FE12 Overview

FIRE EMBLEM 12 SPEEDRUN COMMENTARY

This is a somewhat detailed overview that you can read for more information about the run that isn't obvious in the video.


ALL CHAPTERS CATEGORY

The goal of this run is to clear all chapters, including all gaidens and all of the extra chapters for the true ending. This means:

-Each Gaiden has one of two requirements: a turn limit or a secondary requirement (i.e. leave someone alive or something). As this is a speedrun, I crush the turn limit completely so accessing all gaidens is trivial.
-By Chapter 14, I need to have all 12 starsphere shards to form the Starsphere.
-By the end of Chapter 20, I have to form the Binding Shield, which requires all 5 spheres (including the Starsphere)


TIMING

As the sole runner of this game, I decided to have timing start upon file select AFTER avatar creation, and end upon final save. I ignore in-game time since it counts when you're on the title screen for whatever weird reason, even if you're not playing a file.


TRICKS / GLITCHES / RNG

None at all. RNG manipulation is effectively impossible. There are no known glitches/tricks used to speed up the run. However, this game has several broken staves.


MY UNIT / KRIS / AVATAR

My Unit, or MU, or Kris, is what most people call the avatar of the game, and contrary to popular belief, the concept of the playable avatar unit was actually introduced in this game, not Awakening.

The gender of MU determines the class set that MU can reclass to. Female Kris is used for pegasus knight access earlygame (for mobility and low defense) and lategame ladysword access



You set three options at the start of the game which affect MU base stats and growths.

Past option: Noble's Child (Last option), +2 skl/spd, +5% skl/spd growth
Present option: Strong (Last option), +2 hp, +20% hp growth
Future option: Recluse (Option 3), +15% str/mag growth


These are the relevant Kris base stats & growths:

Kris Pegasus Knight Base Stats & Growths:

Kris Cavalier Base Stats & Growths :
HP  Str Mag Skl Spd Luck Def Res
70% 55% 20% 65% 50% 60%  35% 5%

Kris Dracoknight Growths (majority of 2nd tier):
HP  Str Mag Skl Spd Luck Def Res
60% 60% 15% 60% 65% 60%  30% 10%


IMPORTANT CHARACTERS

Kris - Already explained above. Easily the most powerful and important unit in the speedrun. Any and every stat she gains is useful and important. However, she wants to AVOID defense until the end of Prologue 3 - enemies prioritize dealing more damage, so we want her to have lower defense than all the other flunkies - this is another reason why pegasus knight is used, for its lower defense modifier. Important benchmarks will be noted through the chapter-specific commentary

Marth - The main lord of the game. Most non-gaiden chapters are seize, so it is important to have a decent Marth that can hold his own and reach the throne. Having a forged Rapier / Wyrmslayer covers most of his necessary offense since he can one-shot most important enemies, so he needs HP and defense the most for durability. He still does need speed to double certain bosses but his speed growth is excellent so this is often not an issue. Since he has to seize, and this game does not have rescuing, the Boots are used on Marth.

Malicia - The first cleric that joins and has a crazy crush on Marth. She and Yumina are my only staff users who can use Warp immediately. She is also the only unit in the game that can use the Hammerne staff.

Palla - The first main flier of the game. She has excellent offensive base stats and can use a Silver Lance immediately. She is also trained up to support the run and is key through earlygame and midgame, though she falls off when the run turns into a warpfest. Her bases (with sometimes a speedwing) are almost always enough to get her by, though she appreciates defense levels for midgame.

Sirius - Totally not Camus. A prepromoted paladin who has respectable base stats and can reclass to Bishops and Swordmaster immediately. He has some niche uses due to this.

Yumina - The cleric that joins with the Rescue staff. Her stats do not matter at all. She is the staff user who can hit B rank staves the earliest, which is needed for the Again staff. Thus she is used as much as possible to raise her staff rank and reach level 10 so she can promote (giving her more staff experience).

Feena - The dancer of the game. She lets another unit move again. This is especially useful once Yumina can use the Again staff.




ALL CHAPTERS STUFF - IN OTHER WORDS, LOTS OF BENCHMARKS

Prologue 1: Kris needs an immediate speed level-up after bopping dondon151, so she can double Luke in P2. Not run-ending but notable timeloss and less reliability

Prologue 2: Kris wants 2/2 strength levels to 1RKO Rody. Timeloss if she misses this benchmark

Prologue 3: Kris ideally gets 0/2 defense levels at the start so all enemies attack her. If Kris gained 1/2 defense levels, then I lose a second moving Rody on the fort so Rody has more defense than Kris (otherwise enemies will attack - and not die - on Rody). If Kris gained 2/2 defense levels, then reset.

Prologue 3: On top of that, Kris needs 7 strength to 2HKO Caeda. If she fails, she's probably dead - reset.

Prologue 4: Kris needs 12 speed (2/3 speed levels) to double everything besides Athena. If she fails, reset

Prologue 5: Kris needs 7 defense (2/5 defense levels overall, but ideally 0/2 then 2/3) to reliably survive this map - if she has <7 defense, then she must dodge, but dodging in DS FE is unreliable since 2RN works against you, so reset.

Prologue 6: Kris needs 10 strength to 2-shot Ogma, and 16 speed to double Ogma. Ideally she meets both benchmarks to 1RKO him, but meeting one of the two benchmarks to 2RKO him is fine too.

Prologue 7: Kris needs 10 strength to 1RKO everything here. Probably reset if she misses, since she'll fail to kill stuff then die.

Prologue 8: Unless Kris is really really defense blessed, she must dodge at least one enemy in this map or else she dies. And lol good luck dodging in a DS EF.

Chapter 1: Malicia is recruited. Aran is used to get money. Marth kills Lorenzo instead of talking to him, for extra experience.

Chapter 3: Kris wants an empty inventory slot when tackling the boss so she has space for the dropped starsphere shard.

Chapter 4: Marth forges a +2 might +10 hit steel sword - this is the exact benchmark for Sirius to 2HKO the boss with exactly 100 hit. This steel sword will then be used by Marth in ch05.

Chapter 5: Palla reclasses to cavalier because the cavalier has 1 more move than the pegasus knight class. Marth visits the village in the corner for the Hammerne staff - note that Marth needs 11 strength with the +2 mt steel forge to 1RKO the dracoknights here. Kris buys a Door Key from the vendor, which will be used near the end of the game.

Chapter 6: To guarantee Kris's survival, I give her a pure water to take less damage from the mages. I use Sirius as my rescue bot because he can reclass to a Bishop which has one more mov than Yumina. Marth gets a barrier staff and Libra. Palla gets a few kills to line up her exp so she avoids a player-phase level-up in the next few maps, which conveniently gets us an extra secret book.

Chapter 6x: On turn 1, there's a chance the enemies will block both bridges, preventing MU from snipping the boss on the next turn. If this happens, I have to move Kris and just wait again and hope he doesn't die.

Chapter 7: Feena joins. Kris makes a detour to kill a thief carrying an angelic robe.

Chapter 8: Jeorge can be recruited. Initially, it seems faster to kill him with Kris then seize with Marth a turn earlier, but 1. Jeorge is actually pretty dodgy and bulky so this is unreliable, and 2. We want Kris's exp to get exactly enough exp so she avoids level-ups in ch09 and ch10 anyways, so seizing a turn earlier is slower anyways.

Chapter 9: Palla snipes a thief to send a Thief staff to convoy. Yumina uses this new Thief staff to pilfer a Boots and send it to convoy, so Marth can use it immediately. Malicia then Hammernes the Rescue staff. On turn 2, Yumina uses Barrier on MU since Kris faces several magic users on this turn. Note that if KRis has slightly too much or too little exp when facing the boss/swarm bishops, then she'll get a player-phase level-up.

Chapter 10: Elrean drops a weapon and a starsphere shard, which costs several seconds if the unit that gets it doesn't have space for it - so Palla has two empty inventory slots for both. Elrean has a small crit chance on her, so she can die if I'm unlucky. Merric also has a notable chance of dying to the killing edge merc - this is timeloss but not a big deal if it happens, I just have to adapt to the unit ordering adjustments. Palla needs at least 17 speed to double Ch11 wyverns, so I use a speedwing if she's under.

Chapter 10x: There are three Roro's at the top of the map, and only one is real, which is random. However, if I select the center-right Roro, then press L, the game jumps the cursor to the true Roro.

Chapter 11: This desert chapter has several hidden stat boosters which are useful (finding them is guaranteed in this game). This chapter also introduces wyverns (the monsters, not the human class), which are very dangerous fliers with 12 move and high attack. I have to navigate Wendell to stay out of range of them while killing them with Kris and Palla. If Kris didn't level much defense, then she's at pretty high risk of dying.

Chapter 12: Kris needs capped strength to guarantee one-shotting a swordmaster in this chapter, because that swordmaster does magic damage. Kris also wants at least 20 defense (22 with the cancer shard) which is the rough benchmark to survive without needing a dodge - any less means I have to burn turns to heal (which are only 10hp vulneraries!) and still risk dying, since each point of defense below 20 is effectively 10-15 extra damage each. Catria is deployed to lure a wyvern away from Marth near the end of the chapter (she always survives), to help with Kris's survival. Statboosters are also distributed appropriately - Marth needs an angelic robe since he needs to bait a few wyverns away from Kris to help Kris survive, even though this is n0rmal m0d3. The secret book is nice since using it on Marth is cheaper than forging +2 extra hit on the wyrmslayer - which will be Marth's main weapon for the rest of the run. Ideally, I keep one statbooster around to sell near endgame - to be explained in Hardin's map.

Chapter 13: I organize Palla's inventory and reclass her to General so she's prepared to lure and tank all of the units on the left side. Near the throne, there's a chance two wyverns go after Kris/Marth instead of Palla.

Chapter 17: Palla blocks off a sniper from killing my priests. MU is in position to kill an enemy that drops an extra door key. Wrys is warped to open the castle with the Door Key bought back in Ch05, then is killed off. Malicia Hammernes the Warp staff then Yumina warps Marth into the throne room, where he recruits two more characters. Either of them can die since neither is needed.

Chapter 20: +7 mt on the Ladysword is the benchmark for Paladin Kris to 2HKO Hardin. If I have an extra statbooster from midgame to sell, then I sell it for what's effectively +1 crit. Malicia uses the last Thief Staff use to pilfer a second Anew staff. The second Anew staff isn't strictly necessary since I only NEED three uses, but this gives me an extra three use, which is exactly enough to cover for common run-enders that need the second Again staff.

Chapter 20x: Yumina promotes to gain enough staff weapon experience to hit B rank staves, allowing her to use Anew. Palla moves into position to give vision to a tile across the wall so MU can be warped (you can't warp a unit to a tile you can't see). On turn 2, there's a random chance a sniper blocks Kris from reaching the boss - if this happens, then Yumina uses Anew.

Chapter 23: Nagi is warped to a spot that lures the boss from the throne, and is sacrificed. Marth can then seize on turn 2 without having to kill anything.

Final Chapter: The only way for Kris to double the final boss is to have at least 29 speed, which is barely possible when reclassed to Swordmaster. To beat the final boss, all four priests have to be recruited or killed, which is done in one turn using the last Warp use and the last two Rescue uses. Kris uses the same forge Ladysword to finish the boss - she has 2 chances to get a ~25-30% crit. If she fails, then I can Anew her to finish the boss (she 4HKOs), but this is still strictly considerable timeloss.