I think money was just never an issue this time around and I was ahead of the curve speedwise fast enough that the shields didn't make sense. I could have micro managed a bit with unequipping it when I need to double but it was just so tedious I didn't bother and it didn't make a difference.

I just noticed a lampos shield from the great knight boss in one of the GD post time skip chapters. +3 def 0 weight seemed pretty good at the time, since I was just barely doubling some stuff.

The boss with the aurora shield the next chapter just had so much speed I don't think I would be able to steal it without actually investing levels into the thief, but one of those would definitely be useful.

Kipsate

Netherlands45349 Posts

October 07 2019 12:29 GMT

#3262

I was actually getting into troublr with money early on, the weapons( combat art galore) , gifts, gardening, batallion replenishing added up.

All went better when I finally fished empty the entire pond with that multiple large fish event.

chocorush

694 Posts

October 08 2019 22:15 GMT

#3263

I found using the training weapons helped a lot on the weapons front. I don't think I spent a ton on gardening because the money usually didn't mean the difference between yield levels.

You also get a crap ton of money and forging materials from getting perfects on the group training exercises.

TheYango

United States47024 Posts

October 09 2019 00:08 GMT

#3264

There's a weird correlation between yield level and cultivation level. Also, higher cultivation level does increase the probability of Stat booster drops independent of yield level.

chocorush

694 Posts

October 09 2019 05:26 GMT

#3265

Spending more money affects the distribution even when it doesn't change the only stat the game gives feedback for? I just figured it was the number of seeds, the yield, and the quality of the seeds.

TheYango

United States47024 Posts

October 09 2019 10:10 GMT

#3266

The main thing that yield affects is the rarity of the "normal" drops. Likelihood of getting a Stat booster is rolled separately.

The entire gardening system is annoyingly esoteric for something that can produce such an enormous advantage when abused.

chocorush

694 Posts

October 12 2019 02:58 GMT

#3267

Is the chance of getting the rainbow fish really 5 percent on the event day regardless of bait? I used almost a 100 at 3+ tries per bait and never got one.

TheYango

United States47024 Posts

October 12 2019 06:34 GMT

#3268

I've never tried that hard to catch one but I've also never gotten one.

Kipsate

Netherlands45349 Posts

October 12 2019 08:48 GMT

#3269

I heard it was 20% (that is, when you throw it so every bait has 3x chance for the 20%) and you can only catch it with the best bait, I managed to snag 3 with 5 bait. (which should be enough for the final map to give myself 3x to all stats or so).

chocorush

694 Posts

October 12 2019 14:57 GMT

#3270

How are you getting the Zanard treasure fruits? I couldn't really figure it out and didn't end up bothering since I probably won't need it.

TheYango

United States47024 Posts

October 12 2019 18:11 GMT

#3271

Zanado Treasure Fruit requires Yield 3 Morfis-Plum Seeds or Boa-Fruit Seeds. Doing it with Boa-Fruit seeds is annoying since they can't achieve Yield 3 without mixed stock, which subjects you to RNG for which seed type gives you drops. So practically speaking, the best way to get Zanado Treasure Fruits is to plant either exactly 2 Morfis-Plum seeds with at least "Prune" or better cultivation or higher, or exactly 4 Morfis-Plum seeds with any cultivation method.

Yes this system is ridiculous for a game that's ostensibly an SRPG.

Kipsate

Netherlands45349 Posts

October 13 2019 15:35 GMT

#3272

Thank god for Divine Pulse, I know some people don't like it as it encourages you to take dumb RNG risks but fucking same turn reinforcements is even more bullshit on Maddening. Im on map 21 on Blue Lions and there are reinforcements coming from every angle basically and at random times.

I will say that Ingrid is MVP so far because of her ability to evasion tank, hold up enemies, bait shit and tank bolting/meteors until the enemy runs out of charges.

I also should have planned further ahead, Felix as a Swordmaster is extremely meh and serves only to finish off enemies (low movement speed, easy to get killed). Should have made him a Bow Knight as well (running 2 Bow Knights already lol).
Also Hilda is so far behind on all growths, guess ill try to make her an evasion baiter as well or something.

I should have leveled up Dorothea...basically my roster is just a bunch of Cantoing shit and a random Lysethia.

chocorush

694 Posts

October 15 2019 03:06 GMT

#3273

Got around to finishing gd route on maddening. It's honestly closer to what hard mode should have been at release, though there are enough systems that it would have been difficult on the first run without some familiarity.

I guess the main things that could have been done better was planning on relics usage and repairs, and getting savage blow on a couple more characters. I had overinvested resources for the early/mid game and didn't know how much I needed to scale late, but nothing was unmanageable. Just had to play a little slow because of how player phase oriented my team became.

It still feels like a lot of stuff is ultimately meaningless. I'll probably do less paralogues and skip more objectives in later runs.

TheYango

United States47024 Posts

October 15 2019 03:26 GMT

#3274

Maddening in place of Hard Mode would have made a lot of people unhappy. The mode has the same problem as Awakening Lunatic where the comparatively high difficulty of the first 5-ish maps is just going to turn people off to the mode, even though past that the game is not that hard once you know how to navigate the various systems. Awakening Lunatic has a perpetual reputation of being a "bullshit" difficulty even though it's quite frankly not that difficult compared to most FE hardmodes when taken as a whole--it's just the first few maps are disproportionately difficult.

Not having a Jeigan really detracts from the gameplay in the first few maps, and IMO the game would have been better served having one. Jeralt's even there, he's just not playable.

It's also not entirely clear to me what purpose the lower XP yields is supposed to serve. If they wanted to deter lowmanning, they needed to make the penalty for being overleveled harsher. A fixed % decrease to XP gain just promotes lowmanning more because it punishes underleveled and overleveled units equally, while requiring your best units to see more combat to *get* overleveled in the first place. I funneled XP into way fewer units on Maddening than on Hard.

Ultimately, 3H Maddening is a more satisfying experience than 3H Hard, but still fails to address most of the major gameplay flaws present on Hard.

chocorush

694 Posts

October 15 2019 03:45 GMT

#3275

The exp nerf pretty much didn't even matter when you got access to the statues. You get so much resources all at once that you don't really fall behind the curve until endgame.

TheYango

United States47024 Posts

October 15 2019 04:14 GMT

#3276

I was thinking specifically in the context of a NG playthrough without statues. A Maddening playthrough with statues has basically the same XP economy as a Hard playthrough without them.

chocorush

694 Posts

October 15 2019 13:23 GMT

#3277

I might play the next one without the statues. I just figured the game throws so much renown at you that it was supposed to be a core monastery mechanic.

The main thing the experience nerfs affected for me was making it pretty pointless to go down weapon proficiencies that you have a disadvantage in. I actually ended up getting sylvain all the way to bow knight but by then I realized that it was a complete waste of resources and paladin was better because I needed the lancefaire bonus to do any semblance of damage.

I ended up getting Hilda to B authority, but that also seemed pointless since I didn't have enough B rank flying battalions to go around anyways.

Not sure if it's feasible to get the S+ weapon abilities in general. After I got the ranks I needed, I just dumped the rest into the main weapon and didn't really get close on anyone other than Lysithea who got dark tomefaire easily.

Kipsate

Netherlands45349 Posts

October 15 2019 15:12 GMT

#3278

You can always do the dumb thing and use a broken Iron bow/whatever weapon to spam at someone for 70 turns with a knowledge gem.

chocorush

694 Posts

October 17 2019 15:55 GMT

#3279

Looks like the calculations for the greenhouse are up on serenesforest now. I'm sure someone will crunch all these numbers, but it doesn't seem like there's much point in doing more than heuristically using the most number of seeds with the highest grade and cultivation you can afford.

Using the rank 6 cultivation will always improve your yield by a half rank for the +5% gain in stat booster coefficient.

TheYango

United States47024 Posts

October 17 2019 16:26 GMT

#3280

Yup. Seems like the number of seeds directly modifies stat booster chance more than yield does (6% per seed vs. 5% per 10 yield score), so there's basically no point in trying to optimize yield unless you're specifically trying to get an item from the yield 3 drop table. That said, there are a handful of cases where the mod 12 part of the score formula rolls over and you drop from yield 3 to yield 1.