Hunter's Life: Sol Ninja Silas

[@Zoran501]

Some corrections here: 3:49 - I messed up this calculation. Under those assumptions and with typical use, you're looking at about a 20% chance of death if you can only withstand one hit, assuming that each hit deals a bit more than half your HP in damage: you one-round something on player phase to get to 4/10 on the guard gauge, then take the hit, strike back twice, block the next hit, and counterattack twice more before facing the second hit. Your risk of death is equal to the probability that you dodge neither hit and you never activate Sol. For each additional hit that you can withstand, you essentially quarter your risk: the enemies have to hit you one more time (at 80%), and you also get four more chances to heal yourself (collectively about 32% chance not to). So if you always survive three hits, then you're down to something like 1.3% chance of failure. There are complications to this, though. As a rule of thumb, you always want to evaluate the risk based on whatever combination of attacks would be worst for you. In this case, that means assuming that the strongest enemy attacks get through while the weakest ones get blocked. But that's not what the AI does in practice. It doesn't know how to arrange its attacks to get around the guard gauge. Sometimes that means situations where you "should" die in just two hits are less dangerous than they appear. For example, suppose you're in range of two Life and Death Nine-Tails here. If the two of them combined will kill you, that's not necessarily a death sentence: if the first one hits you, the second will see lethal damage and attack immediately, but then he'll run straight into your full guard gauge. The other enemies deal significantly less damage per hit, so you may be able to survive them. [I'm simplifying here by ignoring the AI's tendency to account for dual strikes in its damage calculations, which it does even though those are always blocked by guard stance.] I still wouldn't recommend diving into situations like that, but there's another consequence of the AI's inability to optimize its attack order: when you *are* already able to survive two or three hits in a worst-case scenario, then even small increases in your defenses matter a lot. The damage that particular enemies in a group can deal to you may vary quite a bit; this map is pretty extreme in that regard, but it's not so uncommon to see ranges of 8 points or so. Let's say the damage numbers run from 7 to 15. Obviously, reducing the high end of that range improves your worst-case scenario. But then you're also suppressing the low end, so that you may only be taking 3 or 4 points of damage from those attacks. Attacks that weak often don't make a real difference in the number of hits you can survive for the rest of the turn. Essentially, they represent more "free" combat rounds that give you another 4 chances at Sol. Because of this, it's important to apply tools like rallies, tonics, aura skills, and good pair-up bonuses, and you should also use defensive terrain when possible. Increasing your Avoid helps too. It's not that easy to do so, since Conquest's terrain is not usually placed in a way that benefits the player, but you can do it in the late game by picking up a breaker skill (typically Shurikenbreaker). It's possible to boost your Sol proc rate by increasing Skill as well, although that simultaneously increases your chance of an untimely crit. 8:45 - There are five all-routes kids. Whoops.

[@EnormousHatred]

Watching you play Fates even just briefly has drastically enhanced my in-game decision-making and overall enjoyment of the game.

[@caiolima6747]

I was gonna say that! (said Odin if he watched Zoran's videos)

[@risersin7957]

I feel like this game is a sandbox Fire Emblem with sooooo many builds. The amazing thing about the videos is how you explain everything. It's not just a quick "This works" it's a "Why this works" and a "These are your alternatives for something similar."

[@eyegnats]

Ahhh!! So cool. As others have pointed out, Fates really goes deeper than a lot of us play with. I need to stop googling “best class for [character]” and taking the first result when funkier stuff like this is way more fun (and mostly unkillable).

[@sonpham3438]

What you find is mostly unaccurate anyway. Final classes may be correct but that‘s only the half of the meat

[@ross776]

I’ve been excited for this vid since you teased it. Your videos make me realize I’ve been playing Conquest as a kiddie pool when it’s truly Marianas Trench

[@ryanreuben1407]

this is the best analogy ive ever seen for the experience of playing this game and then finding this channel

[@scrapyarddragon]

The strategy for this map is like a metaphor for the kitsune themselves; if they just left you alone they'd live, but they don't, so they break themselves upon your juggernaut of choice and perish.

[@neog8029]

This is my one gripe with Conquest: There are too many good units with interesting builds and not enough time. I almost never have enough time to get all the builds I'd like and still have time to pair up for kids before some of their paralogues get stupid on lunatic.

[@yes1667]

Multiple play throughs :)

[@saggsman]

Technically DLC exists but in terms of a normal play through yes it can be unfortunate that you’re limited on what you can do. But it is what makes Conquest interesting from a gameplay perspective. There’s weighing opportunity costs for which seal you want to use now/later

[@quinnlee-miller9792]

Soliel’s paralogue in a nutshell; I had Sol Ninja Silas, NosTank Vantage Ophelia, Malig Knight Bolt Axe Elise, and it was still CBT. It’s just too damn hard when the enemies get the bonus movement, they threaten some of the lancers like turn 3

[@Roysanberry]

Yeah, I have been playing Fates wrong. You've encouraged me to go back and be more experimental. Hopefully I can finish Lunatic Conquest this time, keep up the great videos.

[@proudherouser4069]

YOURENOTALONE. TOGETHERWESHALLPREVAIL.

[@coltonmarples4269]

Wow that's such strong yet easy to set up build. I've set this up on Laslow without much thought but I never realized just how strong guard stance synergies with this. Makes me wonder if marrying Camilla to a ninja to set this up for her in a no rescue staff endgame would be worth it as well.

[@fabioangelini99]

You made watching chapter 19 enjoyable! I didn't believe it was possible

[@michaelchen3957]

Just wanted to echo what other people said in that your videos have motivated me to replay conquest and I'm enjoying it a lot more now avoiding all the cinematics and mirroring your strats. My memory of fates is marred by the story but I do remember conquest held up a lot better at the time. How well do you think birthright and revelations have aged from a pure gameplay perspective?

[@Zoran501]

Revelation is very bad, and is only interesting as an exhibit of how to make an awful game. The gimmicks aren’t challenging, they’re just obnoxious. I really want to like Birthright, since Hoshido has so much cool stuff: all of the magical hybrid classes are neat, a lot of the weapons have interesting effects, and there are some nice skill combinations to use. But there’s no depth to the game, so you’re basically never going to find some unorthodox strategy or setup that will make a battle way easier.

[@kirbymastah]

Time to start another playthrough

[@troubadour1480]

stopping by to say your thumbnail was pretty sick and I like your content! keep it up :)

[@chichusometimes5857]

always considered "lifedraining" tactics meme material. But man, you really proved me wrong... Gotta play this game with your showcases in mind soon, shure would be more fun than my cheese strats ^-^

[@sonpham3438]

Sol is imo the best proc skill in fates. It does the opposite of messing with your gauge or removing body blocks to get you killed. Close second is astra but activation rate is thrash

[@chichusometimes5857]

@@sonpham3438 well astra does mess with the shieldgauge quite like any other skill, so you dont have it exactly when needed, i see your point tho. But yeah, sol is really nice to have.

[@chichusometimes5857]

@@yousquiddingme if shield gauge procs to early, ya dont get the protection when needed. So having astra build 10 pieces of shield guage is not always better. Plus, astra deals more damage than dragon fang, so the body block also gets erased, exposing your unit to more punishment.

[@SorenToKeiran-Murasaki]

Another decent Sol MN is Beruka (surprisingly enough). If you A+ Selena and S Kaze, you can reclass to fighter as soon as you hit level 10, then reclass to Mercenary as soon as you hit lv 20, and then promote to Mercenary!Hero (which is better than Berserker!Hero for this build). Then, once you hit lv 20/5, you can reclass to MN. Your skills will look like this: -Sol -Str+2 -Strong Riposte -Hp+5 -Gamble/Good Fortune (fillers) With this set you get a unit that has slightly less Spd and Str than Silas, but has more Skl and bulk (if you don't factor in VoF, ofc). It's not optimal, but it's probably the second best Gen1 non-royal MN you can get. And if you really want to invest into Beruka, you'll end up with something like: -Sol -Trample -Str+2 -Strong Riposte -Shurikenfaire Which is pretty respectable, even though still inferior to a Shurikenfaire, Trample, Strong Riposte, Str+2/Elbow Room, Sol Silas. Also, Xander can abuse Sol MN as well. I really don't like going all the way to MN, as I prefer to stick to the old (Paladin->WL->MK->Hero route), but that's still an option if you really feel like using him that way. Skills (same as Cav-Merc-WR-Ninja Silas).

[@Zoran501]

There's no reason to change Beruka from Fighter to Mercenary in that scenario. If you simply promote to Hero, you'll start learning the merc skills as long as the class is unlocked.

[@SorenToKeiran-Murasaki]

@@Zoran501 That's true: my bad.

[@sonpham3438]

Nah I need my SIX WYVERN LORDS

[@SorenToKeiran-Murasaki]

@@sonpham3438 Can't argue with that: WL/MK>>>>>>>>>>>>everything else.

[@SorenToKeiran-Murasaki]

@@yousquiddingme How about no? Sorc is weak if you don't have the bulk to pull off a nosfer-tanking strategy or the Mag to one shot enemies in EP with Vantage, and is weapon-locked. The best thing about sorc are its skills, most notably Heartseeker and Lifetaker (DK). Berserker: excellent class with extremely solid skills, but the fact that it's weapon locked and has low movement puts it on a lower tier than WL/MK. Just like Sorc, unless you are aming for ultra specific builds, it's usually better to grab the skills that matter (namely, Axefaire and Sol), and reclass into something else, if you can. If we talk about pair-ups tho, Berserker is simply god tier, and is probably the best physical pair-up unit, along with Wolfskin and WL. MN: they have access to the best weapons in the game and they give extremely good pair up bonuses, but their low movement, low Str and relatively bad skills (bar Shurikenfaire and Replicate) really hinder them in Conquest. Unless you can pull off very specific builds, like Sol-MN!Silas/Xander, Vantage+Sol-MN!Corrin or Vantage+LaD+Shurikenfaire+Trample+Str+2-Mechanist!Kaze, they tend to be good, but not as amazing as people claim them to be. Paladin: bad growths are really Paladins' main problem, but very good skills and access to the Levin Sword (mainly for Corrin), more than compensate for that. If anything, I would argue they are like the fourth best line in the game, after WR, Samurai, and Ninja. WL/MK: flying units. 8 movement. Good growths and max stats. Best skills in the game (after the Samurai line). Good weapon access. Do I need to go on? Finally, a more accurate ranking should look like this, imho: WR>Samurai>Ninja>Cavalier>Fighter>the rest (with Dark Mage, Mercenary and Archer as honorable mentions).

[@chaumbo]

I can attest that Laslow as a sol ninja carried one of my runs. Mine got plenty of HP and maxed skill making him proc sol almost every round of combat. Kinda slow compared to kaze but still very viable.

[@spicybrad]

HOLY SHIT. I was just thinking about this!!!!

[@philiplbc]

Amazing guide!!! The Raider Knife is E Rank and can trigger skills. I got a bunch in my castle!

[@Mekkkah]

Imagine Silas doing what I thought was supposed to be a Xander thing. Neat. I assume he has his average stats at that level? Also, I think a small sound desync is happening, starts being noticable at around 6:18. Edit: Oh, right, another thing. How long does it take you to build the supports necessary for these reclasses on Silas?

[@Zoran501]

Yep, that’s average. This is at 20/5 with Silas taking an Arms Scroll for immediate D Shurikens. You can certainly get to 20/5 a little earlier and start working out of E rank naturally, and you can also afford to promote slightly early (17-19) to get Sol quicker. Silas and Kaze only need five maps to build their A support, and there have been six maps before this one for them to do it (12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18). I mention that Silas would really love to get it done before chapter 17, but that requires at least one extra map, and it also takes a lot of EXP. I’m not sensing a sound desync on my end, but I’m on mobile so I’ll check whether something’s different on PC later tonight

[@sonpham3438]

B-B-ut ma mov

[@Zoran501]

Nice horse you got there... *gestures toward Woods, Emptiness, Cliff, and Levee*... be a shame if anything were to happen to it

[@sonpham3438]

Zoran **Sees a horde of walking beast slayers** I pretend I didn’t see that

[@hues_of_neon]

Silas not a furry confirmed

[@AuraBreaker]

I've been getting quite inspired by watching your videos, I was wondering if you were ever going to start a series on Awakening Lunatic or Lunatic+

[@tom_7768]

Really cool

[@luxiwayfarer369]

Hum... might try to build Flora this way. Problem would certainly arise from her late join (next chapter, with condition), and it does require Ninja!Corrin and Felicia to be maxed. Recommandation on how to quickly build their relationship? Maybe keeping Mozu at bay? Doing the other paralogue certainly would be doable.

[@Khan__98-l4d]

As someone who beat Maddening 3houses, do you recommend Hard or Lunatic for a first time Conquest playthrough? Your vids really got me interested in the game

[@hues_of_neon]

Even if you've done Maddening, I'd say go Hard for a first time playthrough. Endgame is nasty and Hard still tests your skills. After that though, you'll be alright on Lunatic

[@chaumbo]

Divine pulse spoils you honestly. Try hard first. Endgame lunge poison strike ninjas are nasty. Invest in shurikenbreaker!

[@Zoran501]

I’ll echo the others and say Hard.

[@sonpham3438]

Hard mode is similar to lunatic statwise. Once you‘re comfortable with the skills and all go lunatic

[@jeffreycollins237]

Just finished all the Conquest videos you have released and hope there will be more quality videos such as these to come. The characters in Conquest are my favorite and I am inspired to change my awareness of the game mechanics. Also, do you have a patreon? I have been mostly trying to assign my supports around passing down the Shurikenbreaker skill to all my units, however after this video I think Sol maybe the better skill because it is gained 10 levels earlier, and has the chance to heal.

[@Zoran501]

I appreciate you saying that! I do not have a Patreon, sorry. I think Sol is really only worthwhile on specific units like Silas here: units who consistently double and have unrestricted 1-2 range.

[@mousefire777]

Is Xander with his personal weapon usable with these strats, provided he has enough support to double and isn’t facing WTA?

[@Zoran501]

@@mousefire777 yes

[@spacedoyster7686]

Oh! So that's something to do with Silas! I tend to drop him off around chapter 13 ish, like an idiot. I'm curious about how well he'd perform as a Butler. There's no need for him to pick Butler over Master Ninja since they're both friendship options, but I'm curious anyway 'cus it'd be kinda funny, I guess.

[@SuperZez]

8:44 The SIX cross-route children? I only count five. Kana, Shigure, Dwyer, Midori and Sophie. Am I missing something or did you misspeak?

[@Zoran501]

Check my pinned comment

[@mousefire777]

Is 10 millionths right in terms of survivability for units that can survive three rounds? For example, I calculated Silas' odds in the first turn, where he has the bulk to survive three hits, and it's around 6% of dying. If he was doubling the enemies (and could double them all) with a weaker weapon that 2HKOd, he would have odds closer to 2%. Both of which are pretty good odds to me, but pretty far from 10 millionths. Let me know if there's something I'm forgetting. My method was to multiply the true hit of each attack together for the base chance of survival before Sol (~19%) and multiply again by (.75)^n to get the chance of activating sol at least once, n=4 for what happened in the video and n=8 in the doubling case Edit: my bad, if you doubled you’d have a 100% chance to survive because the extra block

[@Zoran501]

I saw this comment earlier today and I was going to point out the extra guard gauge thing, but I also think you're right and that I messed something up in my own calculations (though I don't have my notes for this anymore and I can't check what my reasoning was at the time). I amended my pinned comment to discuss this a little bit more. Thanks!

[@mousefire777]

@@Zoran501 Happy to help!

[@Coreyographed]

Is there something specific about the Master Ninja, aside from eventual shuriken-faire, or could Dread Fighter replicate this ability?

[@Zoran501]

Dread would work too, although Silas might miss Master Ninja's extra speed. Actually, if you’re using a Dread Scroll on him, I’d recommend going Cavalier 10 for Shelter → Dread Fighter 22 for free promotion without a master seal and shuriken rank → Hero 5 for Sol → Master Ninja.

[@isaacsteele7986]

This video does remind me of something I often saw in the serenes forums. While i think stras relying on attack stance are very creative and more interesting, i often saw people saying they are better. While my mind has been changed on things such as paladin jakob, some of these things such as wyvern elise only really come together when using lots of attack stance, but then i have to ask why use tons of attack stace? Guard stance makes it easier to hit benchmarks for EP to the absurd point where xander can orko the final boss without growths. So i wanted to clarify, do you show off player phase things such as merchant mozu and quick draw effie for flair and creativity or do you think these are the optimal choices? If so, why do you think it is better to do this than more traditional "meta" of using guard stance almost exclusively? Its something i have always wanted reasoning on.

[@Zoran501]

In general it's Attack Stance, not Guard Stance, that makes it easier to hit benchmarks for EP. It's much simpler to stack Attack than any other stat, enabling clean one-rounds with one hit each from the lead and the support unit. Guard Stance almost always depends on a combination of Speed and Attack, and it's much less compatible with restricted 1-2 range weapons like Javelins and Hand Axes. Attack Stance is scary to use because you’re not immune to enemy Attack Stance, and therefore it demands a lot more mental math to check that you’re safe, but players underestimate defensive auras-skills like Supportive, Demoiselle/Gentilhomme, and Elise's Lily's Poise. And that’s the true power of Wyvern Rider Elise: a -3 damage aura that you can actually send into battle, and which combines with those other skills, makes for huge damage output using Attack Stance. Your rewards for heavy Attack Stance use include much better player phase action economy, enabling more Transfer and Shelter-Singing shenanigans; generally more EXP and always more WEXP; and an enhanced ability to develop two support chains for one unit at the same time, helping certain units get into key Friendship and Partner classes as early as possible.

[@revivalfromruins]

@@Zoran501 I don't know if you have it planned, but as you are the only person who I have seen extol the virtues of Attack Stance, I would like to see your take on making a video about its strengths and techniques you can use to fully optimize the mechanic. Thanks

[@Zoran501]

I’ve thought about making certain videos focused on abstract topics like that, but all of my ideas for scripting and visual presentation would turn them into multi-week projects. So for now, I’m sticking to concrete single-chapter videos where I can show off one key idea. That said, I do have some stuff coming up that addresses the uses of the two stances in the second half of the game.

[@isaacsteele7986]

@@Zoran501 Specific chapter can work, but insight would be appreciated. For me its also a contrast of how hard something is to use vs how effective it is, and once turn counts and account for random growths get involved, guard stance seeems so much easier. My attack stance only run is very difficult right now even in the early game,it has uses but it does feel nearly as easy to use or effective.

[@AstraProc]

Wouldn’t it be nice to pick up defender for this build? I would imagine one could do so in similar time by promoting Silas a bit earlier than level 20. He would have promoted utility earlier and defender would make up for some of the lost levels. What do you think? I might be totally off, as I haven’t really calculated the internal level and am just speculating.

[@ralvo9819]

not relevant but who do you think soleils best mom is?

[@Zoran501]

It kinda varies depending on how efficiently (in terms of number of maps) you can build Laslow's supports. By default, I’d recommend Charlotte for her enormous HP growth and ability to pass HP +5. But if Laslow gets HP +5 himself (through A+ with Keaton and Hero promotion), I’d look at someone like Wyvern Lord Selena for her superior Def, good Spd, and ability to pass one of the Wyvern Rider skills. That Selena pairs very nicely with Ninja Soleil for the sake of Soleil's personal skill. Note that Soleil wants to exist before this chapter, and Laslow joins in chapter 12, so recruiting her on time requires either Peri marriage or at least one map outside the story-and one more beyond that if you go with Charlotte, since she joins one chapter later. Invasion 2 is one such map, and it unlocks after Chapter 17.

[@maniacallyhappy]

When would you want to promote Silas? Would you want to go the full 20 into Cav, Master Seal into either Paladin/Great knight, and then Heart Seal into Hero to gain access to strong repost, Good Fortune, then Sol to Friend seal to Master Ninja, or would you want the heart seal first to merc then go into Hero, get Sol and friendship seal afterwards? Previously, I would usually forgo Silas and Odin since they've never really been anything special in my experience so they were benched but I saw you break down of how crazy Odin, Silas, and WR!Elise can be and decided to give them a try. I already used a heart seal on Mozu to get her quick draw and had no clue to pair her up with Effie to get Effie quick draw as well. Who would you recommend Effie marry to have the craziest Quick Draw Effie build with? Honestly watching your video got me to come back to FE Fates after years of not even thinking of it, thank you so much for your content bro!

[@Zoran501]

maniacallyhappy I like taking to Silas to 20 and promoting him (either class works), then going to Hero at promoted level 2. The thing with Effie is that none of her potential husbands really give her much, although Silas and Xander offer Elbow Room, which can be kinda nice. Arthur ends up working really well, and he allows her to become a Certain Blow Berserker. But really, all she needs is Quick Draw + Bowfaire as a Sniper or Kinshi Knight.

[@maniacallyhappy]

@@Zoran501 would you recommend taking Effie to 20 promoting her to either class then going Sniper at promoted level 2 to get quick draw and certain blow close together or does effi want quick draw as soon as she can friendship seal?

[@Zoran501]

Depends what you want Effie to do. If she's going to be a bow unit long-term, go Archer ASAP. If she's only there for Quick Draw and Certain Blow, change over after she's promoted. And you don’t have to wait until level 20. The rule of thumb is basically that you should promote before chapter 16 no matter what. Effie's not the kind of unit who will have to maximize her stat gains in order to double and one-round a ton of enemies on EP.

[@cartooncritic7045]

Fucking Ninjas, dude. I sometimes wonder if they’re the best or worst thing about Fates’ gameplay.

[@ebinku]

Do you usually solo this map with something like this, or a wyvern xander/camilla, or do you play it with a full team?

[@Zoran501]

Yes.

[@ebinku]

@@Zoran501 Yes you solo?

[@Zoran501]

All three actually, depending what I feel like doing. Although it's usually not soloing, it's actually using Sol Ninja + Bulky Wyvern/General + Vantage Sorc on different parts of the map

[@kdports]

What GPU and CPU do you have to make Fates run that well? Whenever I try on Citra I can barely get above 10 FPS.

[@Zoran501]

Most of these were run on an Intel Core i5 4570 and a GeForce GTX 760 from 2013, but I recently upgraded the processor to an AMD Ryzen 5 3600X. Citra is mainly limited by the CPU. However, AMD graphics cards have notoriously bad OpenGL drivers, so they tend to have issues

[@mysmallnoman]

You literally have 73% chance of dying every time the enemies Don't miss lmao

[@agitwap6413]

bro i dropped my phone in the bathtub while i was watching this, do u guys have any advice :(

[@vanjagalovic3621]

This is cool and all, but pretty much everyone is good as a ninja and promoting Silas, then reclassing Silas to Hero, then getting him an S support with Corrin and then reclassing him to ninja doesn't really seem worth it overall.

[@Zoran501]

There's no S support with Corrin. It's a heart seal and a friendship seal (with Kaze)

[@vanjagalovic3621]

@@Zoran501 Oh, OK. I stand corrected

[@SorenToKeiran-Murasaki]

It's worth it if you allow support grinding via MC battles, or if want to use Silas for the entire game, as it is probably his strongest build, and Kaze can benefit from Cavalier as well, if you decide to A+ Silas. Otherwise, it's probably better to stick to Cavalier and then ditch Silas when you don't need him anymore. P.S. going the Corrin route is not as bad as it may seem. If you use a Female Corrin, you can S support Silas relatively easily and get access to the Cavalier line very quickly, while giving Ninja to Silas. And we all know too well how good a Corrin with access to Cavalier+WR+Ninja can be (Str+2, Elbow Room, Trample, Savage Blow, Replicate FTW).

[@Zoran501]

I don’t grind supports.

[@SorenToKeiran-Murasaki]

@@Zoran501 Never said you do.

[@ColossalSwordFormAndTechnique]

Fire Emblem Fates is replay-able, even in 2023. Sadly this is not the case for horrible bad growth rates like Shadows Of Valentia and Three Houses 🤢 🤮