GBA Fire Emblem Speedrun FAQ

GBA Fire Emblem Speed Run FAQ

Q:
What are each of the stats and what do they do?

A:
Here's a quick break down, going in order of the level-up screen:

HP: Health Points. This hits zero, you die.

Strength/Magic: Damage you deal. 1 str/mag = 1 extra damage per hit.

Skill: Hit Rate and Critical Hit Rate. 1 skl = +2% hit. 2 skl = +1% to critical hit rate.

Speed: Dodge Rate and double attacking. 1 spd = +2% avoid. If a unit has at least 4 more points in speed than the target (after factoring in weapon weight), that unit will also double attack.

Luck: Increases hit rate, dodge rate, and critical evade (though not as much as skill and speed). 2 luck = +1% hit. 1 luck = +1% avoid and -1% critical hit rate from the opponent.

Defense: Decreases damage from physical attacks. 1 def = 1 less damage per physical hit

Resistance: Decreases damage from magic attacks. 1 res = 1 less damage per magic hit. Also more resistance = higher dodge rate from status staves

Constitution: The only stat that doesn't increase with level-ups. If the currently used weapon has a higher weight than the character's con, then the difference between the two is subtracted from the character's current speed in all calculations involving speed. It also affects who can rescue the current unit, as a character with lower "Aid" than the target's "Con" cannot rescue the target.

Note that while the general roles for the stats remain the same across most Fire Emblem games, the actual calculations may differ in other games. These calculations only hold true for the GBA Fire Emblems.


Q:
Why are you moving the cursor like that / How are you manipulating the random number generator?

SHORT ANSWER:
The RNG is a predetermined list of numbers set at the start of the game. The game uses this to roll numbers to determine combat, level-ups, and so on. More notably, it uses numbers from the RNG when I force the game to redraw cursor paths. I take advantage of this and advance the RNG to the numbers I want by redrawing cursor paths a specific number of times at different locations. This way, if I don't make a mistake (which is easier said than done when going fast) I know every single level up, whether everything will hit or miss or crit, and so on. Everything is predetermined.

DETAILED ANSWER:
The moment you load up the game, the RNG seed will ALWAYS start with 8, 56, 21, 47, and so on. All of these numbers are random numbers between 0 and 100. This determines basically everything with combat, level-ups, and even cursor paths.

The game determines level-ups by just comparing each number with each of the character's stat growths. So Lyn has 70%, 40%, 60%, and 60% growth rates for hp, strength, skill, and speed respectively. If we use the starting numbers (8, 56, 21, 47, 66), it compares 8 with 70, 56 with 40, and so on. If the random number is lower than the growth rate, she will gain that stat. So in this example, she will gain hp, skill, and speed, but not strength.

For combat, the game rolls two numbers for hitrate on whoever is attacking, then compares the average of those two numbers with the displayed hit rate. In essence, the displayed hit rate is kind of a lie, and this has been a system starting from fire emblem 6 and continuing until awakening. If the displayed hit rate is >50%, the actual hit rate is actually higher than what's displayed. If it's <50%, then actual hit rate is actually lower. If you want more details/numbers about this accuracy system, feel free to check out http://serenesforest.net/general/true-hit/ .

After the game determines accuracy, IF the attack hits, it then uses one random number and compares it to the critical hit rate to determine if a critical hit occurs or not. Again, to repeat, the game does NOT roll a number for critical hits if the initial attack misses.

Note that in Sacred Stones, the game rolls a number for pierce/sure shot/great shield BEFORE the critical hit, but only if the attack hits. For both FE7 and FE8, Silencer is always rolled after the crit for ALL CHARACTERS (even if they're not an assassin; it just won't do anything), which is likely a programming oversight.

As another quick example (using the same 5 numbers: 8, 56, 21, 47, 66), let's say Lyn has a 80% hitrate and 20% critical hit rate. The game takes the average of 8 and 56, which is 32, and compares it to 80. Since 32 < 80, she will land her first hit. The game rolls 21 and compares it to Lyn's 20% critical hit rate. Since 20 < 21, she will NOT land a critical hit. The game repeats this for the enemy's counterattack, then Lyn's second attack if she's fast enough.

So with both combat and level-ups, we want to make sure that the game is on the proper spot of the RNG sequence to give us favorable results (i.e. in FE7, a lot of strength, skill, and speed for florina and marcus, and almost every single critical hit you see on the bosses in the run). Fortunately, that can be manipulated by forcing the game to redraw character cursor paths. When you move the cursor into a spot where the CURRENTLY DRAWN PATH can NOT reach that square using the character's REMAINING move, the game is forced to redraw the path to that spot. If there are multiple possible paths for that, the game will use random numbers to select one of those randomly. Of course, if the game is forced to redraw a path that has only one possible path (i.e. a straight line), it doesn't use any random numbers since there is only one possible path. Since the list of random numbers is always set, as long as I force the game to draw the paths in certain spots, it will burn the right number of random numbers and I will always get the same results.

It's advantageous to use higher-move characters to burn a lot of random numbers at once, with diagonal movements. The reason for this is that with characters that have 7 or 8 move, there are more possible paths, and thus, more random numbers burned when forced to redraw. On the other hand, if I only want to burn a few random numbers, I try to use low-move characters.

During a console run, I can't see where the RNG seed is. I'd only be able to see the numbers if I ran this on emulator and turned on a script to display it. So if I commit to an action after burning too many/few random numbers, I have to start over the entire chapter, because the game auto-saves every action I do instantly. However, if I accidentally make a mistake without committing to an action (i.e. burn too many random numbers then move a character without attacking/trading/rescuing/etc), I can just reset and Resume the chapter because the game doesn't save those burns on cartridge.



Q:
How are you controlling the enemy phase?

A:
This is universally known as the enemy control glitch (ECG). There are several methods to activate this glitch, but the general idea is when I reset when an enemy unit ends their turn on a PWASE (Panels Which Affect Something Else), or "Actor Tile", I activate ECG. It does not work if an enemy unit gets killed after landing on this square (they can get counterattacked, but you usually don't want to since many player units will kill enemy units anyways). Note that ECG does not work at all in FE6 for some reason. These are the methods:

1. Mine Glitch - This is the most infamous form of ECG. If I reset when an enemy unit steps on a mine (which ends their turn), ECG is activated. The Mine Glitch is limited to FE7 (mines do not exist in FE8). A disadvantage is that the Mine Glitch can only be used on the turn it blows up, so you get one turn of ECG per mine use.

2. Torch Glitch - This is another common form of ECG. Whenever a torch staff is used, the game creates a torch tile (which is an actor tile) that gives you vision around that square. The Torch Glitch is limited to only fog of war maps and requires a staff user; however, the torch actor tile remains for multiple turns, and can also be activated at a range depending on the user's magic stat, so ECG can be activated for multiple turns off the same tile.

3. Fire Traps - Chapter 28 (Eliwood Mode) in FE7 and Chapter 18 in FE8 have several fire trap tiles where at the end of the turn, any unit on these tiles will burn and take damage. These are also actor tiles. This is an uncommon form of ECG since it's limited to only chapters with fire traps (Chapter 28 in FE7, and Chapter 18 in FE8: Sacred Stones).

4. Gorgon Eggs - Chapter 18 in FE8 also has gorgon eggs. After an egg is destroyed, the space it occupied becomes an actor tile that you can activate ECG on. Like Fire Traps, this is also an uncommon form of ECG since it's only possible in one chapter.

5. Corner Tile - This one is really wonky. After any sort of tile change (e.g. open a door to turn it into a floor, destroy a cracked wall to turn it into a floor, visit a village to close its gate, and so on), the upper-left corner tile turns into an actor tile. This corner remains an actor tile for the rest of the chapter so ECG can be activated multiple times. This is also an uncommon form of ECG because it requires that corner to actually be possible to stand on, requires existing tiles like a village or door to activate it, and it usually takes a lot of effort to lure an enemy into that corner.

6. Snag Glitch - There are snags that can be knocked down to form bridges across rivers. If the snag has already been knocked down when the map starts, the tile the snag USED to be on is an actor tile, so an enemy ending their turn on this tile can activate ECG. This is unfortunately useless in speedruns because it requires the snag to already be knocked down, so it's impossible in FE7, and only possible in FE8 skirmishes.



Q:
How do you do an instant soft reset, by skipping the title screen and resuming?

A:
A + B + Start + Select while holding the Start button. This jumps you to the last spot the game saves mid-chapter. If you reset after saving, this skips the title screen. This obviously saves time, so I always want to do this instead of a standard soft reset.