How To Beat 3H Chapter 13 on Maddening (ALL ROUTES)

This chapter is unfair, unforgiving and stupid on Maddening. This video tells you how to beat it easily, with minimal preparation.
Special thanks to:
- Rengor1997: / rengor1997
- Aggro Incarnate
Azure Moon/Blue Lions Clear by Naga FE: • [FE:3H] 5-turn Skip - ...
Verdant Wind/Golden Deer Clear by Gambling Prince: • Fire Emblem: 3H, 0% gr...
Silver Snow/Church Clear by Rengor: • HBD 5 Turn Skip With B...
Contains footage from Mangs's Black Eagles Hard and Golden Deer Maddening LPs:
tinyurl.com/y65xpbrb
And Tastymond's Blue Lions LP:
/ @tastymond
Source for "Time For Some Cheese" Clip:
Bismix - "I tried playing Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword"
• “I tried playing Fire ...
Patreon: / mekkah
Twitter: / mekkkkah
Subscribe: kzbin.info?...
Discord: / discord
Design by Ryn: / illsicario / spo.ink/ryntube
#threehouses #3h #fe3h #fe #fireemblem

[@angrypepe7615]

This map was pretty fun on hard. dimirti criting everyone, tons of items, seeing all my students grown up. Then I try it on maddening and you almost have to spend all of acadamy preparing for this chapter if you don't know how to cheese it. The enemy density is absurd and it makes the map an absolute slog to play through. who would've thought that some random bandits were a bigger threat then the entire adrestian empire.

[@Demonboy007]

Your icon and name are the perfect reactions to this map.

[@jonathanodude6660]

this map was extremely easy on normal. then on maddening, I completely forgot that I cant choose my team and I didn't realise it would be all GD so I couldn't move Lorenz or Ignatz because they die to single enemies but if I moved Hilda, Leonie or Claude too quickly, the enemies would ignore them and beeline to Lorenz. I had to reset twice since I needed byleth to crit the first enemy from the bushes to survive the round and then had to carefully make sure not to awaken any enemy that id have to chase down with Hilda.

[@______-uw3ei]

Jonathan Odude that’s why I hate it is cus your basically forced to used ur starting units which are usually ohko if not constantly used so when I did this chapter I had to reset about 6 times and eventually I just let my under levelled units serve as bait and let them die cus it was too annoying to save them

[@pearsemolloy9656]

Makes sense for bandits to be the bigger threat if you consider the final boss of Verdant Wind is literally a bandit lol

[@youtubedeletedmyaccountlma2263]

In golden deer it wasn't that bad. But is pretty much gambit + more gambit. Now I wonder if I should ever try Blue Lion route lmao

[@Dr_Goog]

Who needs your students, you're not being paid anyway.

[@ChoiceSnarf]

Umm... Yes you are? At the beginning of every month.

[@calebshmanderson]

@@ChoiceSnarf well yes but in part II

[@Koppu1doragon]

Don't you get like 5 or 10 k each month?

[@MrGhosta5]

the church pays byleth every month.

[@XGame80]

Not post timeskip though

[@darklight6921]

the worst part is they give dimitri a better batallian. making it hard for him to into batallian vantage wrath

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

And even then, you'd need something like a Longbow to counter the archers, and close counter

[@strawberrycake3474]

It doesn't help that dimitri gets -10 Avoid If he gets hit his avoid drops from like 60 +30 from a bush to 40+30 from a bush Which means the enemied would pobably have 50% hit which is way to luck based

[@CoyoteXLI]

Dimitri doesn't get a wyvern because he'd rather use Plan B: Kill every last one of them.

[@2nii2]

I forced him to be a wyvren boy was he really powerful and untouchable!

[@Dr_Goog]

Title is a lie, this method doesn't work on Crimson Flower.

[@bsantini3616]

Back to the board boys

[@Demonboy007]

I mean... U right.

[@XGame80]

thewingedbacon I think I have a strategy to beat it on crimson flower! Get to chapter 14

[@norweagle2926]

Just use rhea, duh

[@somnius_sanguine]

I mean, you're not wrong

[@isaiahlee2902]

Some "warm-up" this is, Claude

[@kosmic100]

Claude ain't playing around lmao

[@johntopping2728]

This map is kind of difficult on a dedue solo run.

[@lucaspiano76]

I don’t get why the had to get rid of Dedue, I liked it for story purposes but he is one of my favorite units it sucks because he falls off after time skip

[@hunterjohnson7200]

My god I know it’s physically impossible

[@zsDUGGZ]

@@lucaspiano76 have you tried war master dedue? That class makes him a fucking unit (using brawling), death blow plus double punching, quick riposte carrying his awful speed and he can still tank hits. One-two punch is also op because it prevents him from getting doubled from the interaction.

[@blueyandicy]

@@zsDUGGZ Nom he literally doesn't spawn on this map.

[@jacksonridge582]

Mine never fell of cause my units were round lvl 30 before time skip

[@rhye8638]

I remember my first playthrough was blue lions and I was just like uhhhhhh where's dimitris horse-

[@Mishimachine]

This chapter was actually fairly straightforward. All I needed to do was accept Mercedes and Annette's sorrowful fates!

[@anaqisyatbi5167]

Instructions unclear. Sacrifices my unborn child to RNG God instead.

[@DsiakMondala]

Still missed

[@DarthWillSmith]

Okay but this chapter on hard mode is one of the BEST chapters ever. Just wanted to make sure somebody said it.

[@Abundy]

True, I played CF first and thought the reunion was rather underwhelming, after that I played AM and it was so hype

[@BananaLugh]

I like the chapter on hard but playing it blind on AM was a mess... Annette and Mercedes spawning on their own next to a ton of speedy enemies who 1RKO or 2RKO them is a real pain to deal with

[@melon6444]

The only reason it's even bad on maddening is because maddening in fe usually is more about inflating enemy stats and less about strategy or unit placement. In normal and hard mode, it's easily the most memorable and coolest map in the entire game for me, especially on my first run where it was just Byleth and Dimitri and I legitimately had no idea if the other students would actually show up.

[@flavafee]

Agreed, honestly. Epic story-wise and the music never gets old for me

[@linushallgren4156]

It is great if you have your original class as main units but if you didnt use a few of them at all it became a bit harder. still dimitri just smacked everyone so it didnt matter that anette and ingrid had to run for their lives.

[@flight_knight_]

you can be an ok fire emblem player and beat the map in 5 turns, or you do the good ol "stand in a forest tile" strategy like a good fire emblem player

[@shirakaya7982]

I went from normal to maddening and this was one of the worst maps I've been on. I had to dismount Claude and make them stay on a forested tile just so he could avoid better. All that headache because of f***** Pallardo, an NPC we never saw before an we'll never see again.

[@shiniselune399]

@@shirakaya7982 Actually you see him again in anna's DLC.

[@shirakaya7982]

@@shiniselune399 lol, I've only set aside enough money for the main game :')

[@shiniselune399]

@@shirakaya7982 A shame you don't get to enjoy the "ambush reinforcement every 2 turns" map :p

[@shirakaya7982]

@@shiniselune399 isn't that an overall maddening thing? XD

[@EvilAngel4116]

OMG this map is straight booty if you've never played Maddening before and even on replays it feels like if you do one thing wrong there is no saving the run. Thank you for the info Mekkah, greatly appreciated.

[@sugoiboyxl8345]

_Straight _*_CHEEKS_*

[@XGame80]

I’m doing maddening NG golden deer and I can’t beat chapter 3, let alone chapter 13

[@SolunaPiano]

@@XGame80 Oof. Keep trying, bud. Maddening is touch but I'll be rooting for ya.

[@starbonkers0724]

Gold LKirb you can do it! Even i managed to get past that. Just got to this chapter and IM CRYING

[@maximocaseres2526]

So it´s the new battle before dawn. Let´s thank we can actually see what is going on here.

[@samsonic2]

So that's what happened to the byleth only run

[@Mekkkah]

haha no something much worse happened in byleth only run

[@ZirexNorcruin]

@@Mekkkah will we get to see it in video?

[@jhnsn4306]

I completed a Maddening Byleth only run and that chapter was fucking hard

[@Jacquaid]

$5 says he couldn’t catch up to the death knight or something in chapter 17.

[@DelanHaar6]

@@Jacquaid That doesn't result in a game over.

[@gamblingprince9744]

Oh hey thats me, cool. Thx for the exposure. On a different note, I'm glad the comunity has come up with ways to skip this in every route, bc it really is a very bad map

[@Mekkkah]

nice accent and improv strats

[@gamblingprince9744]

Thanks, I literally forgot about impregnable wall on leonie. Once i reached this chapter i was like "...oh. I actually was meant to do something with leonie, right..."

[@bagfaceman1656]

@@gamblingprince9744 well, necessity is the mother of invention. And because of that, improv is always a joy to watch

[@cliffjumper7630]

I don't think its a bad map layout wise but, the fact that any units you bench aren't buffed enough to even stand a chance is definitely bad design. Though I have always used my house units so I haven't experienced this myself. I feel that people exaggerate the other problems this map has because of previous bad experiences.

[@vanjagalovic3621]

@@cliffjumper7630 It's kinda how FE12 Lunatic and RD punish you if you haven't trained up both for the final boss, but extended to a whole classroom of characters. Also the game guilt trips you for killing your students outside of the class, but also punishes you for using them at the same time because then you might not train up tbe charactets in your class

[@shirox11]

This chapter is funny because it’s easily one of the best chapters on normal and hard, but easily the most frustrating maddening chapter and honestly one of the most frustrating chapters in FE history on its hardest difficulty. Everything after this is challenging, but very manageable.

[@MineNAdventurer]

Meanwhile I love Dimitri's High Lord class so I'm mainly not complaining about that

[@MinniMaster]

It’s a fun and powerful class for sure, but flying mobility is incredibly valuable in a map that’s teeming with enemies that you *cannot* take on all at once

[@petery6432]

Yeah, this is like the one map where that class sucks.

[@jedimasterpickle3]

...I always liked this map on Hard. I get a lot of treasure, I get to see my kids all grown up, and Dimitri crits everything. Haven't gotten here on Maddening, though, and it's a bit worrying because these set ups are...not really what I was training my students for. I'm doing Golden Deer so equipping Claude won't be too much of an issue, but Raphael, Marianne, and Lysithea? I'd have to course correct and hope the game even lets me take the exams.

[@swhawk]

Do you have the DLC? If so, you can clear this map normally, using your students the way you want to raise them. I mention the DLC because you can use the 10k renown reward from Cindered Shadows to buy more bonuses from the saint statues. And auxiliary battles for double gold (the ones with a yellow star) are a good source of exp. If your Golden Deer students are around level 24 before the timeskip, you will do fine if you have given them good batallions and cool abilities (Darting Blow to your non-pegasus females, Death Blow to all physical units, mastery of the Sniper class for Ignatz and the Grappler for Raphael, Fiendish Blow to your magic users). Just make sure that they are equipped with good weapons and accesories, and that you have a good assortment of those in your convoy so that Byleth can use them. If you don't have the DLC, reaching the level threshold may be more difficult, but not impossible.

[@OnlineVideoSurfer]

How's your Leonie? If she's a wyvern, you're probably fine. I'm serious, if she's a decent wyvern and not just using axes, you are probably all right. Golden Deer is the easiest form of this map, and you can seriously hit end turn for her to show up and help.

[@Bajax]

don't bother. So long as lorenz and ignatz are trained and aren't completely paper you're probably ok. The only truly difficult part of this map is the very beginning because of how easy it is to get the units in the top-left killed.

[@lordtullus9942]

@@Bajax my ignatz is a sniper, and lorenz is a mage. Both are paper.

[@zero_pressure368]

I'm doing a solo run with Hilda so Claude and byleth are around level 5...

[@moltz4866]

It's also worth mentioning that unlike Azure Moon & Verdant Wind, even if Seteth is allowed to remain as a Wyvern Rider, you don't get any OP battalions with huge range gambits like the ones Dimitri & Claude gets, so that's one more thing playing against you as well there. Regardless, nice strategies! The map is quite unforgiving so any help is very much appreciated.

[@OnlineVideoSurfer]

If you're not in a position to do a fast clear, stack every defensive tool on Seteth that you can. A good shield especially should not be forgotten, and can go a long way to neutering many of the thieves. Who cares if they double/quadruple if they're doing basically nothing.

[@sjk8495]

Also, Dimitri and Claude have unique attributes that help out big time. Dimitri's personal skill lets him have plus avoid 20, and if you give him both the march and evasion rings so he can get to a forest and swap to the evasion ring, he can have a very high chance to dodge the enemies, especially against the sword users. Plus, his battalion's gambit range is large. And as for Claude, his gambit range is superior and can be aimed like other arrow battalions, plus Claude can fly and potentially use encloser to stop enemies in their tracks. So basically, AM and VW give you tools to make the level more manageable.

[@vanguardpicaro7851]

this is perfect, this is justice for people like me who suffered through this disgusting map lol you just saved people who would play this map in the future time

[@randomderp8457]

Something tells me that some of the research Mekkah did for this was for his Byleth solo run...

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

If he did CF, then he really did devise the best strat for this map

[@Lukaliber]

For me in Maddening Class BL, in order to have everyone survive, Gilbert had to land several 50% hits

[@lagrelex]

I actually him and Ashe sit on their positions until the group reach them. Gilbert can't hit shit and Ashe as a Sniper for me can't 1 round enemies. Maybe Ashe can stand a chance if he's an Assassin. BTW In my playthrough, Annette can 1-round assassins and the brawlers so it's just a matter of Dimitri and Byleth dodging, and Mercy healing until Annette wipe out the first batch of enemies. Pain in the A but luckily, still fun for me.

[@ravina6686]

@@lagrelex Yeah thats more or less what happened to me too. Plus spamming bows for Byleth and Dimitri

[@Lukaliber]

Ashe could one round with hunters volley for me

[@richpichu1272]

Lorenz Reyes when I did my first blue lions play through all of that was tru but I forgot to give Annette thyrsus and Mercedes the caduceus staff so that was bad but Ashe as a wyvern didnt need to get in combat

[@mikasaackermann5080]

@@lagrelex I did the exact same, though at some point the enemy started moving when I haven't reached them yet. I really did panic then, but luckily nothing happened + I benched poor Ashe so he'd get one shot immediately.. It really was difficult haha

[@d3-ll754]

> Maddening NG > "Good time" Pick one.

[@swhawk]

You can actually have a good time on Maddening NG, BUT you need the DLC. If you are someone who has already bought the DLC, there are many tools that help you have an enjoyable Maddening NG experience. You can buy more statue bonuses early on, so you can have an early boost in exp gains. Auxiliary maps for double gold allow your units to keep up with the "recommended level" of the missions (not the level of the enemies, but the level that is "recommended" in the bottom right corner of the mission select screen). Even without the extra exp from the DLC, if you are fast enough to increase your Prof. level, you have some time to give cool abilities (from mastering intermediate classes) to your units before the timeskip. Increasing your party's skill tree and giving them appropriate batallions (the best ones come from paralogues) makes the game easier. Under these conditions, there are just a few maps in the entire run that are actually frustrating. Chapter 13 is not one of them. The Falcon Knight and Demonic Beast reinforcements from Verdant Wind chapter 19 are the only rage-inducing things I can remember post-timeskip. In contrast, the last three chapter missions are very fun to rout.

[@d3-ll754]

@@swhawk I usually just do Maddening on NG+, myself. Ch 13 is actually one of my favorites. It's SUPER hectic and it throws a bunch of enemies at you, sure, but it probably should considering you're rushing into a stronghold full of thieves with barely a plan. And with two people. The first few turns SHOULD be really punishing, and when your classmates return to help clear out enemies in different sections of the Map, it goes by quite a bit smoother and it feels cathartic, not to mention you probably realize just how much you grew to depend on these Units who are now a far cry from the inexperienced students they started off as. Or hell, I might just be reading too into it again. I 'unno. But the devs have said in interviews that they primarily expected you to play Maddening on NG+ so of course it's ridiculous without it. XD

[@swhawk]

@@d3-ll754 Oh, I see. Yeah, I also play Maddening on NG+. I just happened to recently finish a Maddening NG run on Verdant Wind, and had a much better time than I expected. I didn't know about the devs stating that Maddening was intended for NG+, but it makes sense, lol.

[@swagmonster300]

I mean once you get the hang of what to do it isn't so terrible a first playthrough will make things so much smoother on a 2nd one I realized a lot of things that I wasn't utilizing in my 2nd run that made it feel so much better

[@megarotom1590]

@@swhawk either you trained up all your starting units, knew about the linked enemy aggro ahead of time, or let units die. Those are the only ways you didn't have difficulty in chapter 13. maybe I'll try routing every late game chapter, because I just one turned each after blood of eagle and lion with the magical nuke we all know and love. Chapters 2,6, and 13 are the only ones that gave me difficulty though I guess giving my dropped units good battalions might be nice if they were able to use them. I mostly used the DLC for the units and classes, because Valkyrie and Dark Flier are great classes and Hapi, Constance, and Balthus are great units especially for my "bait in enemies with one of the few actual tanks in the game and then nuke them" strategy

[@CarbonMalite]

I know they won't, but they really should patch this map. This is not the fun kind of difficult, this is a "get softlocked halfway through a game that has a weak first half" kind of difficult.

[@PhotonSieve]

The first few chapters are some of the most difficult in Maddening. How is it weak.

[@samvanderstaak7296]

@@PhotonSieve *random ch1 low-percentage crits intensifies*

[@EliasoPataso]

@@PhotonSieve they're just boring cause there's a lack of customization and options available at that point. Everyone just turtles behind Byleth and the house lord, spams bows, and spams Tempest Lance. Even if you change routes, you play those chapters the same way. Also Miklan Ch 5 brings part 1 down so much by itself. Most tedious chapter in the game by far

[@sasir2013]

the map is fine, it's the maddening difficulty what needs patching

[@pee8607]

This map is loads of fun lol

[@patrickanderson6367]

Really like that new intro

[@runaway74]

He used it before, but only once

[@Gnarfledarf]

I hate intros on principle, because I just want to go straight to the content without having to skip a repetitive long-winded animation (Mekkah's Shadows of Valentia LP). This intro, however, is short and sweet, so I like it.

[@maxechilsemptyspace7184]

Thank you for bringing up the fact that you don't have to train in-house students specifically for this map. I've grown SO tired of seeing this argument because it's false but people seem to parade it as some kind of accepted truth.

[@Mekkkah]

Haha, I think what annoys me about it is that even when trained, a lot of these students get KO'd by one or two enemies anyway, so it's not going to save you if you don't use some kind of cheese strat. So it's a huge waste of time/resources.

[@SSBBPOKEFAN]

@@Mekkkah Gee, it's almost as if bullshit enemy stat inflation is bullshit. In all seriousness, I get the difficulty is "Maddening", but maps like this makes me wonder who's more crazy: the people who (sarcasm quotes) "balanced" it, or the players who end up trudging through it.

[@Sidnv]

@@SSBBPOKEFAN The problem is that hard mode is just way too easy. Maddening New Game is pretty awful but it feels pretty good in NG+, aside from a few maps like this one.

[@jasonl.7170]

this was easy because all my students were 26-29. So it does help a lot

[@Xetetic]

Thanks for this guide! I've been thinking about redoing Maddening Mode ever since I failed my Silver Snow attempt in the final chapter, but knowing I would have to do Ch 13 again put me off the idea. But this was a big help in convincing me to give it another try.

[@ram5487]

And if your Byleth can’t fly... well, at least the first 12 chapters were fun!

[@Docaccino]

This map could've been bearable if they at least gave you battle preps but apparently that's too big brain for the devs. Not even Thracia takes away battle preps after you first get access to it. HBD really represents everything I don't like about 3H, Maddening in particular: Clunky design, stupidly high enemy density, inflated enemies (especially those dodgy SMs/assassins) and quick boss kills being so efficient that deviating from that strat just makes the game more frustrating.

[@MinniMaster]

To be fair, battle preps would not have made sense in the context of what was actually happening. Your lord and Byleth just charge headfirst into an enemy stronghold, not knowing that help’s on the way. When the rest of your house arrives, it’s a desperate scramble to rally them together last minute. No one really had time to prepare for this encounter.

[@mudjumper]

But there are other maps in 3H that you get prep even if it doesn’t make sense in the story

[@vanjagalovic3621]

@@MinniMaster Explain how a few thieves who have apparently been pillaging defensless villagers are way stronger than Edelgards elite soilders before the timeskip?

[@MinniMaster]

ghator1001 Like?

[@MinniMaster]

Vanja Galović You have to keep in mind that these thieves have been plundering Garreg Mach Monastery, which was very well-stocked before the timeskip, for 5 years now. They’ve got equipment for days. It’s also not just “a few thieves.” It’s an entire horde of them.

[@Zantoma]

This map was a sucker punch nightmare for me on my first playthrough (Blind Maddening Golden Deer.) I didn't use any of my starter units besides Hilda, so I basically had Claude + Byleth + Hilda to work with. I eventually managed to finagle a strategy after ~10 hours of attempts and drawing diagrams in mspaint to visualize which mobs pull which mobs. Could've easily won if I just left Lorenz + Ignatz + Leonie to die but I was adamant on no man left behind. I think both hits of Claude's gambit hit at least 6 enemies each just to CC them and soften them up. final strat involved a level 12 leonie tanking a quad from one of the knuckle dudes tho so that was pretty amusing

[@Yunovus1123]

So I'm in basically the exact same situation, where I only have Claude, Byleth and a Hilda I was training to be in a magic class. What was the strategy you ended up with?

[@Zantoma]

@@Yunovus1123 I planned out every move in Microsoft paint and painstakingly relied on gambits to lock down groups of enemies until I could pick them off. Made a map of what group aggro'd so I didn't accidentally pull too much.

[@omegaaesir9447]

Would've been nice to have this a few weeks back before I was forced to sack Ashe and Gildebert... Big sad.

[@206Sam]

My level 8 Ashe had no chance, and Gilbert survived through pure luck. Ashe is trash anyways, and Gilbert's paralogue makes NO sense whatsover. Annette and him have a contentious relationship, and then his paralogue rolls around and theyre all feel-good cheerful with each other, it makes no sense for either of their personalities and its just all around horrible with their characters

[@kyokonull]

"No You are now a High Lord" this is my favorite quote

[@Malik-ro8tc]

Playing this map on maddening blind was my greatest mistake

[@SolunaPiano]

How many times did you have to reset lol? Was it on NG or NG+

[@jonathanodude6660]

@@SolunaPiano i had to reset twice on NG+ so cant imagine how hard it would be on NG

[@Zarryxan]

Tbh, it is fairly manageable on NG. My first (blind) maddening run was on Silver Snow, and all I essentially needed was my Wyvern Petra and an average Byleth. Seteth comes with a nice +4 defense booster skill, which helps to survive the early threats. Once Petra arrived, it is mostly a matter of quickly joining with the northern units, the rest is just a matter of patience.

[@carprincess]

Great video! Thanks for sharing this resource/round-up with the community to save everyone from this map.

[@sigurd8382]

Im proud i figured this out by myself. Especially since i didn't use lorenz ignatz or Raphael (and thank the lord leonie decided to become literally god in my playthrough)

[@zachataxxii7126]

Leonie is so underrated. I don't know why nobody talks about her when she's legit one of the best units in the game (Hell, GD as a whole is underrated, barring Claude & Lysithea, and maybe Hilda. Only units I can say are not great are Lorenz, and Chaz proved he can definitely work as Mr. Chip, and Raphael, only because Balthus is just superior to him)

[@musse4925]

@@zachataxxii7126 Every unit with a brave combat art is great in my opinion.

[@samvanderstaak7296]

@@zachataxxii7126 Finally a man of culture who sees Leonie for the great unit she is. I mean, she is no Felix but at least she is one of the few units capable of doubling on Maddening...and even if she can't, you always have Point-blank Volley. Also agreed GD is underrated (especially Marianne & Leonie)...tho Ignatz is only rly good as a sniper...or for chip.

[@Wizzkidwas]

@@samvanderstaak7296 Ignatz is am absolute god of crits, both times I uses him as a sniper and war master he was having crit rates above 50 (and above 70 for war master) before even using killer weapons. Ignatz in general is a pretty damn great powerhouse because of his potential damage output

[@kosmic100]

@@samvanderstaak7296 ignatz is a pretty good assassin tho

[@SuperEljafru]

This is a guide long overdue. I’m so glad my first maddening playthrough was Black Eagles, because even though I was planning on doing Silver Snow, I was able to roll back a chapter and continue playing on Crimson Flower.

[@MultiToad100]

This chapter is so insanely hard. I had to sacrifice three units to even get close to beating it. Gilbert just always dies on this map.

[@OnlineVideoSurfer]

If you haven't made these preps, and have a couple crappy students, there are a couple general tactics worth keeping in mind too. In particular, high defense shields (Silver and Aegis if you have it) on defensive units while utilizing good positions/tiles can do a lot to make the thieves attacks impotent. Seteth especially can be a wonderful defensive tank, just slaughtering thieves if you don't have the necessary tools for a fast clear while taking little to no damage each turn. Throw some gambits in and you can probably survive without a lot of luck. Main obstacle is the archers and the assassins, and the occasional thief that wants to Gambit bomb you. Prioritize them and you're set. It's not ideal, but it's usually enough if you're playing casually and are careful on how you aggro the enemies/position yourself. And if you have a backup wyvern (usually Petra, Leonie, and Ashe/Annette), you can almost make it consistent without LTC style planning.

[@lxdrpepperxl]

Man, wish I had this when I did my first Maddening (No NG+) run. Thank you for this, I'll definitely make use of it next time I get a chance to.

[@justaregulardude3195]

Surprisingly, with my overleveled Dimitri and the Chalice of Beginning it only took two attempts

[@AlejandroRodolfoMendez]

The first time I saw this map I hoped that this was like in old Fire emblems that it was a short map and you get maps and missions to recover all the students, instead just was a cluster of bandits.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

I do like how these bandits are probably the single most threatening military force in Fodlan. Nobody knows where they came from, or who trained them, but they don't care.

[@someduckhead5522]

Nice video Mekkah! Only finished this chapter in BL Maddening twice with the usual Dimitri Battalion Wrath + vantage, hit 20 and the Killer lance with a Byleth nearby equipped with Kingdom Archers, but even then the huge pool of HP practically puts a stop to cheesing the map that way. At least this video can help ease some headaches.

[@swhawk]

This was a very cool guide. Definitely useful if you are on an NG file AND don't have the DLC. If you are on NG+, you can just rout this map with your OP party members (which can all have good batallions and abilities). If you are on an NG file, you still have the chances for building your house student's skill tree before this mission (though not to the same extent as in NG+) if you rised your Prof. level quickly enough and you did some careful management of your instruction points. If you have the DLC, rising your student's levels and skill ranks is much easier, because you can buy lots of statue bonuses early on (using the 10k renown reward from completing Cindered Shadows) and auxiliary battles (for double gold rewards) are a good source of exp (and a chance to get class masteries for intermediate classes).

[@thomaslaing6800]

I pick my dancer entirely around having them early on this map. I’d make Byleth a dancer if I could.

[@isaacazmee9930]

Everyday I wake up and wonder how I beat this map in Azure Moon starting with High Lord Dimitri and Trickster Byleth...

[@mehmemeh5285]

HOW

[@lanceareadbhar]

These were great strats. I got the hang of this map once I figured out where the aggro areas were at the start of the map. The 2nd strat did a good job showing where it was safe for Claude to go for the first few turns to ensure the enemy doesn't move early.

[@RippedSnorlax]

This is actually one of my favorite maps, but then again I like Arcadia.

[@jaimesanchez6390]

You’re weird, like, to worrying lvl

[@DisasterLord]

I also love this map, its basically a stress test of your builds,its perfect for people that like tanking in enemy phase over dodging and doubling to complete an objective. Turn count be dammed this isnt golf I love maps like this.

[@boredomkiller99]

The problem is the lack of the battle prep menu. Add in the massive difficulty skip.

[@jaredfayette2567]

On Hard or lower I honestly don’t find this map that bad. Any grievances I have on this map erupt on Maddening where things become extremely unfair and frustrating.

[@michaelseth6913]

I also like this map. I played it on Maddening Blue Lions in a blind playthrough and it was really difficult. My main problem was that I had removed swordbreaker from Dmitri because there was so few sword users in the previous map. With the units I had which were Dmitri and Byleth with pretty standard builds that would follow from the story with no attempt to pick optimal skill paths (Dmitri lance/horse/sword/Authority, Byleth Sword/Faith/Authority as Enlightened One) I eventually managed to win by going to a forest and dodging/tanking with a number of retries. Now that I know what will happen and I am more adept at the game I will have units with better builds and it should be doable with less pain. I am doing it with Golden deer soon and my Byleth went flyer route and should have A lances by then and will have good physical stats. Claude is looking pretty squishy so far so he may be tricky to keep alive. That first time I was close to having to go back and replay 4 chapters because of how I had done my saves which was going to be annoying but the satisfaction on winning was enormous. I hope I don't have to use strats like this because I always want to defeat all of the enemies on a map. And get all of the chests.

[@auggy69]

Currently on the battle for garreg mach (and having an annoying and terrible time) and im glad i have this video to go to when i finally beat it and have this hell to suffer through

[@jamessouthwood3793]

This map is the one of my favourites. You have to really plan for it for the entire first half of the game. It's so satisfying when it all works out.

[@mehmemeh5285]

When the random group of bandits requires more preparation to defeat than an empire.

[@alienjack6375]

I’m so happy that I figured out how to do this map all by myself. I remember having to use this weird ass cheese strat with byleth flying around using impregnable wall on my units until they defeated enough units for them to safely move. Also glad I had loads of weapons on all my units.

[@jaakkonikkila8102]

My first Maddening playthrough (which is now at the final map, help would be appreciated) was on Blue Lions. This map almost made me quit the game. I finally beat the map "intended way" cause I don't like to cheese with flying units, warps and that kind of stuff on first playthroughs, but it took hours and hours. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that the map has to be the worst designed map in the game. If the player was allowed to battle prep I could write this off just as a insanely badly designed map, but now it's just pure torture. But more on the positive side, thanks for the awesome video as always Mekkah! Still waiting for that second part of solo Byleth Maddening :)

[@haveagoodday7021]

This is the reason why I didn't want to push through Maddening. Thanks for this guide! I might actually attempt Maddening now.

[@stanozoidmega7762]

I got passed this on my tenth attempt today on my blue lions run thank you for warning me about the hell on earth I was about to go through

[@patdes19]

I wish I knew about these 1 month ago, had to reset map 5 times (using all my time's pulses each time) on my blue lion playthrough. Though I will say the amount of satisfaction I felt when I finally did beat this map was pretty great

[@aaronka1285]

I went through this on Azure Moon and wanted to pull my eyes out. Still the best route though.

[@grandwat1290]

Thanks this map crushed my soul

[@oscarhannerz6986]

I understand the need for this vid but in my azure moon run I think this was the most fun map of all, with the challange, enemies and cool strats I came up with

[@lagrelex]

Same. I love the challenge especially since my Byleth and Dimitri is not that strong enough to 1-round enemies. All I have is Annette who can 1-shot most enemies, so it's a matter of surviving until all the 1st group of enemies are killed. Then comes my OP wyvern Sylvain and it's basically over.

[@b.3432]

Yeah, not to be salty but I have the impression that many people take the game trying to offer a bit of challenge as a personal offense. Like, some maps are hard on purpose guys, if all you had to do to win was mash buttons at random the game would be boring as fuck

[@adamhenson603]

The problem comes when you recruit other units and end up having to do this map with half of your trained units, and a bunch of level 6’s n shit

[@btu1734]

This chapter is the reason I haven’t beaten maddening. This really help

[@NorthSudan]

I was able to barely stumble through after 4 attempts on GD. I had EO Byleth too, so I couldn’t fly away. I also had armor knight adjutant Leonie so she was able to tank a hit, OP Lysithea, and wyvern Hilda. All my other house units were underleveled. As far as strategy, I let Ignatz and Lorenz die because there was no way they would live. I used several gambits to keep my Byleth safe as I traveled to the bottom to Hilda and Leonie. I then traveled toward the boss on the bottom route, kiting the enemies very specifically. For whatever reason, once I got Byleth and Claude into the small room below Pallardo, all the enemies started going into the boss room instead of chasing. In the meantime, I had Lysithea clear out the northern escape route with Thrysus to prepare for escape. I killed fake Pallardo with Fallen Star, then he spawned on the southern escape, so I used my final Divine Pulses to get Byleth a lucky crit for the win. Not nearly as smooth as these strats, but it worked.

[@skycaptain39]

I haven't played maddening, but on hard mode, I actually like hunting by daybreak. The first time I played it on Verdant Wind I actually got a bit emotional seeing all of my students coming back

[@luukjansen4221]

When I first played maddening on BL I was astonished when I got to this map. Luckily I had my Female Byleth well trained in Pegasus knight with Alert stance +, so with some divine pulses I killed every enemy unit on the map. (yeah all the other students died except Felix, because I wasn’t using most of them). The only reason I made it because my byleth was really lucky for a few turns in a row. My second encounter with this map was a lot easier. I was doing Silver snow and made my Petra dancer (with high charm to dodge gambits) and with her insane speed, alert stance, sword avoid, a good avoid battalion and the chalice of beginnings form the dlc, she just soloed the map pretty easily for me.

[@livipup]

Glad you mentioned Pallardo spawning in different locations. I was right at the end about to kill the first one and needed to figure out how to arrange my units. I guess I'll need to reposition some units to the top side of the fortress 😅I have a few more Divine Pulses, but it still would have been rough if I had prepared to do what I was planning.

[@Mekkkah]

Yeah there is always a way to prepare for both scenarios. Worst case, if you're only prepared for one of them you can restart the chapter until he spawns in the correct position.

[@livipup]

@@Mekkkah 😅I didn't have my characters built in a way where restarting that chapter seemed feasible. I had to spend a few hours killing all the enemies near the starting area because my luck was horrible (enemies dodging when I had high hit chance, hitting when they had low hit chance, lots of crits when they had only 1-3%, etc.) and I played it super safe after so I wouldn't have to go through that again. Ashe died, but he was level 4 so it's not like I was going to use him anyway, lol. I didn't think it would matter because I read the enemies at the top don't go for Ashe and Gilbert if you let them stay out of range, but they did anyway for some reason. I was surprised Gilbert didn't die too.

[@williamhowells806]

So glad I had good battalions from other play throughs when I did a maddening run and it was still hell

[@briangrosenbach]

Bruh it took me three days about a week ago, why couldn't I have waited for this :(

[@hero_of_isaach]

Gather 'round, gamers. Its big-brain time

[@DsiakMondala]

We can't gather, our collective brain volume can be contained by no room.

[@schmeaty6969]

I got softlocked on the final map of the blue lions route, and I made the decision to just restart from the very beginning, but, thanks to that, I rediscovered my love for the game!

[@hannemanisunderrated5610]

You’re my savior.

[@0mNam]

WHERE WAS THIS VID When I NEEDED IT MOST!!!!?????

[@ocfrey9706]

Im glad I watched this I have replaced half my golden deer students with recruitments so this video really helped

[@teddysquid103]

I remember this map was the biggest pain in my maddening golden deer run; It happened to be my second play through of the game and I wanted to make it my 100% playthrough for GD (beat all paralogues, recruit all characters, keep them all alive (except Ch4 Gilbert% which broke me), try to build enough support with everyone, etc) I ended up with an underleveled team and many of my core golden deers were pretty much benched. When I kept having lvl 14 and 16 Hilda and Leonie getting two shot at the start, I swore I was softlocked; thank Sothis for dodge-tanking Byleth in the bush and RN. Glad I don’t have to go through the chapter again. Safe to say the map is way more fun on Hard

[@auramire6304]

Digging the intro though

[@justlions6549]

i had to reset my hole game in my silver snow route, really hard this map. Gladly i already passed through it with flier Petra and armored Casper carryng me.

[@richpichu1272]

If you’ve yet to finish this run I’d recommend making your Caspar as wyvern he does really well as one

[@GeneralVan]

Simple: Just overtrain Byleth and your house leader beforehand. Problem solved

[@keinrdz807]

hahaha yes, get byleth and dimitri 30 AS training weapon+ and thats it, even on maddening with sword classes it is possibly to reach a lvl 23 with those requirements

[@fishnutz5196]

Yeah that was my game plan. Went in with a level 35 byleth and 37 claude and the enemies barely hit me haha

[@hylianheadache5856]

This chapter was 50% the reason i chose CF for maddening.

[@nightwish1453]

CF is pretty hard near the end though, yeah it has the least chapters but they up the diffuxlty to balance it out unlike GD maddening which has one of the most chapters there are much easier

[@fatcthulhu4904]

If you have Edelgard on your team you can cheese this map really easy and clear the map in 0 turns.

[@alienjack6375]

If only you could have her on this map.

[@gearcrushgaming5141]

Trying to finish my first playthrough on maddening thank god I found this before I got too far into the run

[@Ernest28889]

I am actually pretty proud of myself that I cleared the whole map fair and square on maddening.

[@Onyx_crowmen]

My strat in maddening silver snow , was mostly stacking def on byleth so she can aggro the first wave and flying petra so she can escape. After that you can mostly take your time.

[@quickstiiks]

I remember pre-timeskip, I took Seteth off his wyvern... good god, this chapter took so many retries. Thank god for the Wave Attack gambit.

[@joshrichardson8216]

I NEEDED THIS!!!!

[@jonahjoestar3022]

"Crimson Flower is the best route despite everything that's wrong with it". He said it everyone, someone finally did

[@alexlaframboise978]

I got softlocked hardcore in this chapter because this was my second playthrough i want to use the ashen wolves so i disregarded basically all the golden deer students so had to redo the entire first part again

[@stev7074]

I’m playing maddening rn and when I watched the intro to this I got really scared

[@calebshmanderson]

Thanks for the help, I don't think I'll ever use it cause I'm a lowly filthy casual but it will be useful.

[@mennokonings8556]

It was your WAIFU Bernie video that inspired me to do my first maddening run, and oh boy, did this level make me regret picking BL. I made no backup saves so when I reached this chapter and failed my first few attempts I thougt I had to do a reset of my 60 hour run... I did however, Find a way that got me through this map without casualties. there are 2 enemies that you can pull without pulling the rest. the swordfighter that attacks byleth turn one, and the bottom left brawler. by using the boots on byleth I managed to get him down to save anette and mercedes in time and the rest of the map was just a matter of turtling. I learned my lesson. I make a backup now every other chapter.

[@edl01reviews]

Finally beat this map a few days ago after a frustrating amount of tries. Poor Ashe was taken from my squad too soon, but he can be damned if I'm going to have to reset another 10 times until I get another perfect RNG run where the AI also decide to not charge the top right corner.

[@ariwl1]

I'll never forget it. I played two Maddening runs. The first was CF where you don't have this map. The second was SS, and in that run for the first time I recruited every unit possible and assembled my dream team. It was great. Except...I completely forgot about this map. So when the timeskip happened and my students started showing up, of course they were all Black Eagle students but half of them I'd done literally nothing with. Some of them didn't even have weapons equipped! Eventually, I managed to get through it and took me 50 plus turns, but oh lord I will never make that mistake again.

[@reilie9115]

I remember when I first did maddening, the only reason this map was a breeze was thanks to Byleth, Claude, and Leonie dodge tanking while Leonie and Ignatz hunters volleyed enemies from afar. Haven't attempted another no NG+ maddening attempt since then although I imagine just giving dimitri alert stance + swordbreaker makes him dodgy enough. Sucks that his personal battalion reduces avd tho :U

[@Iam29941]

Honestly.. This was one of m'y favorite chapter XD

[@Gabeatron9002]

literally every time I tried with Azure moon, I couldn't get everyone to live. best thing I could do was Gilbert (I didn't think that I wouldn't be able to use him after because he's important and shouldn't die) because every other option killed 2 or more of my characters (did no-recruit for every route, this was my BL no-recruit playthrough)

[@aruthemightybox4249]

Man, I was just struggling with chapter 13 on Azure Moon a few weeks ago, wish this video came out sooner lol. Dimitri can die so easily on this map, but the way i kept him alive was that I trained him mainly in gauntlets, put him on the woods right in that tiny starting area, and in addition to his new personal skill, he was able to dodge tank most of the enemies. The scariest thing is that the archers still had a pretty good chance to hit him, i think it was around 30%, so i would use up most of my divine pulses manipulating RNG just to keep him alive while Byleth would have to go out to gambit the assassin to stop him from killing Mercedes and Annette. After you get through the first storm on this map the rest isn't too hard to finish off, but i think I still had four or five game overs just trying to figure out my plan for getting through it

[@Andreu0rtin]

If I am being honest I am a little infuriated it is "so easy" I played AM when Maddening released and this map was my bane, I needed two weeks of mostly prep, careful planning and a decent amount of luck to win. Basically what I did was plan how much damage Dimitri took to get into Battalion Wrath/Vantage without killing him but since I didn't have retribution it only worked after I pass most of the archers. Then I did go South so Mercedes could heal him and then east while Sylvain, Felix and Ingrid did go south (and reunite where the axe is). I am telling you, doing this chapter with a vanilla team is close to suicide.

[@aaronka1285]

I replayed until Dimitri and Byleth finally dodged enough to survive the initial enemies. It took forever.

[@jonathanodude6660]

eh on GD it wasnt too bad, the start was the hardest bit.

[@CephalonHQ_]

I wish this had come out earlier yesterday! I had spent an hour on this map and literally cleared it only with Byleth as an evasion tank and Claude / Leonie cleaning. Lost 2 units, luckily Lysithea not among them.

[@jennifermorikawa4909]

I played maddening on my blind run-though of the game and this map DEVASTATED my team. I definitely spent around 6 hours resetting until I could get through it. Even then I had to deplete almost every resource I had available because almost every unit that's available on this map was not very strong.

[@Steven-ln3qx]

I have spent in total around 100 hours just to get to this chapter and giving up, so im gonna try this.

[@cellanj]

i just had to use every single stat booster on dimitri and it still took about 10 tries afterwards. it made me almost give up my first maddening play through but i'm glad i didn't. also i didnt use multiple units from BL and ashe ended up dying

[@jaredkhan8743]

I stopped playing for months cuz I thought I got soft locked cuz everyone was incredibly under leveled and insanely unprepared. Every card was against me and it was absolutely the most satisfying feeling to finally beat it

[@OrigamiAhsoka]

Alright I’m so glad I’m not the only one who has trouble with this but still loved it on hard All my units were under leveled af because I used people from other houses so it was extremely hard

[@DelanHaar6]

First time I played this chapter on Maddening, it was a Silver Snow non-NG+ file that came close to soft-locking me. I had to grab some stat boosters that I (fortunately) had in the convoy to help my Bylth not get killed. As much as I like the map conceptually, I agree that the lack of preparatory options makes it unnecessarily frustrating. In my most recent Blue Lions run, I just made Dimitri a dodge tank with Sword Avoid +20. Even with his new -5 avoid battalion and a non-swordmaster class, he can sit in the trees and avoid basically everything.

[@BigNewman]

I had to restart my entire playthrough because of this chapter on Blue Lions maddening... I invested defense boosters through gardening into Dimitri and Byleth whenever I could, as well as a few strength boosters. I also did more paralogues so everyone would be a higher level. Also made a backup save. Too much planning for one specific chapter haha