Tempest Trials - Less Than Heroic

This special event contains a series of maps you must fight your way through from beginning to end. Losing does not mean game over, as you can retry with a second team. At the end of each round, points are received based on clear speed, survivability and bonus units. Your total points are tallied and used to unlock various rewards, many of which are exclusive to the Tempest Trials. Additionally, there is a player ranking with large feather rewards given to those with the highest scores.

Other Rules

• Bonus allies gain significant stat boosts (HP+10, +4 other stats).
• Bonus allies gain double EXP and SP.
• Your first two runs per day earn triple points.

Savage Blow 1 seal (12,000 Score)

• This Sacred Seal deals non-lethal damage to foes in an area when initiating attack. While fairly paltry by itself, it can be stacked with things such as the Savage Blow skill, Poison Strike, Pain staff and Deathly Dagger to inflict heavy damage.

Hone Spd 1 seal (20,000 Score)

• Hone Spd is another valuable Hone skill seal, letting a unit buff the speed of adjacent allies by four. It's a great "general use" seal, but works best with offensive units and especially Blade Tome users.

5★ Joshua (30,000 Score)

• Hailing from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Joshua is a study sword-user with excellent mixed bulk thanks to his legendary weapon, Audhulma. While not in the top echelon of units, his great statline allows him to perform well in a wide range of content.

Close Defense 1 seal (40,000 Score)

• Close Defense increases a unit's Def and Res when attacked by an adjacent unit. It's a fantastic skill for units who thrive in the Enemy Phase, increasing their survivability significantly.

Orbs, feathers and crystals are awarded up to 100,000 score. Sacred Coins are available, with the highest tier being 27,500 score.

There are two approaches to the Tempest Trials: manually playing through higher difficulties, and using auto-battle to clear lower difficulties. A good strategy for players who want to avoid burnout is to manually play twice per day on the highest difficulty, to get the largest possible score from the 3x multiplier. Afterwards, they can simply auto-battle on lower difficulties to use up any spare stamina.

Thanks to the large stat bonuses granted to bonus units, team-building largely revolves around them (although ultimately, only one is ever truly required). The Tempest Trials are a fantastic way to increase a unit's Hero Merit and SP, so some may use sub-optimal teams for this purpose.

Without further ado, let us jump into the team-building part of the guide. Instead of talking about just completed teams, I’ll be talking about the elements that make those teams successful, so that players with varying boxes can construct viable teams. Unless otherwise stated, all units from here on out are assumed to be running their recommended builds. A team with the best chance of success will have the following:

• As many bonus units as possible.
• Source of healing.
• Strategy for the final map.
• A unit to combat each colour (As the actual units within each map can vary greatly).

The first units you’ll want to think about using are of course, the bonus units. With their huge stat bonuses (+10 HP, +4 to all other stats) They will punch far above their normal weight. All bonus units receive the same stat boost.

Brave Ike is the standout unit for this Tempest, coming with Steady Breath and Aether, he can sustain himself while dealing and receiving heavy damage. Mia and Lute take on a more offensive role, providing heavy damage in their respective colours, but without the sustainability of Brave Ike. Dorcas is a nearly perfect stand-in for Hector, easily slamming mages with his Distant Counter without sacrificing physical defense. Of the 40% bonus units, Brave Ike and Mia are the best final boss killers.

Regarding the 20% units, Brave Lyn is the ultimate offensive unit (even when her stats aren't boosted!). She single-handedly enables cavalry teams, but her stats are so high she can be run solo with no issues. Brave Roy is a great partner to her, able to soak some physical damage and handily deal with the final boss. Brave Lucina and Joshua are also nice, providing a defensive side to your team. Lucina has great sustain with Aether while Joshua is tougher to kill thanks to his combination of speed, resistance and defense.

Healers are fantastic in the Tempest Trials, and can single-handedly sustain your team throughout the duration of the run. However, running a healer can compromise your team (unless you can get Wrathful/Dazzling Staff). It’s highly recommended to take a healer for safe runs, but keep in mind that they can slow your runs down compared to more offensive teams. There are also many viable alternatives to dedicated healers.

There are a few types of builds which can be used to heal teams without using a valuable team slot on a dedicated healer. The first of these is the “Renewal Medic”, a build type which relies on healing from Renewal and the legendary weapon Falchion. Reciprocal Aid is a must-have skill to ensure clean transferral of health to allies.

Breath of Life is another great skill capable of turning a unit into a substitute healer. With the skill itself and the fully upgraded seal, it’s possible to heal 14 health to allies every attack. Dagger-users have access to a dagger to provide further healing, as does Linde with her unique tome Aura. Reciprocal Aid is a must here too, to ensure that Linde herself can remain sustained. Remember that a dancer can potentially double this healing output. Lastly, there is the "sustain tank" build recently popularized with the addition of the Steady Breath skill. With a cooldown -1 weapon, Steady Breath, Quick Riposte and Aether, a unit can charge and fire off their special every round of combat, keeping their health topped up over a long time.

These are some of the most potent allies for Tempest Trials, offering both safety and speed to your run. In short, they are great for all the usual reasons, but are affected by their low combat stats, which can hold them back. Due to team limitations, if you choose to field a dancer they must be a respectable combat unit in their own right, with either a full build or something close. However, none are featured as bonus units this time. Performing Olivia is a special exception, able to provide heavy healing with her dagger in addition to her dancer capabilities.

One of the easiest ways to clear the Tempest Trials is with a powerful ranged attacker wielding a Brave bow or Blade tome. Combined with a buffer or dancer, they can destroy most units in the trials with ease once they are under the Desperation threshold. Nino, Linde, Tharja and Reinhardt are all common choices. Brave Lyn and Brave Roy are two high-power offensive cavalry, making horses one of the standout options for these trials.

For those looking to save time, the autobattle feature lets you quickly gain tempest points with minimal effort. When creating an autobattle team, there are a few considerations:

Difficulty

• Hard (5 Battles) is for most people the most suitable difficulty, assuming you can use a whole team of five star characters. With enough bonus units or merges, it may be possible to do the lower infernal difficulty.

Team Building

• Team building considerations are mostly the same for manual teams. The AI tends to play recklessly, making tanky units with well-rounded statlines and Distant Counter fare the best. A dedicated healer is nearly always better unless you have multiple units with Aether or other healing. If you choose a dedicated healer, don’t forget to un-equip their weapon. Otherwise, the AI will treat them like a ranged attacker, and play aggressively with them.

Examples

• DC Units: Dorcas, Hector, Ike, Ryoma, Nowi, Black Knight, Young Tiki
• Sustain Tanks: Brave Ike, Brave Lucina, Ike, Nowi
• Off-healers: Masked Marth/Lucina, Chrom, Arvis, Fae, Linde, Performing Olivia
• Healers: Lissa, Azama, Elise, Genny, Wrys
• Sweepers: Brave Lyn, Brave Roy, Mia, Lute, Reinhardt, Ursula, Nino, Delthea, Celica, Bridal Cordelia

Triangle Adept/Gem Weapons

• Enemies with gem weapons can prove troublesome, as the AI will rush forth headlong into them if you’re in range. Your own units will most likely decimate foes they are strong against, and thanks to the AI, will have many disadvantageous matchups. There are quite a few blue units with either Triangle Adept/Sapphire Lance, so a solid green unit is recommended.

Don’t sweat it!

• At the end of the day, losing a team or two does not affect score by a large margin. Speed is much more important, so building slightly riskier (but much faster) teams is a good idea.