So I decided to finally play a Holy War Randomizer. The randomizer is incredible! Here's my randomized team:
For starters, Sigurd is now a Bow Lord with Major Hezul Blood and minor Fjallar / Vala. The running theme for this randomizer run is that most of my army has Holy Blood that does not correspond to what weapon ranks their class has. Sigurd in general is one of my tankier units, and him having Sol helps him survive.
# 5 - Bosses With High Avoid on Thrones
One of the many ways that Binding Blade distinguishes itself from other Fire Emblem games is that thrones give bosses + 30 Avoid. That's a significant boost that can make the game feel even more random than it needs to be. The worst offender in my opinion is Gel on Hard Mode. Gel is a boss that appears in the Sacae route of Binding Blade. His Avoid is sky high and he's fast enough to double a significant portion of your crew. Since he's a swordmaster, he gets the + 30 Crit Bonus that swordmasters get (assuming that you attack him from 1 space away). The worst part about Gel is that even your most accurate units, like Rutger for example, will have difficulty being able to hit him.
Keep in mind that Gel is far from the only boss who can be annoying to deal with. Henning, the boss in Chapter 8x, is generally another annoying boss that can be difficult for some people to deal with in Binding Blade. While Binding Blade is the biggest offender, Conquest also has a couple bosses with high avoid who sit on thrones.
Kotaro from Chapter 17 of Conquest can be a real pain in the butt. Fuga is also pretty dodgy too. Hinoka in Chapter 24 is also similarly difficult to hit sometimes. Moral of the story: If you want your boss to piss players off, you give them high avoid and make them difficult to hit.
# 4 - The Kitsune in Conquest Chapter 19
Ah yes. The kitsune of the infamous Chapter 19 of Conquest. Where to begin. Just like the previous entry, these annoying critters high avoid which means that trying to hit them can be a real test of patience. Their map has a really dumb gimmick where they cannot be attacked on various turns. This drags the pacing of the map as the player has no control over these illusions. Some of them have the skill Pass, which lets them ignore your units position. So if you have a weaker unit in the back, they're not safe. The kitsune are also in a weird position where their stats are just high enough to where they can curb-stomp your weaker units, but not strong enough to pose a threat to stronger units. As a result, the usual strategy to beating them is to give the Beast Killer Lance to either a Wyvern Lord or an Armor Knight and have them basically solo the map.
# 3 - Enemies with Annoying Skills
This category is comprised of multiple different enemies in the newer games who've been granted a variety of skills that make the player's life miserable. This entry includes annoying enemies from the following games:
Awakening
Enemies in Awakening's Lunatic + Mode can now have access to skills like Luna +, Hawkeye, and you start seeing them get the skill Counter more often. Luna + sucks because your defense gets cut in half. Hawkeye gives enemies an automatic 100 % accuracy for every hit. The most annoying skill that Awakening enemies have is Counter.
Counter is a skill that will inflict damage to the enemy based on the non-lethal damage they inflict to that enemy. The main issue with this version of Counter is that if an enemy attacks one of the player's characters, and that character counterattacks, the skill will still trigger. This skill basically punishes the player for counterattacking. The main way to get around this skill is to either kill them first from a distance or use bows which can't counterattack from melee range.
Fates: The Lunge Skill
The Lunge skill in Fates lets enemies switch places with whoever they're attacking after the battle's over. Theoretically speaking, it's possible for enemies to force the player's character to move halfway across the map. The only real way to deal with Lunge is to either not be in that enemies range or 1 Round KO that enemy, or have your character's stats be high enough to deal with all the enemies present. Either way, it's extremely annoying to deal with.
Three Houses: Assassins and Archers
There are two types of enemies in Three Houses that can be irritating. The first are Assassins with the Pass skill on Maddening mode. For reasons unknown to me, Maddening mode decided to have same turn reinforcements make a comeback. So if Assassins with Pass show up, they can ignore the player's positioning and wreck your weaker characters in the back. To be fair, I would argue that Assassins and Pegasus Knights can be a massive problem even on Hard Mode due to the fact that they will most likely double attack most of your army. Archers can also be a pain in Maddening Mode. Not only do they have inflated stats, they also have long range and Poison Strike.
# 2 - Ninjas (Fates)
When I asked everyone who they thought the most annoying enemies to deal with were, the most popular entry was easily the ninjas from Fates. Let's go down the list of reasons why they're so annoying:
- They have high avoid
- They have consistent 1 - 2 range in a game where 1 - 2 range options frequently have drawbacks.
- They can debuff your unit's stats
- They have Poison Strike, which means that if you don't kill them fast enough, they can deal even more damage to you.
- In Chapter 25 of Lunatic Mode on Conquest, they get Inevitable End. This skill lets their debuffs stack meaning that your tank's stats can get nerfed into the ground.
It's not difficult to see why ninjas are hated so much by players everywhere.
# 1 - Same Turn Reinforcements
Here's the thing about all the lower entries on this list: These enemies might be annoying, but they're at least manageable if you can see them coming, and if you have a solution prepared. This line of thinking does not apply to same turn reinforcements. At least, it doesn't apply if you're playing blindly.
Same turn reinforcements are cheap, and provide an element of trial and error. Even when the game tries to warn you that they're coming, you generally don't know when or where. They're frustrating to deal with and they're the cause of many a restart. Any enemy reinforcement that ambushes the player like this can become annoying to deal with. That's why I consider Ambush Spawns to be the # 1 pick for the most annoying enemies to deal with in Fire Emblem.
Fire Emblem loves to throw annoying enemies at the player doesn't it? It almost feels like each new game throws some type of enemy that the player that's designed to be as irritating as possible. I asked you guys which enemies you found most annoying, and thanks to your responses, I was able to create the following list:
# 10 - Gorgons (Sacred Stones)
One of the more popular responses when I asked about annoying enemies were Gorgons. Why do people find Gorgons annoying?
For starters, they have access to an ability called Stone, which causes the "Petrify" status. As FE Wiki puts it:
"While petrified, enemy units have a 100% hit rate along with increased critical hit rates, making even the weakest monster incredibly dangerous if they attack a petrified unit."(Source: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Gorgon)
They also have Shadowshot, a spell that hits hard (it has 13 might which is higher might than the other 3 - 10 spells in Sacred Stones), is accurate and has 3- 10 range. In the Japanese version, they're even worse:
"In the Japanese version, Gorgons had flier movement and thus ignored terrain."
# 9 - Jedah (Echoes)
Jedah was the boss that was frequently mentioned by name when people brought up annoying enemies. So let's take a look at why he can be annoying to fight:
The biggest problem with Jedah is that he can only take damage from every fourth unit. That means that if he isn't one round KO'ed, by your fourth unit, he can take a while to fight. This can be particularly annoying on blind playthroughs where the player may not be privy to that information. He also summons Mogalls, which are also annoying enemies to deal with too. In short, Jedah is annoying due to how tedious fighting him can become.
# 8 - Warp Witches (Echoes)
Int Sys Designer: "Hey I have an idea. Let's make an enemy that can warp to anywhere on the map and attack any random character they want. Players will love these enemies."
Yeah. It's not hard to see why an enemy that can attack the player from anywhere on a map would be particularly aggravating. Witch AI tend to prioritize characters who are by themselves, and avoid larger groups. Unfortunately, this information is not conveyed through the game itself, which often leads to frustrating trial and error. Many characters that are by themselves tend to have low Resistance, like Barons which makes the problem even worse. Thankfully, they get better once you learn about their AI, but if you don't they can be really random and annoying.
# 7 - Fire Emblem 12 Lunatic Dragons / FE 6 Nomads
What are FE 12 Dragons on this list? They have really high movement, consistent 1 - 2 range and they can hit hard. As the picture above shows, "high movement" means 12 move in addition to flight. Generally these enemies will fly to a spot on the map that's out of reach from any non-flier unit in the player's army and then on the next turn they'll attack. Since these dragons are FE 12 Lunatic enemies, they're gonna be accurate and they can generally kill any of your units in 2 - 3 hits. The good news about these enemies being FE 12 enemies is that they're also made of glass and can be killed very easily. There are a lot of weapons that deal effective damage against them, and the game gives you access to them so once these enemies get in range of the player they can be typically dealt with fast.
Likewise, FE 6 Nomads can be particularly annoying for similar reasons. They have high movement and consistent 2 range thanks to bows. What separates Nomads from FE 12 Dragons though is that these enemies typically have high avoid in a game where hit rates are bad enough. Plus they also tend to have high speed which means that only a handful of player characters can double attack them. Weapons that deal effective damage against cavalry units also don't apply to Nomads. Because....reasons? Nomads are a big reason why people prefer the Ilia route to the Sacae route when playing Binding Blade. Nomads are even worse if they're sitting on thrones for reasons we'll come back to in a later post.
So there you have it: Two enemy types with high movement that can kill off your weaker units easily. Don't underestimate these enemies.
# 6 - Status Staves & Ballista
Another popular mention for annoying enemies were status staves and ballista. It's not difficult to see why either. Status staves can screw players over if they're not adequately prepared. When it comes to status staves, the biggest shout-out go to:
- Berserk Staff Wielders
- Thracia 776 Status Staves
- The Hexing Rod
Berserk Staves are awful because they literally turn your units against each other. If one of your strongest units get hit by this, the player will be in a world of hurt. Status staves are extremely powerful in Thracia 776 where their effects are permanent. If you don't have a Restore staff handy, your character will get permanently screwed over.
Most Fire Emblem games that have status staves are generally kind enough to make restores staves available to the player. So if you do get hit by a status staff you at least have a viable solution to the problem. Then Fates came along and decided that this was too reasonable, so the game decided to throw a particularly brutal status staff and then give the player no Restore staff. Enter the Hexing Rod.
In Fates, the Hexing Rod cuts your HP in half. This is really scary, because the HP growths in Fates are already low. Cutting them in half is basically a death sentence for any character unfortunate enough to have this happen to them. This status effect remains for the duration of the map, and there's no way to restore it once it hits you. No matter how you look at it, that's unfair. And it's also the reason why I consider the Hexing Rod to be the most dangerous status staff in the series.
Next, we have ballista. Ballista are basically long range arrows that can deal extra damage to player characters without having to worry about a counter attack. Any area where ballista are present make approaching a map significantly more challenging. They usually deal a decent amount of damage and at least some of them will have reliable accuracy. Ballista will always provide an extra way to challenge the player no matter where they are, or what game they're in.
