So Chrom and Sumia are already married XD Now, I don't know if I care about min-maxing enough to really just plan it out like that, though. For my first playthrough, at least, I'll just pair them up how I feel. I can't wait to get Lissa and Lon'qu together I will hold out with marrying my avatar, though So wait, Chrom is married to Sumia, but I can still see S-ranks available with others for them. Can they still achieve that, or did that just stay from before? I'd be surprised if this game didn't have a gay option but did a poly amorous one
You don't have the other restricted romance characters yet. You can tell from the Support page, because all potential Supports are visible. You'll notice that Chrom can't S Rank with Lissa, for example, so her Supports on the page only list C through A. There is no limit to Supports in this game except for the "one S Rank" rule (in most previous games in the series, you were restricted to five Supports per character). So you can potentially fill in basically every Support on the page. Well, aren't kids these days precocious. But, Yes, when a mommy warrior and a daddy warrior love each other very much... Children units are unlocked by S Rank Supports. The actual character is usually determined by the mother (though Chrom and the male Avatar have their own set children as well). The father can supply skills and potential classes, though. Remember how I said units can become one of three basic classes? Children can become any of the jobs of their parents (with some replacements for special jobs, or jobs restricted by gender, like Pegasus Knight). So Cordelia can become a Dark Mage, Pegasus Knight, or Mercenary. Her child (another awesome character named Severa) can become those classes as well (though she starts as a Mercenary). Plus the classes of her father. So if you pair Cordelia and Stahl, for example, Severa will gain the ability to change to Myrmidon, Cavalier, and Archer (one of my favorite pairings for Cordelia, both for story and for skill potential it gives to Severa). Skills can also be inherited directly. A child unit gains the last skill equipped by each parent at the time you meet the child unit. This is great because it lets you get gender specific class skills (like Galeforce, learned by the Pegasus Knight promotion Dark Flier, and which is the probably the best skill in the game) over to the other gender child. There is also stat inheritance. Each character has certain base stats. For a child unit, those base stats are averaged into the stats of the parents. So if you grind up a lot of stats for parents, the children will start pretty darn powerful (I have had child characters start with max stats in their base class by grinding a lot). Stat caps are also inherited. While each class has its own maximum stats, each individual unit raises those caps for some stats, and lowers them for others (Miriel boosts Magic and lowers Strength, for example). Children get the caps of both parents added together, and then a +1 bonus to all stat caps on top of that. As you may be able to tell, children are pretty broken (relatively, the game is still difficult), and allow for a ton of min-maxing, but it gets worse. Remember how I said that any character can basically S Rank with any other? Yeah, they can't with the restricted units or child units. Except for your Avatar, who can S Rank with anyone. The Avatar's kid gets access to all non-unique jobs available (male Avatar has female kid, and vice versa), and the stats and stat caps of the parent (though the +1 stat cap for being a child doesn't stack). So I would hold off marrying your Avatar yet. You have a lot of characters to meet still, including all the children, so don't rush into marriage. Or, if you do want to S Rank before getting everyone (depends on grinding and DLC you do) go for Chrom's daughter. Both from story and gameplay, she's the best unit, and her child with the male Avatar is almost game-breaking. If you have a female Avatar, marry Chrom yourself. Trust me, worth it.
Haha Thanks a bunch. And I'm sorry - I get these moments where I just ask question upon question and get lost in that. So what are some of the characters that are exclusively romantic with the avatar? Besides Chrom and Sumia I've also been pushing Frederick and Sully and Lissa and Lon'qu heavily. Can I go with it, or should I wait a little? I have this suspicion of what they do. They make babies, right? You can tell me, I think I can take it
To boost relationships, just fight together. Either Paired or just adjacent. Healing each other also works, as does using Seeds of Trust on Paired units, or sometimes standing Paired units on shiny tiles. Barracks events are identical to shiny tile events, but occur every couple of hours and affect random characters. They can also give 2 point bonuses to two random stats for the duration of one battle. And there are special events for a character on their birthday, where they'll get one of every event type.
Whoa. Slow down. Yes, S Ranks are romantic (marriage proposals specifically). They actually have a huge impact on both gameplay and story. You have to marry Chrom by the end of the war with Plegia (Chapter 13, I think), or the game will marry him to the girl he has the highest Support with. Two chapters after that, you'll see the full impact. I would recommend building as many A Ranks as you can, but making no S Ranks (except Chrom) until after you know what they do (tell me if you want those spoilers, but I'll be as non spoilery with them as I can if you do want to know). The best girls for Chrom to marry are Sumia and Olivia. Olivia is really hard to marry, though, because if Chrom has even a C Rank Support with any female, you can't marry her, because she only arrives in the Chapter he gets married in. Most characters can marry any member of the main opposite gender cast (special characters like Anna and a couple others you'll get later are restricted to opposite-gender Avatars only). Sumia and Chrom both have restricted options, but everyone else is fairly free. Supports boost combat stats. It gives higher stat bonuses when using Pair Up, and it increases the adjacent combat bonuses. Basically any time characters are paired or standing side-by-side, you get boosts. They're little green numbers that pop up at the start of a fight. You get +10 to Hit for being beside one character, then each additional increases it further. +10 Dodge, +10 Crit, +10 Avoid, then it cycles back to +5 additional Hit, and keeps going in increments of 5 after that. Each Support Rank acts as an extra level, so Pairing with one A Rank is the same as being completely surrounded by friendly units.
Any tips on raising the relationship level between characters? I can't remember what my exact relationships are, but I know that Chrom and Sumia are at rank A. I've noticed only opposite sexes get to rank S - so that's romantic relations? If you pick a character to achieve an S rank with, does that disable you from reaching that rank with others? And can I ship anyone with anyone, as long as they're the opposite sex? And no gay options? And what does this all have to do with anything? Is it just that they get better bonuses when they're paired up, or is there something more to it? And any other way to make characters grow closer than pairing them up? And I don't really understand how barracks work and what determines whether any new conversations will appear there.
Oh, right, additional: Every character is better being swapped, especially with no DLC. This is because any one character can use five skills, but two from base class and two from promoted class will leave them with only four. I already told you the best base classes (Pegasus Knight, Mercenary, and Dark Mage). So use the item on the guys you like, see who can become one, and cancel out if they can't (a lot of the girls can be Pegasus Knights). You don't use up the item until you confirm the swap, so don't be afraid to check them out. Also, I always promote and get to at least level 15 before using a Second Seal. More stats, more skills, negligible cost (Master Seals are much easier to get than Second Seals, until they're both in shops).
Technically, it's always better to get to the highest level you can before promoting or changing classes. Most classes actually go up to level 20. The game tracks the number of times you promote or switch classes, and the more you do it, the less experience you get per fight. So getting to 20 before promoting (or getting an advanced class to 20 before switching to a new one) will keep you earning experience faster than if you just promote or change classes immediately (this was huge in previous Fire Emblem games, because you didn't have Second Seals, so you couldn't just reset characters to level one and start over indefinitely). So to squeeze the most out of your leveling, it's better to promote/change class later. Changing to a new job resets you to level one, but you keep the stat increases you got from your previous levels. So while you can switch Chrom to a Cavalier and he'll drop to level one, he'll also have a lot higher stats than either Sully or Stahl started with. Each character has three basic classes to choose from. The class you get them in, and two others. Each basic class has two promoted classes it can become. But some classes share promotions (both Cavaliers and Knights can promote to Great Knights, for example). So characters have four to six promoted classes to choose from (plus DLC classes if you unlock them). Most units start as basic classes. The game won't directly tell you, but the easiest way to check is by what levels they learn skills. Each class learns two skills. A basic class learns one immediately at level 1, and then its second skill at level 10, right when it is ready to promote. An advanced class learns one skill at level 5, and then its second skill at level 15. You can also tell by how many skills the class knows. Every advanced class unit will start with at least two skills, because they would begin with the level 1 and 10 skills from their corresponding basic class. So Frederick, for example, starts with Discipline and Outdoor Fighter from the Cavalier class, and will learn Luna at level 5, and Dual Guard at level 15 from his Great Knight class. There are also a couple unique classes. Donnel's Villager class is an example of this. It doesn't have a promoted version. Instead, it goes from level 1 to 30, and it learns skills at level 1 and level 15. The classes that fit this are usually pretty good, actually. While they don't get as many skills through their basic class, they tend to have stat caps more in line with a promoted class if you level the character up a lot, and their skills or inherent abilities are usually pretty powerful. The exception being Donnel's Villager class. It has powerful skills, but it's stat caps kind of suck. Max it, then switch to Mercenary (and promote Mercenary to Hero) and never look back. The other level 30 classes are Taguel (Panne), Manakete (Nowi), Dancer (Olivia), and the two DLC classes: Dread Fighter and Bride (Dread Fighter is pretty overpowered, if you do go for it. Awesome stats, good skills, and can use both weapons and magic).
So I've got one of each seal. Was thinking of grinding a little right now. Maybe not to level 10, but to 8 at least, because that's Chrom's level. Any advice on changing classes? Should I just use it on anyone, or are some of the units fine with their classes as is? I think I'm starting chapter 6 now. Also, how can I tell if a class is basic or advanced?
If you go to the Longfort map (the one before the Arena), you can buy an item called the "Reeking Box". This item can then be used on the map to summon a Risen army to wherever you're currently positioned that you can choose to fight. These are essentially the same as the random Risen fights that spring up on the map from time to time. It's the only real way to grind outside of DLC. Each fight will vary in difficulty depending on where you use the item (the later game the place you summon them, the stronger the foes get), but the enemies will always have some of the items you can sell for gold, so you will be able to make money off of them. Other than that, I recommend buying the Golden Pack DLC if you want to grind. It has two fantastic grind chapters that can be repeated indefinitely. Just go to the Outrealm Gate and buy it if you want (then buy the rest of the DLCs, because they're all AWESOME). As for class switching, it's based on items. There are two Seals in the game. The Master Seal promotes from a base class to a more advanced class (the base class must be at least level 10, and Villager, Manakete, and Taguel don't have classes to promote to). And the Second Seal lets you switch from a level 10 base class or any level promoted class to another base class, or from one level 20 promoted class to another promoted class. Each character has three classes that they can switch to. Cordelia is one of the best units in the game, because she gets to switch between Mercenary, Pegasus Knight, and Dark Mage, which are the three best classes in the game. Second Seals can be found in chests early on, but you will be able to buy them after Chapter 16. Master Seals unlock in shops a bit earlier, but I don't remember when, exactly.
