Bound Hero Battle: Reinhardt & Ishtar

Beware of the man with tiny hands… and his fearsome companion! This Bound Hero Battle pits us against Reinhardt in his sword variant and Ishtar -- you won’t have to deal with Reinhardt’s MAGIC IS EVERYTHING tome-wielding variant, but don’t let that lull you into a false sense of security. Ishtar’s charged Special makes her particularly deadly, and Reinhardt’s guaranteed follow-ups granted to him by the Meisterschwert make him an annoying foe to deal with as well.  

Thankfully, there’s still a few things on this map that are in your favor. Thankfully, there’s no reinforcements to deal with, and once you deal with Ishtar and Reinhardt, the rest of the units here don’t pose too much of a threat. As always, there’s a few tricky Skills and weapons to deal with here, but if you start off strong and keep your wits about you, victory shall be yours!

As is generally true of Bound Hero Battles, the individual units used is very important as they will primarily inform your strategy. There are a few routes you can take depending on what units are available to you, and, of course, adjustment based on the units you possess is always a possibility.

Tanks

The enemies on this map won’t move unless you bait or strike them, so you’ll most likely want to use a tank to survive the initial onslaught. The more damage a unit can soak up and the stronger their Special activations are, the more useful they’ll be here -- if you have a powerful new unit you’ve been waiting to try out, now’s the time to use them. Also note that no enemy totes effective weapons against cavalry or armored units, and there’s only one bow wielder; almost any unit class of tank will work here.

Armors such as Zelgius, Black Knight, Winter Tharja, Fallen Hardin, Hector, LA Hector, Legendary Hector, Brave Ephraim, Fallen Robin, and Legendary Tiki are able to hit hard very upon counterattacking, especially if they’re making use of Quick Riposte or Vengeful Fighter. All the green Hectors and Fallen Robin will do well tanking Ishtar due to their Weapons Triangle Advantage -- though Legendary Hector and Fallen Robin are particularly notable due to Hector’s ability to deny follow-ups and Robin’s damage-seeking against ranged foes.

Calvary tanks like Xander, Camus, Quan, and Sigurd perform better with class-specific buffs, and Sigurd is notable for his ability to tank a fair bit of magic damage due to Divine Tyrfing and the Crusader’s Ward.

An amazing F2P option is Fjorm, who is able to tank ranged foes extremely well with her exclusive Special, Ice Mirror, Legendary Ike, whose native Warding Breath grants him accelerated cooldown and extra Resistance.

Dragons are also very strong tanks, especially when they’re equipped with Lightning Breath (or another Breath and Distant Counter, if you’re feeling fancy). Nowi, Female Corrin, Male Kana, Fae, Myrrh, Legendary Robin, Female Kana, Adult Tiki, Young Tiki, and/or Summer Young Tiki will all likely be able to do the job and do it well.  They are also incredibly useful due to their damage-seeking effect against ranged foes -- since ⅔ of the foes here are mages or archers, being able to target the lower of their defensive stats will prove incredibly handy.

 

Strikers

While not strictly necessary, a striker is almost always a good choice for an Infernal map due to their ability to deal heavy damage -- if not KO foes outright. When paired with a refresher, their destructive prowess is impressive; just make sure to keep them out of harm’s way.

In particular, archers can be incredibly potent strikers due to their ability to overpower and/or finish off any enemies your tank may otherwise struggle with, especially if they are equipped with a Brave Bow. Brave Lyn, WF Hinoka, Bridal Cordelia, Summer Takumi, Setsuna, and Klein are potential strikers you may want to use, with a special mention going to Brave Lyn given her F2P status.

Alternatively, melee Brave users are able to hit foes twice without retaliation, and may even quad hit if they outspeed an enemy. Cherche, Cordelia, Elincia, and WT Reinhardt are all great Brave users who can make excellent use of class-specific buffs.

Brave and Blade tome wielders can also serve to be useful if your team composition provides them with the appropriate buffs, though speedy mages can also be powerful strikers. Tharja, Bridal Tharja, Reinhardt, Tailtiu, Ishtar, Linde, Ophelia, WT Olwen, Lewyn, SF Nino, and Nino are potential options here, especially if they are equipped with a Breaker skill to add to their coverage.

Refreshers

Refreshers help provide support, may even have a decent offensive presence themselves, and can usually tank a hit or two, if need be. Lene, Silvia, Olivia, Performing Olivia, YT Olivia, Performing Inigo, Performing Shigure, Performing Azura, Azura, New Year Azura, Bridal Ninian, and Ninian are all examples of refreshers -- though really, any of them will do the trick.  

Healers

Due to every healer having access to the Wrathful Staff refinement, they can serve as incredibly potent colorless pseudo-mages -- who can heal to boot! Brave Veronica is particularly notable due to her excellent exclusive weapon that prevents counterattacks (among other things), access to the Wrathful Staff Skill, and great support unity, but other healers like Genny, Priscilla, Elise, Maribelle, Nanna, Ethlyn, Wrys, and Lissa are potential additions to a team that may serve you well.

Supporters

As units that offer extra utility, supporters typically fit one of the above roles while also providing some sort of assist to your other units. Buffers, debuffers, and drivers all can play a valuable role in your team composition by making use of their incredible utility.

Because of Skill Inheritance, any unit can be a buffer with enough investment -- many Drives, Spurs, Hones, Fortifies, and Dual Rallies are readily accessible on 4 star units, and can be further stacked with seals for maximum coverage. Tactics seals are also easily accessible and provide a hefty +6 boost to one stat. Notable options who natively provide buffs through their exclusive weapons include YT Olivia, Performing Azura, Brave Veronica, Eirika, and Ephraim, while Brave Lucina, New Year Corrin, and New Year Azura are able to stack Drives through theirs.

Debuffers can make use of weaponry, Skills, or Seals to help de-fang the enemy team and make them significantly less threatening. Ploys, Chills, and Smokes especially are wide-reaching and potent debuffs that can easily turn the tide of the battle at a pivotal moment. Lilina and Soren have a Chill effect on their refined weapons, while Male Morgan has a unique buff/debuff dual effect on his. Dagger units also inflict debuffs when they attack, which can be very useful to cut through an Infernal foes’ inflated HP.

Strategizing for this Bound Hero Battle should be a relatively simple matter due to the absence of reinforcements. While it can be difficult to exactly predict what will happen due to IV / Merge variance, here’s some general tips to get you started.

In the Beginning...

If you’re a dedicated reader of these guides, you’ll know by now that most of these maps are won or lost before they even start. While it may be tempting to jump right in, knowing (and loving!) your enemy will help you not only choose your units, but also figure out where to begin.

The elephant in the room here is most definitely Ishtar -- her pre-charged Special really lays on the pain, and she’s not even the only foe your unit will have to withstand. That’s right: this is one of those kinds of maps where you can’t bait one unit at a time. Isn’t this game fun? If you’re using a flying ranged striker, you can fly over the cliff and target Ishtar directly. Otherwise, you’ll have to bait her, which may prove to be a bit… difficult.

If you absolutely can’t find a way to survive Ishtar’s Moonbow, you can try avoiding her entirely and baiting in the one space she can’t reach. If you have a Brave weapon user that can target her Defense, then you may be able to safely sniper her down in your next turn. If you’re confident your unit will survive her, though, continue reading for a helpful tip.

Aiming the AI

If you don’t understand why the AI is doing what it’s doing, don’t worry -- you’re not alone. While there do seem to be some more concrete rules that inform its behaviour, more often than not you may find yourself in a position where you have to experiment to get the result you want.

At first, this team layout may seem pretty optimized -- Morgan is positioned to Spur Hector’s Defense and Resistance, while Fjorm is close by to provide him with Drive Attack. But…

Since Ishtar attacks Hector first, he’s knocked out of Vengeful Fighter range, leaving the archer with enough HP that Felicia can’t KO them. To make matters worse, the cavalry has arrived, which puts Hector in a sticky situation.

But there is a way this could go better -- if the archer attacks Hector before Ishtar, he’ll hit them twice with Vengeful Fighter, then activate his Special to KO the Thunder Goddess in one hit. So, how do we make this happen? The answer, of course, is positioning!

So if you see that one small difference in the way the enemy moves might grant you a big advantage, trial and error will likely be your best option to achieve your goal. Don’t be afraid to restart a map a few times to figure out which positioning works best for you -- since there’s no stamina cost, there’s literally no downside to testing out your options.

Delectable Debuffs

Speaking of debuffs, you may want to sometimes consider attacking a foe simply to activate debuffs on them. Skills like Attack Smoke, Speed Smoke, and Res Smoke -- as well as daggers and some other weapons -- have far-reaching debuffs that can make the enemy’s entire team a non-issue, or net you a key KO by decreasing the enemy’s defenses. This is especially true on maps like Grand Hero and Bound Hero Battles where foes tend to like to group together. If chip damage is more your speed, consider using Savage Blow; though you best watch out for enemies toting Vantage. Speaking of which…

Party Hardy

It’s always a good idea to keep in mind what seals you have available to you, and one often overlooked tool in most player’s kits is the Hardy Bearing seal. Enemy Dragons with Lightning Breath and Vantage can really ruin your day, especially if they’re the last foe you have to deal with and your units are already limping and wounded -- but never fear! With the Hardy Bearing seal, you can bypass the effects of Vantage and KO this foe as you normally would. While you may have to pay badges and sacred coins to upgrade this seal all the way (it’s not exactly a priority, after all), it’s a much easier option than having to start your strategy over from scratch.

If At First You Don't Succeed...

Don’t be fooled by video walkthroughs of any Bound Hero Battle that you watch -- it’s very rare for anyone to beat high-difficulty content (or record a video of themselves doing so!) on their first try.  Additionally, the potential variance in unit builds that Skill Inheritance brought along with the random nature of summoning has resulted in pretty much every single summoner having different building blocks to work with. This, when combined with the high difficulty level of Infernal, may prove frustrating while someone is trying to find the right combination of units and moves. The key thing to keep in mind is that it may take some light Skill Inheritance and seal shuffling as well as multiple tries of the map to find a strategy that works for you. Every single turn you complete gets you one step closer to completing the puzzle. Finally, reading about or watching videos of successful strategies may also help you break through a particularly difficult turn that you can’t complete, or may give you ideas of a new unit to use.