FE6 Overview

FIRE EMBLEM 6 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.

ANY% CATEGORY

This category requires beating the game as quickly as possible, without requiring the gaiden nor idoun. This means the run goes out of its way to skip every gaiden and ends upon defeating Zephiel. The gaidens are all avoided by...

Chapter 8x - Lilina is killed off in ch8
Chapter 12x - I wait up to 21 turns on ch21
Chapter 14x - Sophia is killed off
Chapter 16x - Douglass is killed off
Chapter 20x - Yuna is not recruited in ch20
Chapter 21x - Zeiss is not recruited in Ch16


ALL CHAPTERS CATEGORY

This category requires beating every gaiden chapter then clearing chapters 22 and on in one playthrough. Each gaiden chapter has its own set of requirements to access, but they basically come down to making sure a specific character survives and/or clear the chapter in a certain number of turns. To access the endgame chapters, I have to clear every gaiden chapter, Fa has to survive (though she can die in the last chapter), and all legendary weapons have to remain intact. We don't call this True Ending since the only difference between True Ending and All Chapters is an arbitrary restriction on keeping Fa alive and having Roy defeat Idoun, but doing that is faster anyways.


ROUTE SPLITS

Chapters 10+11: The route you take depends on the village you visit in chapter 9. Since I obviously don't visit any because it costs time and turns, I get the Lalum route.

Chapters 17-20x: This is where the game decides if you go to Ilia or Sacae. You go to Ilia if the combined experience of your pegasus knights exceeds that of your nomads, and vice versa for Sacae. Since this run doesn't use any nomads at all, and focuses almost all of the combat on one pegasus knight, this run takes the Ilia route.


MAIN CHARACTERS (Roy and his ladies)

Roy - Our boy. Eliwood's son. He is the main lord, so he cannot die or else it's game over. Since every chapter in this game is a seize chapter, I have to carry him to the seize square in every chapter and keep him safe. He has terrible base stats, so he start useless for combat. His growths are also just OK all around, but his stats are manipulated to make him actually competent. This pays off through the second half of the run when he's able to contribute with useful weapons such as the light brand, wyrmslayer, killing edge, and sword of seals.

Shanna - The MVP of the run. She's a pegasus knight that joins in chapter 2. The first third of the run is spent feeding her experience, then she starts carrying the run after Chapter 8. She basically spends the entire run killing stuff while carrying Roy. Her strength growth is pretty terrible, which are important stats to gain, so there's a lot of manipulation to help her out. Skill and Speed are also important stats to raise, since they allow her to get crits and double attack. Lastly, she also needs a lot of resistance to help her dodge status staves. She uses an Iron Sword as much as possible through both categories because she needs to raise her sword rank to D to be able to use the armorslayer for Murdock.

Lalum - The dancer of the run, recruited in Chapter 11. Most fire emblem games feature one dancer, and the dancer's ability is to refresh a unit so that unit can move again. This is especially important to cut out turns/time, and she's used at the start of almost every chapter available to refresh Shanna's movement so Shanna can carry Roy farther.

Miledy - The wyvern rider that joins in Chapter 13. I promote her immediately to give her one extra move, which is needed even in that same chapter. While on average, she turns out to be a better combat unit than Shanna if given experience, I've already put in so many resources into Shanna in earlygame, so Miledy doesn't really do much combat. Her main use is to ferry Lalum to safety after she dances for Shanna. She also does other important errands while Shanna is busy (examples include treasure hunting in the desert, getting the hammerne staff, and shopping at the secret boots mall).

Niime - A druid that joins in Chapter 19. She starts with an A rank in staves, meaning she can immediately use the Warp staff. She's used to warp Shanna to skip maps as frequently as possible. She needs to gain a point in magic since warp range is increased by one for every 2 points in magic.


SIDE CHARACTERS

Marcus - Known as the "Jagen" of the game. He is our best combat unit in the first few chapters, so he does the majority of combat in earlygame. He is also the most mobile unit in earlygame and carries Roy around while Shanna is still weak. He tapers off after Chapter 8 since Shanna carries the rest of the run, but he still contributes by virtue of his great class.

Chad - The first thief we recruit in Chapter 3. Thieves have a utility in that they can opens doors and chests using lockpicks, so he gets a lot of items to help sell so I can buy killer weapons, and he also gets an Elysian Whip to help Miledy promote. He can also steal stuff, which is used to steal the Member's Card from Hugh, which is needed to visit the secret shop of boots. Thieves also have very long vision in fog of war maps. His final breath in the run is spent giving Niime vision in Chapter 19 so she can warp Shanna several squares farther (you can't warp a character to an unseen tile in fog of war).

Zealot - Another "Jagen" paladin that joins in Chapter 7. He's the only other 8-mov character we have at this point in the game before promoting Shanna. Again, because he's a paladin, he's useful for some ferrying utility throughout the run.

Percival - The third paladin we use in the run, and the last one. Percival has some of the best base stats in the game, so he's our best combat unit besides Roy and Shanna even without giving him any levels. This comes into play in Chapter 22, where I need a second combat unit to step on the upper-right square.

Yodel - A bishop that joins near the end of the game. Like Niime, he starts with a very high staff rank, being able to use warp immediately, so he's the second unit in the game to be able to use warp without any training. He serves an important role in Chapter 22 in warping Shanna, Miledy, and Lalum on the same turn Niime warped Marcus and Roy.