FE7 Overview

FIRE EMBLEM 7 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 starting from the prologue to the final chapter: light. The fastest way to do this is to start on Lyn Mode on Hard Difficulty then Eliwood Mode on Normal Difficulty. Hard mode in Lyn's Story skips a lot of mandatory in-game tutorials and a forced promotion. Eliwood Mode has fewer chapters than Hector Mode, and Hard mode in Eliwood's story just makes the run longer.


ROUTE SPLITS
Chapter 23: There are two versions of this chapter: Lloyd and Linus, which depends on the combined levels of the three lords (Eliwood, Hector, and Lyn). You get Linus's chapter if their level total exceeds 50, and Lloyd's otherwise. Since I don't really bother leveling any of them up much after Lyn Mode, I get Lloyd's chapter, which is nice because it's a fog of war so I can take advantage of the torch glitch.

Chapters 25: There are two versions of this chapter: Kenneth and Jerme. This depends on if the total experience gained by Dorcas, Bartre, Guy, and Raven (units you can promote with a Hero Crest) is greater/less than that of Erk, Serra, Lucius, and Priscilla (units you can promote with a Guiding Ring). We get Kenneth's chapter because it's faster, we never really used any of the physical characters, and Erk+Lucius were used in Lyn Mode.


IMPORTANT CHARACTERS

Lyn - The main character in Lyn Mode, until Chapter 10. If she dies, it's game over. She's also the only character who can seize in Lyn Story. She's one of few characters that can reliably double attack, and also has the mani katti which is effective on horse and knight units, and has a significant critical hit bonus. Since most bosses are of those classes, she is the main boss killer in Lyn Mode. She's used a few times in Eliwood's Story but is mostly useless otherwise.

Florina - One of two MVPs of the run. She's our first flier, joining in Chapter 3 of Lyn's Story and Chapter 15 of Eliwood's Story. She starts pretty mediocre but she spends most of her time in Lyn's Story being trained up so she can carry the majority of the run. She carries Eliwood, equips a javelin, and kills stuff. That's basically what you need to know.

Nils/Ninian - The bard/dancer of the run, whose available really varies lol. 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 Nils/Ninia is used at the start of almost every chapter available to refresh Florina/Marcus's movement so they can move farther.

Eliwood - The main character in Eliwood Mode, starting in Chapter 11. If he dies, it's game over. He's the only character who can seize in Eliwood's Story. His base stats are painfully average, so he can't really do much of anything even with the Rapier (which isn't close to as good as Lyn's Mani Katti). He's only used to ferry around on seize chapters.

Marcus - The other MVP of the run. He carries earlygame in Eliwood's Story, and is still used for some combat in lategame. He has very strong starting stats and, with some manipulation, stays as a solid combat unit throughout the rest of the run. He tapers off after Florina rejoins in Chapter 15 and takes over most of his work, but even after she rejoins, he contributes the most to combat after Florina, especially in route chapters.

Priscilla - The second staff user in the game, and the only mounted one, joining in Chapter 14 of Eliwood's story (she automatically joins as long as the village isn't destroyed and Erk isn't dead). Her main use is to use the torch staff for the torch glitch in every fog of war map before Pent joins.

Pent - The lategame sage of the game, joining in Chapter 24. He has very high weapon ranks upon recruitment, and is able to use the Torch, Rescue, and Warp staves immediately. He replaces Serra as the Torch Glitch spammer, because his magic is much higher meaning he has a higher staff range than her. He also has very good combat stats, targeting resistance and attacking at 1-2 range reliably. He's all around extremely useful both for combat and utility in lategame.





SIDE CHARACTERS

Kent & Sain - The christmas cavaliers that join in Chapter 1 in Lyn's Story and Chapter 15 of Eliwood's Story. Since they're cavaliers, they're highly mobile, and they have pretty decent combat stats for earlygame so they're used throughout most of Lyn's Story. Kent is used more often because of his higher starting speed, meaning he can double attack more often than Sain can.

Hector - The last lord of the game, and the main character in Hector Mode. If he dies, it's game over. Since this is Eliwood mode, Hector isn't needed to seize anything. His wolf beil comes in handy in earlygame since it's such a good weapon, but he isn't really used much otherwise.

Isadora - The second paladin that joins in Chapter 21. She's fast so she'll double lots of enemies assuming she's not weighed down much thanks to her low con. She isn't very strong though. She contributes a bit in some route chapters.

Heath - The second flier in the run that joins in Chapter 21 (we don't recruit Fiora). He has a few combat uses in some route chapters, and has some ferrying utility as a second flier. It also helps that he carries a mine.

Hawkeye - A berserker that joins in Chapter 22. Berserkers are the only non-flying units that can stand on peaks, so he serves a use in Chapter 24 to help block wyvern reinforcements. He also has very good combat stats and has a high crit rate, thanks to having a killer axe and innate +15% crit rate from his class, so he's used to kill some enemies out of the way.