the only solution involves soul-destroying violence: let it be me who bears that burden'. if this war will be ended by killing fifteen key people: I'll do it, I'll endure the consequences. if the dark future will only be averted by a judicious and targeted spilling of blood: I'll hold the knife, I'll do it, I'll take all the blame and you can keep your hands clean.

i think it would be mistaken to see that as martyrdom (that's Owain's thing!) and instead it's pragmatism that drives her. does she want to kill Robin, her father's best friend? no, not really. but she's not going to ignore the evidence that Robin is Grima incarnated and she's not going to let her sentimentality stop get from doing what must be done (should she be married to Robin, she acknowledges that it's going to be difficult to live with herself after killing the person she loves... but she'll still do it)

her support with Gerome illustrates this. Gerome gives an exaggerated reason for why he's uncomfortable with the rest of the army; "i am a wolf who deals only in death". 'i have nothing to offer a friend', he says, floridly, and Lucina - rather than rejecting what he says and consoling him - sincerely agrees. "then we have that in common", she replies. from her own perspective she's not an inspiring beloved leader but a terrorist: she is here to do something that she knows is terrible and reprehensible, but she believes that it must be done, that there is no way to avoid doing it, and that the weight of it is hers to carry and hers alone.

i think it's so interesting that we never see Lucina express anxiety about the course of action she commits to undertaking. she's always resolute, always clear in her own mind what her next steps will be, and even when her situation is complicated by being forced to drop her disguise (and then willingly, joyfully embracing who she really is) she doesn't falter or consider giving up

"everyone is suffering each day we let it continue": once again Lucina holds herself responsible for her actions, once again she recognises that she'll still do whatever it takes to end the war. she'll kill Walhart. she'll kill Validar. she'll kill Robin, whoever they are to her, and she'll live with her father's regret and grief and pain from her actions because there's no price she won't pay for a chance at a better future - even though she knows she'll never see it

[thewertsearch]

The more we’ve learned more about Sburb, the more questions it’s brought up. We know so little, and it’s getting kind of overwhelming!

So for this theorypost, let’s pause, zoom out, and take a look at some big picture stuff - the ‘top-level’ questions of Homestuck thus far.

Who created Sburb?

How does one ‘win’ Sburb?

What happens to a Player who ‘wins’?

What is the Ultimate Riddle?

What is the Ultimate Alchemy?

What is the purpose of Sburb?

About most of these, we can only speculate. So let’s speculate! 

Who created Sburb?

We’re told it was Skaianet, but that’s pretty clearly a front for something else. Sburb has found its way to multiple planets, so some interplanetary entity most be putting it there. There are a couple of likely suspects. 

A deity or deities. Is there a god in the machine? This game is already pretty mythical, so let’s fully commit. Gods are well known for ‘testing’ hapless heroes, and Sburb is the mother of all tests, with the fate of the Players’ entire civilization hanging in the balance. This could be where the Browser Gods finally enter the story. Earth’s instance of Sburb could have come from Typheus, before Grandpa slew him, stole his creation, and published it as a video game. 

The Noble Circle of Horrorterrors. It’s very unclear how these things fit into the Sburb mythology, but maybe it’s at the very top. Could they be the game’s admins, watching their sessions play out from beyond the Veil? If this is the case, their goals with Sburb are likely more insidious than any of my theories. We don’t even know what these things are, and what purpose they have for the game’s champions is anyone’s guess. 

An advanced civilization. Probably not the trolls, since their planet is a victim of Sburb, but it could be a third party civilization we haven’t seen yet. The game’s self-replicating nature would suggest that it propagates itself through the universe, assimilating planets and turning them into Sburb-session factories. Sburb is a planet virus, and I don’t know what civilization thought this was a good idea. Maybe they lost control.

Sburb could retroactively be ‘creating itself’. Not a fan of this one, but this is a timeloop story. If this is the case, we’ll probably see the kids send the code for Sburb back in time, so that Skaianet can release it. Thus, Sburb would then come from nowhere, a self-sustaining lifeform just trying to survive and reproduce. 

How does one win Sburb?

I think it might be helpful, at this point, to list the steps required to complete the game. Looking at it all together might help to bring things into focus.

Deploy your starting gear and enter the Medium. Prototyping before this point may or may not be required - as Rose stated, it should be possible to Enter without putting anything in the Kernel - but I think an empty Kernel Spire would probably be a fail state. Sburb becomes more challenging with each pre-Medium prototyping, and it can’t be that easy to cheese. 

Travel through your first six Gates, each more challenging than the last. Each brings you to a different section of your Land - John’s First was a wide-open space with mostly basic Underlings, whereas Dave’s Fifth was an arena filled with powerful enemies.  

Complete your Land Quest, solving a problem created by your Denizen. John’s is to release the fireflies from his Denizen’s spell, and Rose’s is to repopulate the sea, which the Denizen sterilized. 

Awaken your Denizen, and pass through the Seventh Gate to arrive at its lair. Speedrunners beware - the game has an anti-cheat system in place here. If you try to cheese this, Sburb will just flat out kill you.

Defeat your Denizen, presumably after gathering intel and maxing out your stats. This will release the Denizen’s Hoard. 

Perform the Ultimate Alchemy, using the Hoard as fuel. What are you making, you ask? That’s a secret >;] 

Solve the Ultimate Riddle, maybe. I’m assuming both ‘ultimate’ questlines are connected. This sounds like something you do as a group, so you’ll probably have to wait for the other Players to get to this point, too. 

Travel to Skaia, where Derse is destined to win the war, and may have done so already. 

Defeat Derse, and stop the Reckoning before Skaia is destroyed.

(The Riddle and/or Alchemy might also go here. Skaia is a ‘crucible of creative potential’, so maybe it needs to be saved and ‘unlocked’ before you can make whatever it is you’re making.)

Prospit and Derse have been defeated. The Denizens are slain, their Hoards claimed, and Skaia is safe. What have you made from the Hoards? What have you learned from the riddle? What now?

What happens to a player who ‘wins’?

In the beginning, I was sure that you’d get your planet back. That does not seem to be how it’s supposed to work, however, as both Earth and Trollplanet are in the hands of the Carapacians. No, if Sburb has a reward, it’s something else. 

The trolls may or may not have won Sburb. They certainly don’t seem to be actively playing anymore, not unless their Quests all involve bothering some aliens. They’re just sitting in a room, still in their session, getting on each other’s nerves. 

This bodes poorly, and I think one of two things is happening here.

The Mistake has completely broken their session. The trolls can no longer progress in the game, as a result of whatever wide-reaching fuckup the kids perpetuated. They can’t do anything, so they’re just holed up in the Veil, messing around on computers. The more I think about this scenario, the more Project Trolling sounds kind of justified, actually. I really hope this is what’s happening, because the other possibility is that

Completed sessions are abandoned by Sburb. Players have an important purpose, which means that some day, that purpose will be fulfilled. What use does Sburb have for a player whose job is done? Maybe, when the game is over, it just cuts the power. The Sprites, Underlings, Agents and Consorts all despawn, and Skaia goes dark. Congratulations, you won! Now enjoy spending the rest of your life in an inert session!

What is the Ultimate Riddle?

This is one question I think I do know the answer to. I think the Ultimate Riddle is the question of what you, the Player, are supposed to be doing in this game.

I said Sburb wasn’t really a puzzle game before, but I think I’ve come around on that. The Sprites are designed to be riddlemasters, and they’re only supposed to give you hints.

Sburb, famously, does not come with a manual, so the onus of figuring out Sburb’s objective is on its players. The game wants them to do exactly what I’m doing - piece together all the disparate sources of information it provides. Eventually, the game’s true goal is revealed, and that’s the answer to the Ultimate Riddle. 

What is the Ultimate Alchemy?

Honestly? I’m stumped. 

It’s obviously some great act of creation, but the nature of creation is such that the possibilities are literally endless. It’s obvious that these alchemy machines don’t have any real restrictions, just functionality not yet unlocked. Dave already made a time machine, and that’s without the Denizen Hoards. 

We could be creating:

Immortal bodies. This is a common goal of traditional alchemy, and the kids might need to do this to take on the armies of Derse.

Godlike or otherwise ‘perfect’ bodies or souls.  Alchemy isn’t just about physical transmutation - it also emphasizes perfection of the self. This alchemy might be of a more spiritual nature.

The Philosopher's Stone, or some variation of it. The kids don’t have much use for a hoard of gold, but but there are a few other effects attributed to the substance that might be more useful. Notably, it’s often used interchangeably with the Elixir of Life, which could potentially help them resurrect their planet - something I still think they'll want to do, even if if it’s not the game’s actual goal.   

An entirely new planet could even be on the cards. Alchemy is already unbelievable, so I don’t see why this wouldn’t work. Sburb started as a Sims-like game, so maybe we’ll be graduating to Spore. 

Sburb. As with the ‘Sburb created itself’ theory above, this could all just be a way for Sburb to propagate itself through the universe. The end causes the beginning, the snake chases its own tail, yadda yadda yadda.

Whatever it is, it’s the ultimate alchemy - probably the last thing the kids make in the game. 

What is Sburb’s true purpose?

Hell if I know. 

I’ve been looking over these notes for about ten minutes now, and I’m not getting the great flash of insight I expected. I’ve generated a lot of possibilities, but I haven’t been able to put together a grand theory that ties it all together. 

I have enough data points to shoot a lot of guesses down, but nowhere near enough to prop a theory up. The entire game, plus the trolls, are screaming about how grand and important the Players’ purpose is, but that purpose is still shrouded in mystery. 

In other words, I need more data. Watch this space.

[pegasusknightsonly]

i feel like i dunk on chrobin semi-regularly and everyone who follows this blog knows that in exchange for one of the absolute worst support chains in the game (chrom/frobin) you get one of the absolute worst lucinas (because she wants decent speed and skill from her mother, not class access) AND a completely garbage Morgan (oh boy! 15% increased procs for bad skill ignis!!!)

so I'm going to dunk on Chrom/Olivia for a moment and reiterate that strength is a dump stat in awakening and swordfaire is in the not worth stealing tier of skills. you would be better off using that slot for speed+2 and you would be better off giving Lucina a mother that she actually wants (like Sumia) who is actually available in the early game (like Sumia) and has great combat with Chrom (like Sumia) or just gives her a shit tonne of magic to pull off horrible vanven ds+ setups... like Maribelle.

[pegasusknightsonly]

if i try to use kjelle again on my next awakening luna run please frown at me. i'll do it anyway because i love kjelle and i love sully and i WILL make her function in lunatic somehow but kjelle has definitely had the most investment with the least results. i guess i could try gaius!kjelle through thief into assassin????? ah but she probably wants either luna or sol and she can only get sol through inheritance from gaius....... luna could be sullys inheritance but then she doesnt get deliverer or str+2 and wyvern rider is only worth using up to chapter 12 so i dont want to run kjelle through that if shes going through peg as well for galeforce

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[pegasusknightsonly]

it is the official view of this blogger based on their 2500+ hours of awakening played that Cordelia is the worst pegasus knight in awakening and that cannot be up for debate. awakening pegasus knights don't need attack or defence, they want good magic growth for their dark flier promotion (Cordelia has 20%), good skill growth to trigger frequent dual strikes from their partner (Cordelia is the only one who can't support Chrom and benefit from dual strike+) and speed and luck levels to improve their avo (Cordelia starts at level 7 with 12+2 speed and 60% growth. by contrast Sumia starts with 11+2 speed at level 1 with a 70% growth. similar story with luck. Cordelia starts with 9 as a level 7 with 45% growth. Sumia starts with 8 at level 1 and 60% growth). Cordelia is the only pegasus knight I've ever used who is capable of getting speed screwed and it makes her *useless*. last time i used her i married her to Ricken who has the same starting speed as Kellam (5). by the time they were at b support he was outspeeding her with no class changes or early promotions

i think it's a hangover from older fe games that were not awakening, because people also say that wyvern rider is a good class in awakening and it DEMONSTRABLY is not, but I've said it before I'll say it again: strength is a dump stat in awakening and unless you're doing something like Vaike!Nah in manakete with a dragonstone+ and sol overwhelmingly you want to build extremely fast units who do not get hit. defences don't matter if they don't get hit. avo is absurdly powerful in awakening and the game is not sophisticated enough to avoid 0% hit attacks so use it on the higher difficulties like you are supposed to! and start putting Cordelia in C on the tier lists where she belongs

[pegasusknightsonly]

what if awakening had personal skills

i really like the personal skills system in fates and wanted to apply it to a game i enjoy! a game i love, even! and rather than port over the fates skills directly i wanted them to better fit the awakening cast's personalities as well as the awakening metagame itself. a couple of notes and the list itself under the cut:

note #1: awakening is largely a hit/avo stacking game, and most of the class skills affect that. however applying this logic to all the personal skills would 0 out enemy hit WAY too early in the harder difficulties. I've therefore used a more fates-like damage modifier for most of them

note #2: awakening tends to give you pairs of units, with one unit being faster and more skillful but frailer, and the other having more bulk but less offensive power. where possible I've tried to distribute skills the same way, so more offensive personal skills have defensive counterparts elsewhere in the roster

note #3: this list is not perfectly balanced to make every unit equally viable on Luna+. some units are getting a considerable buff to their overall combat, some are getting utility skills, some are getting essentially rebalanced. this is, for now, a completely theoretical exercise and has not been playtested.

note #4: awakening considers supporting units in a pair to be adjacent to the lead unit, but not adjacent to the units adjacent to the lead. so units affected by L's adjacency skills are marked with an X (the / denotes that L is a lead unit in a pair up) .....X..... X L/X X .....X..... and unit's affected by S's adjacency skills are marked with a Z (the / denotes that S is the supporting unit in a pair up) .....0..... 0 Z/S 0 .....0......

note #5: the format for the list will be Unit name: Skill name. Skill description. (Any further notes)

Chrom: Fight Fair. Adjacent enemies can't activate damage-boosting skills. (Do you miss nihil from the tellius games? i do. do you think about nihil from the tellius games every time chapter 6 validar manages to proc vengeance on what should be the killing blow and makes you restart the entire map? i do!!!! Chrom's new personal gives you the only tool in the game to directly mitigate that, and as Chrom is the only unit force deployed on every story map it felt right to give him something Very Useful and unique. it does not nullify pavise, aegis, dragonskin or counter.)

Robin: Grand Strategy. Unit can use their remaining move after rallying. (Canto, for rallies only. It's not another action and Robin can't use this to attack.)

Lissa: Prankster. Adjacent allies have +5 hit and +5 crit. (this seems like it'll be annoying, which is just right for Lissa. finally a use for -skl Robin)

Frederick: Wary Watcher. +10 dodge when enemy has 100% HP.

Sully: Red Panther. When adjacent to two or more allies including pair up partner, +2 skill and +2 speed to unit and adjacent allies.

Virion: Gentilhomme. +5 hit and +5 avoid to all female allies within a 3 tile radius.

Stahl: Green Bull. When adjacent to one or more allies including pair up partner, +1 def and +1 res to unit and adjacent allies. (straightforward defensive counterpart to Sully's offensive skill)

Vaike: Big Swings. Unit does +2 damage when wielding an axe.

Miriel: Well Read. Unit does +2 damage when wielding a tome.

Sumia: Fly Together. Unit does +2 damage and receives -2 damage when paired up. (first story skill! I had to give Sumia something involved pair-up as she's the reason it exists)

Kellam: Undetectable. When supporting in a pair up, unit has +10% dual strike rate. (DS+ for Kellam only when supporting. Does not affect his partner's rate like DS+)

Lon'qu: Gynophobic. Unit deals and receives +2 damage when supported by a female unit. (ummed and ahhed about whether it should be +3, but he has like... 20 base HP. it's +2)

Maribelle: Refinement. Adjacent allies have +5 hit and +5 dodge. (a counterpart to Lissa's skill that is honestly a LOT more useful)

Ricken: Bravery. Unit takes -2 damage from non-adjacent attacks.

Panne: Natural Speed. Unit has +1 mov at when HP = 100% at the start of the turn. (A strong skill, sure, but Panne lacks galeforce to really make use of it and +1 HP level ups on enemy phase will negate it entirely. she could get mov+1 from thief and deliverer from griffon knight to go crazy with this but that's a LOT of effort. funny though)

Gaius: Nimble. Unit takes -2 damage from adjacent attacks.

Cordelia: Fly Solo. Unit does +2 damage and recieves -2 damage when not paired up. (straightforward counterpart to Sumia)

Nowi: Natural Defences. Unit has +2 def/res when HP = 100% at the start of the turn. (Like Panne, easily negated by +HP level ups on EP)

Gregor: School of Life. Unit's pair-up partner earns 20% more EXP. (it's not fair that veteran is Robin-exclusive, right? here's a worse version for, realistically, Miriel and Nowi only)

Libra: Calming Mien. +5 avoid and +5 dodge to all allies within a 3 tile radius.

Tharja: Spite. +20 hit when attacking enemies with <100% HP.

Olivia: Evasive. Avoid +10, but hit -15. (I wanted this to be contingent on her not holding a weapon but you have to get Olivia through dark flier somehow)

Cherche: Knightly Honour. +15 hit if enemy has 100% HP.

Henry: Mean Streak. +10 crit if enemy has <100% HP.

Lucina: One Sword. Receives 25% more EXP when carrying or wielding Parallel Falchion. Does not stack with other EXP-boosting skills. (specifically i don't want it to stack with veteran, not that Lucina should have that in her skill pool to begin with. I guess she can't benefit from Gregor's personal either but well... when would that ever come up?)

Say'ri: Blade Dedication. Unit does +2 damage when wielding a sword.

Basilio: West Khan. Unit does +2 damage when wielding a bow.

Flavia: East Khan. Adds 5% to Skill activation rates. (i actually forgot that they're main story recruitables. i never use them...)

Donnel: Lucky. Luck-based skills have their activation rate increased by 10%. (This really only applies to armsthrift in his class set but Donnel loves armsthrift)

Anna: Make A Killing. Unit can use their remaining move after opening a lock. (equivalent to Robin's utility skill and appropriate for the utility queen. in later games her skill "make a killing" is just awakening's despoil, so it didn't make sense to me to double it up even though Anna herself can't access it)

Owain: Aching Blood. +10 hit and +20 crit when <50% HP. (gamble/wrath/vantage ruin owain viable??????????????)

Inigo: Fair Flowers. Unit and partner deal +2 and receive -2 damage when paired up with a female unit.

Brady: Considerate. Luck% chance that the durability of the user's staves will not decrease on usage. (armsthrift... for STAVES)

Kjelle: Training Regime. +2 strength/speed/defence for one turn after attacking.

Cynthia: Crowd's Cheers. Unit recieves 1.5x the stat boost from rally skills. (The people go wild! Yay! Huzzah! Nice job, Cynthia! We love Cynthia! Hip-hip-hooray! …And so on.)

Severa: Competitive. When paired up, unit deals +3 damage but partner's dual strikes deal -5. (i feel like this should be worse, given how powerful pairup is...)

Gerome: Immovable Wall. +5% increase to dual guard rates.

Morgan: Adaptable. +10 avoid and +10 dodge when <50% HP.

Yarne: Timid Taguel. When paired up, unit deals -3 damage but partner's dual strikes deal +3. (straightforward counterpart to Severa. damn there's really good synergy between them, huh)

Laurent: Observant. When not paired up, unit has +15% dual strike rate.

Noire: Fluctuating State. On odd-numbered turns, +2 damage dealt. On even-numbered turns, -2 damage received.

Nah: Mighty Roar. -5 hit and -5 avo to all enemies within four spaces.

Tiki: The Voice. +5 hit to all allies and -5 dodge to all enemies within four spaces.

SPOTPASS CHARACTERS

Gangrel: Cruel Orders. +10 crit and -10 dodge to allies within three spaces.

Walhart: Iron Fist. All allies get +5 hit.

Emmeryn: Gentle Touch. -10 crit and +10 dodge to allies within four spaces.

Yen'fay: Ghost Of A Blade. +20 avoid when wielding a sword.

Aversa: Shadowgift. Unit can use dark magic in any tome wielding class.

Priam: Legendary Heritage. Adds 10% to Skill activation rates.

[pegasusknightsonly]

i love my ten years of percolating my own awakening metagame blissfully ignorant of the disgusting nostanking meta because it means i get to spend beautiful dreamy mornings with thoughts like "strength is a dump stat in awakening". utter bliss

[pegasusknightsonly]

ok here's my pitch for fates Cynthia

Diana. starting class sky knight. heart seal class: knight. recuited chapter 14, with the reinforcement wave - she'll start as a red unit but focus targeting Azura or Corrin if Azura isn't deployed. either of them can speak to her to recruit her.

Azura's retainer from a mysterious land! they got separated for a while, but she's glad to be back with her. her friendliness and optimism is never affected by her circumstances.

personal skill: redoubled efforts. unit deals +2 damage after being sung to or receiving the effects of a rally.

base growths in sky knight: HP 45% Str 45% Mag 25% Skl 35% Spd 60% Lck 60% Def 30% Res 50%

friendship options: Azura (fast support: gives knight, gets troubadour), Selena (gives sky knight, gets mercenary), Felicia (gives sky knight, gets troubadour), Mozu (gives sky knight, gets archer)

partner options: Laslow (fast support), Odin, Leo, Xander, Keaton, Benny, Silas, Kaze, Jakob, Arthur, Niles (so all normal options)

best partner? probably Laslow or Silas

best class route: you know it's quickdraw bowfaire kinshi knight Diana!! you know it fucking is!!! gunthia 2.0 this time shes flying!!!!!!!! but she could also have fun with luna and shurikens in maid. or do whatever her husband did but better. that my friends THAT is her true power. wow. cynthia

[pegasusknightsonly]

which ship fans are the most annoying?

it has to be chrobins just for the combination oversaturation + victim complex. any group which takes on the attitude that their opponents are both impossibly strong (intsys forced sumia down peoples throats as chrom's canon wife bc they either hate strong women or are homophobic, your pick) and absurdly weak (every reference to chrom and robin knowing each other or being friends is a secret nod to the fact that its Actually Their Canon Relationship) is just kind of unpleasant to be around. however the frobin chrobins and the mrobin chrobins are at constant war with each other and its the funniest thing in the world. davide they hate each other so much. they cannot just be happy with what they have while ive been over here in the f/f trenches trying to get people to care about sully/sumia for nine years

what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

i have to limit my exposure to fandom gerome and fandom inigo or i will go "chimp mode" and scare my neighbours. it sucks. both of these characters fanon selves are lifted straight from the pages of the BL you read when you were 14 that you vaguely remember as being ok and then revisit as an adult and think "wait i was just 14 , i didnt know i could have problems with this". gerome and inigo fans are doing a gravitation upon them except without any self-awareness or sense of humour or even passing references to fea itself

common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

my dislike for the argument that olivia is chroms best wife is pretty well documented atp but i want to shout out to the awakening-specific way that people will accuse each other of deliberately overhyping units due to them being their waifus. when anyone mentions sumia's bases (good) growths (excellent) and class potential (literally everything she could possibly want) in unit discussions there will be a pile on in the comments about how shes so overrated and overhyped. firstly i dont know if she can be when there are this many detractors secondly i dont know how much i trust the opinion of someone who played hard mode once over someone who plays no grind luna+ for fun THIRDLY these same people will argue to death that actually tharja is amazing and the best unit in the game. tharja on recruitment has 5 skill and 3 luck. i think shes absolutely fine but its so disingenous to say shes incredible when she has no hit

i also think cordelias base str and def trick people into thinking shes a straight upgrade on sumia when thats not how awakening works and wont actually help her long term. its amazing that cordelia is the first ever fe unit with 60% spd growth who can still get speed screwed!

[pegasusknightsonly]

Awakening' s Trick ! is that for anything below luna+ speed is the single most important stat for your units and then. against all logic. it's skill. in any other fe game you need enemy's speed+5 and anything more than that is wasted. in any other fe game you don't get significant returns on anything more than 100% hit. but avoid is so powerful in awakening that high speed is the single most important thing for every single unit on your team - you might make exceptions for say, nowi carrying vaike if you don't want her doubling to save dragonstone uses but even for Frederick more speed is always always a good thing. likewise, skill affects the dual strike trigger rate. having 168 listed hit is great but a 96% dual strike rate is so, so valuable

the biggest misconception people bring into awakening is speed and skill and luck will work like they do in other fe games. they don't. Sumia (the most awakening unit in awakening) is so misunderstood because people see her base hp str and def and assume that Cordelia is a direct upgrade to replace her, but!! but!!!! HP str and def are dump stats for Sumia! she doesn't need them!! she's got incredible skill speed and luck bases and a super fast support with Chrom, who not only has his own excellent skill growth but also comes with dual strike+ and three forms of effective weaponry

normal fe brain says put Sumia behind Frederick to give him a speed boost because he's the tank and that's just a little extra protection

a decade of awakening brain says put CHROM behind Sumia for the speed skill and luck boosts because nothing is going to be able to hit her anyway and she can then share exp with him via his effective and frequent dual strikes which are only going to get better as they increase their support

im not going to deny that there are parts of awakenings map design that are deeply frustrating, like the constant ambush reinforcements, but they feel a lot less unfair if you understand what awakening is giving you as a tool to deal with them. three mages are going to swarm on Frederick from the fort and delete his health? that's a sign that putting Frederick there is the wrong approach. three mages can swarm on Sumia and even if they do manage to hit her she's going to laugh off the damage, leaving her healthy enough to take on all the wyvern riders even with WTD because Chrom is going to delete them with falchion dual strikes

i get the sense that for a lot of people who care about fe gameplay meta that awakening is seen as a half-baked precursor to fates' gameplay but i don't think that's fair. awakening is a lot more consistent in the tools it gives the player than it gets credit for! it's not awakenings fault that people don't know how to use what they're given

[pegasusknightsonly]

something ive been thinking abt on and off for the better part of a decade is a gameplay mod for fe:a that gives *everyone* a limited support pool but still kind of functions enough to get all of the kids in most playthroughs. i think for this to work same sex s supports need to be enabled (which is not super helpful for any guy who isn't chrom, i get that) buuuutt i kept most of the in game matchups i really like AND i got nearly 100% galeforce coverage for the kids [100% gay too with chrom/gaius, sully/sumia, lissa/nowi, maribelle/cherche, cordelia/tharja, panne/olivia and f!robin/miriel)

anyway. this was a fun little thought exercise! i might try to do my next playthrough with these constraints and see how far i get

[pegasusknightsonly]

YouTube has unfortunately deduced that i am interested in "fire emblem" (very bold claim) and is trying to serve me rage clickbait about how I'm playing awakening wrong with a thumbnail with a crossed out Sumia and firstly i have been playing awakening alone in a cave for a decade i have found strategies you couldn't even dream of. secondly oh you're not using the best unit in the game? oh you want special big boy points for not using the unit with the ridiculous statline and growths that intsys gives to you in chapter three to say hey, we're going to get really silly with the avotanking really fast so hold on. pathetic. i don't even need to watch these videos and I've perfectly understood them and formulated a rebuttal in my head

[pegasusknightsonly]

(smiling so widely)

[pegasusknightsonly]

i know you can get Sumia galeforce for chapter 13 in no grind awakening by promoting her early but even putting aside the fact that i really like grinding in awakening Sumia is one of the best growth units in a whole game of growth units and that initial investment to get her to 20 before promoting is repaid with a better Lucina AND Sumia only needing a second seal to be viable for the entire rest of the game! so it's an actual decision you have to make!!!! invest in Sumia she's so worth it she's the best

[pegasusknightsonly]

awakening is so good when you understand how it wants you to play it and so bad when you try to play it like any other fe game, particularly if you're most used to those that came after awakening and learned from its mistakes. abuse the super generous 2rns! let Sumia be your tank!! set up those huge enemy phases and watch the meat grinder work!!! this and more can be yours ✨

[pegasusknightsonly]

APOTHEOSIS run post mortem

it's not exactly easy with The Big Three but it does trivialise most of the non-boss enemies. obviously i appreciated this but i can see why things get silly

if i do it again (and I'm not sure I will; planning and training is an absurd time commitment) I'm dumping at least one of my combat pairs in favour of two more staffbots

i got lucky on invincisorc's miracle rolls but i did miss a few dual strikes and that REALLY hurts

luna+ is scary but vantage+ is the scariest. but that's why we have longbows

the mire dark fliers were the most annoying thing on the map. just baiting them into range ate up like 3 turns

overall pair analysis:

Chrom/sumia: (sniper / sage)

honestly really good. the only gen one pair i brought and Sumia was so useful as a luna nuker in sage / utility staffbot. Chrom didn't have room for limit breaker so his combat looked a lot shakier than the other units who got to initiate. but honestly you can't ever go wrong with longbows

sumia!lucina/gregor!laurent: (sniper / berserker)

Lucina got a LOT more out of having a berserker supporting her than I thought she would. Laurent was an absolute beast and his dual strikes did so much damage. Lucina had enough speed to double some of the fastest and scariest enemies which was incredible

henry!owain/donnel!kjelle: (berserker / wyvern lord)

i ummed and ahh'd about having Kjelle be an avotank for Anna and ending up giving her half the kit that would've made that work. she still was great and i got so much usage from her wyvern lord mobility. owain took a last minute (relatively speaking) reclass into berserker which ended up being great for him. a few vengeance powered hits meant that i could get three kills for them in one turn. i think they did the most killing just because they had the mobility for it lol. maybe next time I'll have Kjelle do staff utility / anna tanking with a hard support

lonqu!brady/anna!morgan: (sage / dark flier)

so this is like. peak Brady. best he can hope for best he can do. still kind of mediocre. morgan did the second most mob killing after Kjelle again because her mobility as a dark flier was just superb but i don't think this was anywhere near the top performing Morgans. glad i had her in dark flier though

gaius!noire/virion!yarne: (assassin / berserker)

a really high performing pair but i couldn't really find that many things for them to do. Noire in assassin was so fast she took out one of Anna's thronies on enemy phase after losing a terrifying 72 HP which was fun. if I'd had fewer combat units i think they could've shined but they got lost in the pack a bit

stahl!severa/Frederick!gerome: (paladin / warrior)

my biggest whiff. Severa was in paladin because i hadn't decided on an Anna management strategy and wanted options, and it was that or like.. general if i wanted lancefaire in play. plus Noire was running bowfaire assassin and I was already fielding three snipers and three sages so having another pavise-locked unit kind of made sense to me but if i hadn't bothered bringing them i don't think i would've noticed. i forgot fred!gerome is awful for APOTHEOSIS and he really did nothing, the best he could manage was stacking breaker skills because of course cherche gives him FIGHTER and not BARBARIAN so he was stuck behind Severa in warrior picking and choosing when he felt like dual striking. i don't think Severa wanted a hard support partner; she'd probably have been a lot happier with Owain for a galepair. paladin mobility was also ass and having to rescue chain Severa twice just to get her in range of something wasn't worth it

Chrom!Cynthia/libra!Inigo: (sniper / sage)

look. i play favourites. I'm not ashamed of that. pigtailed punisher is always going to be my number one baby and my perfect forever girl. of course baby gets special treatment. but even trying to put aside my rose tinted love bonus i don't think she missed a single aether proc and she saw a LOT of scary combat. inigo did what he could with vengeance to give them extra mobility but Cynthia was just great AND she didn't benefit from berserker pair up bonuses like Lucina did!!!! BABY NUMBER ONE. FOREVER

seriously i should've benched Severa

i think. if i do it again. i might have lonqu!severa as an Anna killer in wyvern lord working with. Henry!owain or Stahl!Owain or something because mobility and versatility are going to matter to her a lot more than uh a tonne of defence. lmao

and tbh i wasn't so impressed with lonqu Brady that i will ever do it again. yeah lonqu is a great dad but oof. Brady.