TearRing Saga LTC - Chapter 16: Caves of Shadow

Channel:

MoogleBoss

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Published on December 30, 2016 9:00:34 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmAXoepkHBM

Game:

Tear Ring Saga (2001)

Duration: 17:15

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24

The single most infamous chapter in the game is completed in 9 turns (84 total).

Challenge playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c17eN954MGr4Ma-x2xSFp_4

This is going to be my last YouTube video this year, and I thought it would be great to end it with this particular map. Known among Fire Emblem fans as "the sperm monster map", this chapter is like no other. The objective is unique, only repeated once after this in the game - open all chests to clear the map; kill the boss too, but this is a superfluous objective seeing how the sperm overlord of a boss happens to be dwelling on one of the chests as well.

Perhaps even more special than the objective is the nature of the enemies we fight here. Forgetting about their peculiar appearance for a while, we are dealing with super-fast and highly evasive foes (11+ AS and 30-40 avoid) with 15+ atk who are nearly impossible to double even by the likes of Vega and Shigen, but who can easily one-round one of your weaker characters should you leave them in their attack range. They are bow-weak and not that hard to OHKO with melee weapons if you try.

What the sperm mogalls like to do is divide into two, which appears to have a 20% chance of happening for every eyeball on the map sans the boss (who summons four healthy and more powerful minions instead). If they all decide to do it, it's suddenly really hard to go anywhere on the map, and this is troublesome for opening the hard-to-reach chests. Because of this, it's almost a rout map - you basically need to kill most of the mogalls threatening the success of your clear, and this can mean killing every single one sometimes.

There are five chests, and 3 units to open them - lord Holmes, as well as Yuni and Maerhen. All three have been taught Frontier Fighter to move 1 tile further each time; crucial for turn-shaving as you may imagine. They're not the only ones who were tutored FF - Plum the dancer needs one to reach people, Vega and Lionel also require FF to get to the boss on turn 5 to gang up and kill it TWICE (it auto-revives once) so that Yuni can open the chest in the forest that same turn. That's six units with FF; I also taught Plains Fighter to Plum and Sun before the map for a later 1-turn of Zachariah's map. That's 8 tutors between two maps - each costs 7K, so I wasted 56,000 Gold! Pretty depressing, but I'm sure I'll get my money back.

The map is very difficult to navigate. Deployment slots are limited, and the units you do field compete for every tile they move. The way units move during the first 4-5 turns is very specific; later on, there's a specific way for the lockpickers to move to their chests too (Holmes has 3 extra tiles to waste but may as well use his full mov anyway).

It's sensible to single out three paths to five chests - one path opening the southern chest, one path grabbing the chest in the lava pit and then getting up to the NE chest, and the last path taking the chest beneath the dead boss and going all the way NW to the final chest. It makes sense to send Maerhen to the lava pit, as he suffers the smallest penalty when walking on lava while being the least mobile of the lockpickers on normal ground. His Mug skill also destroys the hit/avo of all allies in range, and he is in pride solitude when going after the lava chest (the ending needs teamwork though as you want his supporters away from him if possible). Maerhen tends to have problems whiffing the dodgy sperms, but FF does grant him +10 hit/avo as well.

Yuni may seem like a candidate for the southern chest, getting there on turn 9 without any dancing needed, but it is Holmes who goes down in the end because of his bowlock causing him to be surrounded by eyeballs from all sides, while Yuni can fight back really well after being given a +10 str boost from Lyria's Power Staff (Maerhen and Lionel get the same boost).

The bosskill deserves some attention of its own here. Vega's Shramm, a weapon without a single weakness, is effective vs. monsters and lets him easily 2HKO the boss, but Lionel's having a much harder time one-rounding at 2-range. Losing some HP to get a hefty Wrath crit bonus would be nice, but it's extremely unlikely that anybody will attack Lionel before he faces the boss. His promotion to Sergeant gives him swords and axes in addition to lances, so he uses Garo's Hatchet for +7 crit, getting a respectable 16 displayed crit on the boss and doubling. Not the best odds, but it's only a matter of time until one of the two attacks crits the boss, letting Yuni get that chest underneath.

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