Fire Emblem Engage: Fell Xenologue Final Chapter (Maddening, Early)

This is a playthrough of the Fell Xenologue of Fire Emblem Engage. The difficulty is set to Maddening, and the Xenologue is played as soon as it unlocks (i.e. after chapter 6). The Fell Xenologue is rather infamous for its absurd difficulty on Maddening, caused in large part by the units having predefined classes, stats and inventories, most of which are incredibly suboptimal. Normally, it is recommended to wait until chapter 16 or so before even attempting this, but I'll be doing it as soon as possible. This has a couple of consequences: 1. Lack of units: At chapter 6, I will only have access to 13 units. Most of these are already not that great to begin with (RIP Vander), but they're especially bad due to how the units' stats are scaled. For those who don't know, FX units scale their stats using their base growth rates only, class growth rates are ignored (RIP Jean). 2. Lack of Emblems: I'll have only 11 Emblems at my disposal, with many of the more broken ones completely unavailable (Byleth, Lucina). Furthermore, the non-DLC Emblems will be capped at bond rank 10, which limits the stat bonusses and skills they can give (but to be fair, most of those aren't that worthwhile anyways) 3. Lack of Skills: Powerful skills like Hold Out, Speedtaker and Lunar Brace are not available. At least Canter exists... 4. Lack of resources: There are only so many Bond Fragments and SP Books I can obtain this early on, so I must carefully decide whether I really need the extra stats/skills from Emblems. A few ground rules for this playthrough: 1. The entirety of the Fell Xenologue will be played before starting chapter 7 of the base game. 2. Everyone must survive. 3. Use of the well is permitted, but... 4. No grinding using skirmishes. 5. The base game is played on Normal for convenience, but all preparation should be possible on higher difficulties as well. --- THIS FREAKING MAP!!! *ahem* The final map of the Fell Xenologue is infamous for absurd difficulty, often to the point that people wonder if it was even playtested on Maddening. The gimmick of the map lies with Fell Nil. Every few turns, he will destroy part of the map, instantly killing anyone in the blast zone. This forces you to move through the map at a breakneck pace, all the while holding of the numerous Wyvern Knight reinforcement and dealing with the eight royals scattered across the islands. The poor scaling of your own units really comes to a head here, because now you suddenly can't play defensively anymore, forcing you into a playstyle that most of your units simply won't have the proper stats for. This is especially noticeable for Zelestia, Madeline and Gregory, as they are stuck with no skills, no support bonusses and no bond levels. The map is also exhaustingly long, and across the 30+ turns you're liable to make some mistakes. Nil will gain a skill each time he kills one of the royals. Most skills he can gain this way aren't too impactful, but you'll really want to avoid him getting Sandstorm or Ignis if at all possible. He'll also get a revival gem if he kills at least 4(?) enemies in a Devastation, up to 3 gems maximum.* Fogado won't act until turn 5, and the first thing he'll do is use Divine Blessing on Fell Nil, so you can safely ignore him until turn 6. Alfred will prefer to stay put and spam Piercing Glare, but he can be coaxed into attacking if he can deal enough damage. Alcryst prioritises his Engage attack over everything else, but because of his low magic it deals little damage, making him safe to bait out. Be aware that the Engage attack can still trigger Luna! Celine's AI is linked to the Snipers and Swordmasters near her. If those are aggroed, she will begin to move too. Diamant is relatively easy to bait into using the Silver Blade since it deals so much more damage, but this also saddles him with the usual weaknesses of Smash weapons. Hortensia has healer AI, meaning she will prioritise healing over attacking if she can't kill. Leaving a damaged enemy in her range is a good way of neutralizing her. The Libération you get on this map gains Atk +15 against Fell Nil, but on Maddening Nil's defense is so high that Alear with no further attack bonusses will deal 0 damage even with Libération. ** The revival gem Nil gains from Divine Blessing does not count towards this cap, but the game still only displays three gems maximum, resulting in a visual glitch where he appears to have three when he actually has four. --- 00:00 - Intro 00:25 - Battle Preparations 04:08 - Map Start 16:04 - Timerra 20:24 - First Devastation 24:50 - Alfred 29:32 - Alcryst/Fogado 39:42 - Second Devastation 58:48 - Third Devastation/Céline 1:00:27 - Diamant 1:20:25 - Fourth Devastation 1:35:30 - Fifth Devastation 1:37:38 - Ivy 1:38:59 - Hortensia 1:56:46 - Sixth Devastation 2:00:37 - Fell Nil 2:27:13 - Why letting Fell Nil attack you is a bad idea 2:30:39 - Final Attack