# 9 - Cliff (Gaiden)

                   So what happens when you put your Est archetype in the beginning of the game and give them ridiculous promotion boosts? You get Cliff! Cliff is one of those really weird examples when it comes to rating based on an objective efficiency metric. Cliff starts out as literally the worst unit out of all the units who join you first. Take a look at how well he does against a measly level 1 thief (which is the weakest enemy in the game) versus how well the rest of your army does:


Thief (Level 1)
HP: 26
Power: 7
Skill: 1
Speed: 2
Luck: 0
Defense: 2
Resistance: 0
Movement: 4
[Right outside Alm’s village. The first enemies that you have to fight]

(Alm deals 8 damage and double attacks every enemy. Enemies only deal 1 damage to Alm. If Alm dishes out a critical hit he deals 24 damage.)

(Ruka deals 8 damage and double attacks every enemy. Enemies only deal 1 damage to Ruka.)

(Robin deals 5 damage and double attacks every enemy. Since Robin dodged every attack, I could not determine the damage that enemies give to him)

(Gray deals 7 damage and double attacks every enemy. Enemies only deal 3 damage to Gray)

(Cliff deals 5 damage and only gets to attack once. Enemies deal 4 damage to Cliff)

Cliff is the only starting unit that you get who DOESN'T double attack the wimpy generic enemies. Considering how you only need an attack speed difference of 1 to double attack in Gaiden, that's pretty sad. When you also take into account the fact that Cliff has a starting HP of 20 you realize that even the weakest generic enemies kill Cliff just as quickly as he kills them. Said generic enemies have a better accuracy than he does on average (or that could just be the RNG Goddess acting like a spoiled pain in the butt for me. Seriously, the RNG in this game takes sadistic pleasure in screwing me over) so POINT GOES TO THE GENERIC ENEMIES.

                    So how does Cliff make it higher on the list than Soren if he starts out so bad? Well you can thank Gaiden's promotion mechanic for that. Unlike other Fire Emblem games there is no uniform level for which every character can promote by. Every individual class has a unique level in which they promote. (See here for more details: http://serenesforest.net/gaiden/classes/promotion/) Cliff doesn't start the game as a mage, he starts his game out as a villager, which means that he only needs 2 levels before he promotes. The link I just gave you explains why Gaiden promotions are so unique:

               "If any of the character’s stats (Max HP, Str, Skl, Spd, Lck, Def or Res) are lower than their promoted class’s base stats, those stats will be increased to their promoted class’s base stats."

           So translation: Cliff is going to be getting some pretty huge gains after promotion. His wimpy base stats magically vanish after 2 levels. Then his growths kick in and he turns into one of the best units in your army. Another major advantage that Cliff has over other characters in Gaiden are his really high growths (for his game). Gaiden is notorious for having the lowest growths all around. Compare and contrast some of Cliff's growths with some of the best growths out of the characters in Alm's party.

Name	HP	Strength	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance
Cliff	50	20	40	50	20	40	0
Alm	50	35	40	30	20	30	0
Zeke	40	20	35	55	30	40	0
Silk	20	30	30	30	30	10	0
Dyute	30	50	30	20	30	10	0

              Cliff is tied for the highest HP, defense and skill growths while he has the second highest speed growth out of anyone in Alm's party. It's only his strength and luck growths that are average. (Yeah 20 % is considered average for a strength and luck growth. That's how bad Gaiden growths are) Moral of the story: Cliff's growths are really awesome for his game and they help him surpass any of your starting units that aren't Alm since he'll be getting better level ups on average.

             Let's fast forward a little bit to when you actually meet the first difficult boss in Gaiden:

The Enemies in the Barren Wasteland after the Thief Shrine:
Enemy Thief - Level 1:
HP: 26
Power: 7
Skill: 1
Speed: 2
Luck: 0
Defense: 2
Resistance: 0
Movement: 4

Enemy Archer (Level 1):
HP: 24
Strength: 9
Skill: 1
Speed: 2
Luck: 0
Defense: 3
Resistance: 0
Movement: 4


Thief Boss (Level 3):
HP: 29
Strength: 8
Skill: 2
Speed: 3
Luck: 0
Defense: 3
Resistance: 0
Movement: 4

Uber Merc (w / Leather Shield)
Level 4
HP: 27
Strength: 9
Skill: 9
Speed: 11
Luck: 0
Defense: 8
Resistance: 1
Movement: 4

(Archer Robin deals 6 damage and gets to land 2 strikes. Generic enemy thief deals 4 damage)

(Mage Cliff deals 11 damage in 1 strike to generic enemy thieves)

(Mercenary Gray deals 7 damage and gets to land 2 strikes. Generic thief deals 3 damage)

(Alm deals 7 damage to thief boss and double attacks. Thief boss deals 2 damage to Alm)

(Archer!Robin deals 1 damage to Uber Merc)

(Alm deals 2 damage to Uber Merc. Uber Merc deals 3 damage to Alm and gets to strike twice)

(Mage!Cliff deals 10 damage to Uber Merc)

(Ruka deals 3 damage to Uber Merc. Uber Merc deals 3 damage to Ruka and gets to strike twice)

 

                   "Uber Merc" is the first of many frightening mercenary bosses this game likes to throw at you. What makes Uber Merc so challenging is that he's guaranteed to double attack your entire army while also doing a pretty good job of dodging anything you throw at him. Uber Merc is the first actually difficult enemy you the player have to deal with. Mage!Cliff dispatches Uber Merc in 3 hits without having to worry about taking a counter from Uber Merc while Alm, the best unit in the game, deals a measly 2 damage. Cliff is essential for taking out Uber Merc. Also, Cliff went from killing the same generic thief in 5 hits to killing said thief in 3 hits with range advantage. That's a big leap and this is still the beginning of the game. Robin and Grey's low growths will eventually make them irrelevant once Part 3 comes around. Cliff, on the other hand, will still be one of your best units. 

This is the face of a stone hard killer right here. 

                       One of the reasons why Cliff is rated higher than Soren is because Cliff doesn't have to deal with nearly as much competition as Soren does. Most of the cavaliers in Soren's game are either god tier or are very good plus Soren has to deal with 2 god tier fliers and a third flier who's still one of the best units in the game (Tanith). Cliff only has to deal with 2 cavaliers who aren't anywhere near as good as the cavaliers in Soren's game and he only has 1 flier to deal with. Granted, said flier is still good, but again nowhere near Marcia or Jill level. Cliff's biggest competition is Alm (who is better than everyone else in his army), Silk (little Miss Generic Warp bot), with Claire (the aforementioned flier) being a debatable possibility. Because of this, Cliff tends to stand out more in his game and his contributions tend to be more significant.

                            

               There are a couple of downsides to Cliff that prevent him from rising any higher up. The first downside is his brief, terrible start. From # 8 on this list onwards every character will either start out as good or great. In other words, Cliff's got some crazy competition in this list. The other major downside is that magic costs HP to use in Gaiden regardless of whether the mage hits their target or not. This is a big disadvantage in comparison to the other mages who rank above him. 

 

               Even with these so called downsides Cliff is one of the best units in his game and like Soren, Cliff is the best mage in his game (staffbots don't count) which is why he gets the # 9 spot on this list.