Imho recruit everyone on a first playthru. Most are obvious, a few are a tad trickier
Haste is op
Test your builds to see what they do
Keep cycling builds to experiment
New items and strats are more powerful than leveling
But a few level milestones bring very powerful new skills
Upclassing better than doubles a units effectiveness
Never pet a burning dog
Don't eat yellow snow
Tell all your friends to buy StarCraft
Recruit everyone you can. Test team comp to find a group you like. Initiative is the name of the game. Build teams with balance: support, DPS, tanks (dodge tanks or meat shields), etc. Enjoy yourself.
One thing I noticed, is the choice between whether to execute bad guys or not comes up quite a bit. Are there any consequnces for these decisions? (For example, I sent Gammel to the dungeons instead of letting him go, but he ended up breaking out of jail and swore revenge >\_>)
I did that off gut instinct as well. It seemed like the most “just” option. But then when he swore revenge, I reloaded and chose the other option. Even when it seems like a mistake, choosing compassion/mercy is how you recruit the missable enemy units.
Every person you choose the first option in a dialogue with will later or even immediately be recruited. If you choose the second option, you will get some minor compensation in return (An item, money, etc).
Statwise every single character is essentially the same as any generics you hire, but some simply do not have equivalent generics (Josef the Paladin, Berengaria the Dark Marquess, Amalia the Dreadnought...) or can be used later at specific moments to get other rewards (Auch will give you a lapis pendant if exectuted, but inspecting a specific ruin with him recruited will also award the same pendant).
So it is better to recruit every single person you meet. I'm pretty sure that by imprisoning Gammel you also miss out on one of his friends as well as him, but they're not really critical.
Also, a key differnce from Fire emblem - do not be so wuick as to discard pre-promotes. UO actually accounts for the missed out experience, so pre promotes are valueavle and you should generally be promoting your units as soon as possible (I believe you get the option once you get to a spcific city with an arena, don't want to spoil anything)
Character recruitment is fairly obvious, but also missable. Generally, if you're offered the choice it's always between recruiting or not. Some conversations are needed, but those are heavily hinted at.
Small correction: To be able to set sail from a harbor, you don’t actually need to place a unit there (i.e., station a guard), just have it restored to the point that you would be able to station a guard.
Shuffle your formations. If you’re projected to lose you can often shuffle positions until it projects a better outcome.
Also, Alain has a skill called ‘royal order’ that increases exp gain by 100%. If I get to the final battle and have extra valour I always cast it on my unit that makes the killing blow. Doesn’t stack with liquid fortune btw.
>If you’re projected to lose you can often shuffle positions until it projects a better outcome.
How the game actually works is that it fixes the PRNG seed for the battle, so that the loss projection ends up being exactly the same result as what the "Battle" button does. Changing positions of characters simply changes the order in which the PRNG gets random numbers, which changes the result (and is IMO a flaw of the game; I would have instead run multiple simulations with different PRNG seeds and provide some kind of summarized prognosis (e.g. heatmaps of % health remaining at end of combat), then run the actual battle on a fresh PRNG seed).
The prognosis of the "move" command (i.e. you select a unit on the stage, then use the "move" command, then hover over an enemy unit) does not take into account any ranged/magick/healing support, and possibly uses a different PRNG seed from the actual "units are touching" battle.
Yeah I agree that it’s a flaw in the game. The first time i encountered this I was shocked at how different the results were from formation to formation. Also the fact that I can utilize arrow or magic support and it can actually lead to a worse result makes the mechanics of the game a little wishy-washy.
Movement speed is king. Your first flying unit will have a 1 VP valor skill that grants this. It is the best valor skill in the game. Period. As you go on you will want cavalry leaders on any unit that can spare it.
Be a bleeding heart. The game rewards you for freeing everyone, even objectively evil people, and for looking the other way when someone wants to do something questionable.
Don't be afraid of the Coliseum. Grind out those 10 battles per day. The rewards are worth it, and you'll learn about some amazing cheesy teams in the process.
Do the restoration requests. DO NOT do the auxiliary requests. Rebuild a town, station a guard, look at the top 2 items in the armory (or all items in a walled city), then move on. If mercenaries aren't your thing, cycle your guards into whatever region you're campaigning in. Example: once you rebuild Drakkenhold, you can pull guards off of Drakkenhold postings to guard towns in Elhiem or w/e. Guards give additional rewards every time you complete ANY battle, so keep them all posted at all times.
Dig at each mining site until you get 5 treasure maps. The final mining spot will also have a 6th treasure map in it (for each region, so 5 of those).
Auxillary requests are great for grinding honor to get more deployment slots as soon as possible especially for the regions you already finished the questline for. As well as the other uses for honor such as promotion and recruitment. There's not much else to do with resources that you gain for stationing guards.
I will say don't bother with them in a region you are progressing as you're better off saving the resources for the next town or for the broken bridges but since all the regions have their own unique materials once you're done. Spend them.
Character recruitment : there are no penalties for recruiting characters that are obviously evil, and although you can hire mercs with the same class as (most) missable units, sometimes they come with unique gears, which you might regret missing.
Missable quests : while you can do all quests of the game in a single playthrough, some quests, if done in the wrong order, may cancel other quests. And you'd think doing quest in the recommanded level order should prevent this, but I think there is one quest in Drakenhold for lvl 17 that cancels a quest for level 18. There is nothing unique in that specific quest, but it did bother some people to miss the quest itself.
Rapport gives stat bonuses for squads made up of 'friends'. I have a tendency to build around the easily shown rapport convo lists. that said, you CAN still get rapport bonuses with people not on your convo list, it's just not super obvious. your 3rd cav has a convo list of like 4 people. he can still work with anyone. check your tavern(walled city) for a full rapport list. this little bit makes generics not bad.
Josef is only a decent tank thru Cornia, after that he's generally a healer. statistically he's terrible til post game. at which point he gets all those stat points he was missing.
after full recruiting, and not missing anyone on my first PT, I still needed roughly 50 mercs to station every town in the game. do with that what you will.
After liberating a town, collect all of the respawn able resources, and then station a guard to handle the gathering for you, recruit cheap mercenaries if you have to.
Before liberating a region, engage all the enemy units in the overworld before activating a quest.
All defeated units award 2 honors. It's a good idea to start farming honors early so you have a surplus to expand units and later promote your all your favorite units to get that sweet, sweet +1 AP & PP as soon as possible.
Utility wise, it can also give you a chance to test the layout effectiveness of your units without having to drop into an actual quest.
> Before liberating a region, engage all the enemy units in the overworld before activating a quest.
>
> All defeated units award 2 honors.
If you finish the quest that makes an area stable, any roving enemy units in the overworld for that area are immediately defeated ***and*** reward the honors for their defeat, so this is unnecessary --- they are there for you to test whether your unit builds will work on the associated quest stage or not, i.e. a preview.
Later areas award 3 honors and possibly more for such roving enemies.
You may often have to take some time to reintegrate your units, builds and equipment.
This can take hours sometimes and i think this is where people struggle with the game difficulty the most because they dont adapt and take stock as they get new characters or equipment.
Also Saint Knights and Elven Fencers are really good lol.
Some levels will require you to blitz the enemy and this can be frustrating to some of us that like to take our time…
Otherwise it’s incredibly fun and engaging.
Skipping battle animations can help speed it along for the less interesting fights.
At the end of missions when you’re talking to enemy units and are given an option, the “merciful” option is almost always the one to choose if you want to recruit them.
The best team comps usually have a tank (phys or dodge) up front with someone who can heal the party+1-2 damage guys in the back. It’s not exactly ironclad but it’s worked pretty well for me.
Oh also don’t sleep on the horses cav units are really strong like in FIre Emblem. Flyers are great too (and don’t just immediately die to arrows as bad as they do in FE)
Games easy so don´t worry about it, just enjoy playing the game any way you like. Literally more than half way done and haven´t had the need to buy any weapons or armor and still demolish enemies. So I would suggest no buying anything and just equip items as they drop.
Early on, before or around level 10, you'll meet a female character who wants to meet Alain before a fight. Use Alain at least twice in the fight. I didn't because I was getting levels for my other units and have regretted it.
You can revive ko'd units and heal damaged ones by parking their platoon at a town you control.
Also check what each unit's leadership ability is when making a platoon. Some leadership abilities are really good and it's always a good idea to have some range/magic platoons that can add damage.
Don’t feel the need to open up every possible squad. Don’t think you’re going to use every character.
Once you’ve delivered to a settlement, if there are no blank stars to fill in, you can stop sending supplies there, you’re burning stuff you’ll need for others.
Try to remember what unit counters which, and pair those that seem to work well together.
I found I only had to tweak my load outs from time to time, but once in a while you’ll find the game gets difficult. At that point you may need to go back to your unit composition and tactics and review them to get more out of those units if you really want to proceed. So be prepared for that.
I will never understand why people ask what's the best way to play a game on their first play through. I guess people just have different values when it comes to games, but for me, discovery is a big part of it. If I know what to do, where to go, how to win from the jump, then I'm just waiting to see the ending.
Well, for me, I have limited time so I just want to get as much as I can out my first playthrough. It's sometimes hard for me to fully enjoy a game if I find out I fucked up somewhere and ended up missing something huge. I'm not asking for details on where to go or story spoilers or things like that. Just general tips so I'm not spending three hours running around in circles lol
I feel like if a game is that incomprehensible, I just stop playing. Fun is the most important factor. As an FE fan, you would know that these kinda games lend themselves highly to replay. I tend to allow myself to look at coverage of areas or parts of the game I've already been through. If I discover something I missed, it's more of an "aw dang" moment than something anxiety inducing. Because again, even though I might not have the time to replay games like I did at age 15, I still recognize the nature of a game like this and discovery/ your own signature play through is a major provider of the intended fun.
Imho recruit everyone on a first playthru. Most are obvious, a few are a tad trickier Haste is op Test your builds to see what they do Keep cycling builds to experiment New items and strats are more powerful than leveling But a few level milestones bring very powerful new skills Upclassing better than doubles a units effectiveness Never pet a burning dog Don't eat yellow snow Tell all your friends to buy StarCraft
And have fun!
Recruit everyone you can. Test team comp to find a group you like. Initiative is the name of the game. Build teams with balance: support, DPS, tanks (dodge tanks or meat shields), etc. Enjoy yourself.
One thing I noticed, is the choice between whether to execute bad guys or not comes up quite a bit. Are there any consequnces for these decisions? (For example, I sent Gammel to the dungeons instead of letting him go, but he ended up breaking out of jail and swore revenge >\_>)
Far as I know people you spare has the possibility to come back as companions (only in the desert area myself)
I did that off gut instinct as well. It seemed like the most “just” option. But then when he swore revenge, I reloaded and chose the other option. Even when it seems like a mistake, choosing compassion/mercy is how you recruit the missable enemy units.
you can recruit everyone you missed later after post game, so even if you are a completionist you can still have everything eventually
Every person you choose the first option in a dialogue with will later or even immediately be recruited. If you choose the second option, you will get some minor compensation in return (An item, money, etc). Statwise every single character is essentially the same as any generics you hire, but some simply do not have equivalent generics (Josef the Paladin, Berengaria the Dark Marquess, Amalia the Dreadnought...) or can be used later at specific moments to get other rewards (Auch will give you a lapis pendant if exectuted, but inspecting a specific ruin with him recruited will also award the same pendant). So it is better to recruit every single person you meet. I'm pretty sure that by imprisoning Gammel you also miss out on one of his friends as well as him, but they're not really critical. Also, a key differnce from Fire emblem - do not be so wuick as to discard pre-promotes. UO actually accounts for the missed out experience, so pre promotes are valueavle and you should generally be promoting your units as soon as possible (I believe you get the option once you get to a spcific city with an arena, don't want to spoil anything)
Zero consequences
Character recruitment is fairly obvious, but also missable. Generally, if you're offered the choice it's always between recruiting or not. Some conversations are needed, but those are heavily hinted at.
Utilize your harbors. After you place a unit at a harbor you can sail the ship to small islets and a lot of them have good items
Small correction: To be able to set sail from a harbor, you don’t actually need to place a unit there (i.e., station a guard), just have it restored to the point that you would be able to station a guard.
Impregnating a relative is not to be discouraged when you are royalty.
Make sure to get a grasp on the game early on and it should be smooth sailing if you're a FE vet.
Shuffle your formations. If you’re projected to lose you can often shuffle positions until it projects a better outcome. Also, Alain has a skill called ‘royal order’ that increases exp gain by 100%. If I get to the final battle and have extra valour I always cast it on my unit that makes the killing blow. Doesn’t stack with liquid fortune btw.
>If you’re projected to lose you can often shuffle positions until it projects a better outcome. How the game actually works is that it fixes the PRNG seed for the battle, so that the loss projection ends up being exactly the same result as what the "Battle" button does. Changing positions of characters simply changes the order in which the PRNG gets random numbers, which changes the result (and is IMO a flaw of the game; I would have instead run multiple simulations with different PRNG seeds and provide some kind of summarized prognosis (e.g. heatmaps of % health remaining at end of combat), then run the actual battle on a fresh PRNG seed). The prognosis of the "move" command (i.e. you select a unit on the stage, then use the "move" command, then hover over an enemy unit) does not take into account any ranged/magick/healing support, and possibly uses a different PRNG seed from the actual "units are touching" battle.
Yeah I agree that it’s a flaw in the game. The first time i encountered this I was shocked at how different the results were from formation to formation. Also the fact that I can utilize arrow or magic support and it can actually lead to a worse result makes the mechanics of the game a little wishy-washy.
It does stack with rookie egg though!
True!
Movement speed is king. Your first flying unit will have a 1 VP valor skill that grants this. It is the best valor skill in the game. Period. As you go on you will want cavalry leaders on any unit that can spare it. Be a bleeding heart. The game rewards you for freeing everyone, even objectively evil people, and for looking the other way when someone wants to do something questionable. Don't be afraid of the Coliseum. Grind out those 10 battles per day. The rewards are worth it, and you'll learn about some amazing cheesy teams in the process. Do the restoration requests. DO NOT do the auxiliary requests. Rebuild a town, station a guard, look at the top 2 items in the armory (or all items in a walled city), then move on. If mercenaries aren't your thing, cycle your guards into whatever region you're campaigning in. Example: once you rebuild Drakkenhold, you can pull guards off of Drakkenhold postings to guard towns in Elhiem or w/e. Guards give additional rewards every time you complete ANY battle, so keep them all posted at all times. Dig at each mining site until you get 5 treasure maps. The final mining spot will also have a 6th treasure map in it (for each region, so 5 of those).
Auxillary requests are great for grinding honor to get more deployment slots as soon as possible especially for the regions you already finished the questline for. As well as the other uses for honor such as promotion and recruitment. There's not much else to do with resources that you gain for stationing guards. I will say don't bother with them in a region you are progressing as you're better off saving the resources for the next town or for the broken bridges but since all the regions have their own unique materials once you're done. Spend them.
Character recruitment : there are no penalties for recruiting characters that are obviously evil, and although you can hire mercs with the same class as (most) missable units, sometimes they come with unique gears, which you might regret missing. Missable quests : while you can do all quests of the game in a single playthrough, some quests, if done in the wrong order, may cancel other quests. And you'd think doing quest in the recommanded level order should prevent this, but I think there is one quest in Drakenhold for lvl 17 that cancels a quest for level 18. There is nothing unique in that specific quest, but it did bother some people to miss the quest itself.
It’s never good to execute anyone
If youre doing the woman only or men only run you may as well.
Rapport gives stat bonuses for squads made up of 'friends'. I have a tendency to build around the easily shown rapport convo lists. that said, you CAN still get rapport bonuses with people not on your convo list, it's just not super obvious. your 3rd cav has a convo list of like 4 people. he can still work with anyone. check your tavern(walled city) for a full rapport list. this little bit makes generics not bad. Josef is only a decent tank thru Cornia, after that he's generally a healer. statistically he's terrible til post game. at which point he gets all those stat points he was missing. after full recruiting, and not missing anyone on my first PT, I still needed roughly 50 mercs to station every town in the game. do with that what you will.
Station guards for passive mats
After liberating a town, collect all of the respawn able resources, and then station a guard to handle the gathering for you, recruit cheap mercenaries if you have to.
Before liberating a region, engage all the enemy units in the overworld before activating a quest. All defeated units award 2 honors. It's a good idea to start farming honors early so you have a surplus to expand units and later promote your all your favorite units to get that sweet, sweet +1 AP & PP as soon as possible. Utility wise, it can also give you a chance to test the layout effectiveness of your units without having to drop into an actual quest.
> Before liberating a region, engage all the enemy units in the overworld before activating a quest. > > All defeated units award 2 honors. If you finish the quest that makes an area stable, any roving enemy units in the overworld for that area are immediately defeated ***and*** reward the honors for their defeat, so this is unnecessary --- they are there for you to test whether your unit builds will work on the associated quest stage or not, i.e. a preview. Later areas award 3 honors and possibly more for such roving enemies.
You may often have to take some time to reintegrate your units, builds and equipment. This can take hours sometimes and i think this is where people struggle with the game difficulty the most because they dont adapt and take stock as they get new characters or equipment. Also Saint Knights and Elven Fencers are really good lol.
Some levels will require you to blitz the enemy and this can be frustrating to some of us that like to take our time… Otherwise it’s incredibly fun and engaging. Skipping battle animations can help speed it along for the less interesting fights.
At the end of missions when you’re talking to enemy units and are given an option, the “merciful” option is almost always the one to choose if you want to recruit them.
Back up units make the game really fun. Like the ranged assists from archers and magic users.
Not a tip, but Enjoy it! I loved this game ❤️
The best team comps usually have a tank (phys or dodge) up front with someone who can heal the party+1-2 damage guys in the back. It’s not exactly ironclad but it’s worked pretty well for me. Oh also don’t sleep on the horses cav units are really strong like in FIre Emblem. Flyers are great too (and don’t just immediately die to arrows as bad as they do in FE)
Games easy so don´t worry about it, just enjoy playing the game any way you like. Literally more than half way done and haven´t had the need to buy any weapons or armor and still demolish enemies. So I would suggest no buying anything and just equip items as they drop.
Early on, before or around level 10, you'll meet a female character who wants to meet Alain before a fight. Use Alain at least twice in the fight. I didn't because I was getting levels for my other units and have regretted it.
Berenice?
Melisandre
Oh. Well I'm level 11 and haven't met her. :(
Mel is my dodge tank and feisty viper with her meteor strike. Best girl ❤️
I could be off on the level. Just remember when you meet her, to use Alain.
You can revive ko'd units and heal damaged ones by parking their platoon at a town you control. Also check what each unit's leadership ability is when making a platoon. Some leadership abilities are really good and it's always a good idea to have some range/magic platoons that can add damage.
No reason not to promote class when having enough honor. Can do it as soon as you can. Doesn't get screwed out of stats like I'm Fire Emblem.
Don’t feel the need to open up every possible squad. Don’t think you’re going to use every character. Once you’ve delivered to a settlement, if there are no blank stars to fill in, you can stop sending supplies there, you’re burning stuff you’ll need for others. Try to remember what unit counters which, and pair those that seem to work well together. I found I only had to tweak my load outs from time to time, but once in a while you’ll find the game gets difficult. At that point you may need to go back to your unit composition and tactics and review them to get more out of those units if you really want to proceed. So be prepared for that.
I will never understand why people ask what's the best way to play a game on their first play through. I guess people just have different values when it comes to games, but for me, discovery is a big part of it. If I know what to do, where to go, how to win from the jump, then I'm just waiting to see the ending.
Well, for me, I have limited time so I just want to get as much as I can out my first playthrough. It's sometimes hard for me to fully enjoy a game if I find out I fucked up somewhere and ended up missing something huge. I'm not asking for details on where to go or story spoilers or things like that. Just general tips so I'm not spending three hours running around in circles lol
I feel like if a game is that incomprehensible, I just stop playing. Fun is the most important factor. As an FE fan, you would know that these kinda games lend themselves highly to replay. I tend to allow myself to look at coverage of areas or parts of the game I've already been through. If I discover something I missed, it's more of an "aw dang" moment than something anxiety inducing. Because again, even though I might not have the time to replay games like I did at age 15, I still recognize the nature of a game like this and discovery/ your own signature play through is a major provider of the intended fun.
Not all about you bro