FE13 Overview

FIRE EMBLEM 13 AWAKENING 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

NORMAL CATEGORY

The category aims to beat the full game starting from file select after avatar creation to confirming Chrom's final blow on Grima. Normal is the easiest category and thus typically faster than hard/lunatic. Classic/Casual mode don't really matter - currently, casual mode is slightly slower due to requiring a few extra option changes.

ROBIN BUILD

Robin (the avatar) is extremely customizeable. You can set the gender, boon, and bane.The boon and bane affects Corrin's base stats and growths.

Female
Boon: Magic
Bane: Defense

Personal Growths: 	40 hp 40 str 50 mag 35 skl 40 spd 40 luk 20 def 20 res
Tactician:			80 hp 55 str 65 mag 50 skl 55 spd 50 luk 30 def 30 res
Pegasus Knight:		80 hp 55 str 55 mag 60 skl 65 spd 50 luk 25 def 30 res
Dark Flier:			80 hp 50 str 65 mag 55 skl 60 spd 50 luk 25 def 30 res


Just about every stat is important for Robin:
- Magic, Speed, and Defense are critical in the first few maps to meet a lot of really high offensive benchmarks - requiring a minimum of 14 magic 11 speed by Lucina, and close to that for most generics before that too
- Past that, she still needs as much magic as possible, requiring 37 magic for the Ch17 kill, and 40 magic for the 1-in-3 crit strat for Grima, and just really high magic in general to one-shot enemies through midgame in order to conserve tome uses.
- She also needs 14 strength after reclassing to pegasus knight to one-round enemies with a bronze lance and javelin before promoting to dark flier
- As much skill as possible for better hitrates in earlygame, the Ch17 boss, and as much crit as possible om Grima
- As much speed and luck as possible for as much avoid as possible, as some lategame maps require dodgetanking several bow users that a high defense stat won't save her from
- As much hp, defense, and resistance as possible to survive

Luck-wise, this speedrun is notorious for how much luck it requires from the Anna shop's random second seal, and needing crits for the Grima kill - however, just earlygame benchmarks makes it really difficult to get a single attempt even have a chance at getting a second seal from Anna. This is, quite likely, the most luck-based grind-heavy fire emblem speedrun in existence, worse than echoes:SoV.


ROBIN'S GENDER

Robin's gender is incredibly important as the dark flier class is gender-locked to female Robin.


OTHER CHARACTERS

Frederick: Important prepromote that helps kill some enemies in earlygame, then becomes Robin's pair-up bot for most of the mid-lategame. He most importantly gives her a lot of defense and +1 move.

Chrom: Lord. Pair-up flunky. Helps Robin with some dual strikes in earlygame, then becomes her S support partner. Also another pair-up flunky, but mostly done if Chrom can't be kept safely otherwise.

Olivia: Dancer.

Lucina: Robin must NOT learn galeforce by the end of Ch13 - we need to pass Rally Movement down to Lucina, so experience management is extremely tight. She uses rally movement in a few key chapters so Robin can more easily 1-turn those relevant maps without wasting time with help from other units like Olivia.

Cordelia: Bonks a few randos in two desert rout maps

Cherche: Bonks a few armored knight in two rout maps

Henry: Incredibly important for the Grima strat. He gives Robin +4 magic with his pair-up, a bit of skill, and effectively +25 hit +10 crit against Grima thanks to his Anathema and Hex skills (they apply when he's a pair-up backpack).


THE GRIMA KILL

The run is very centralized around the Grima kill, as it forces animations, and Grima is incredibly bulky and takes half damage from everything, making her incredibly difficult to kill even in normal difficulty. There are several options for this that are up to the runner's discretion:

- Forge Thoron with max crit, bring Frederick+Chro for +10 crit, and go for a double ~40% crit chance, which is a 16% chance. There is no backup. Requires a minimum of 41 magic.
- Forge Thoron with max crit and enough might to deal 16 damage to Grima, bring Frederick+Olivia for the dance, and go for a 1-in-3 30% crit chance, which is a ~65% chance. There is still a 9% chance of getting a double crit like the first strat, and is actually faster, but failing that, the run can still finish with a 65% chance while only losing 5 seconds. This is the strat my run does.
- Grab Valflame in Ch24, skip forging a tome completely, bring Frederick+Chrom for +10% crit, and go for a 1-in-2 ~25% crits, which is a ~43% chance. This requires capped magic at 46, and is the fastest strat possible - I opted to go for the safer second strat.