GamePress

Grand Hero Battle - Berkut

Map

  • Normal
  • Infernal
Berkut
Berkut

Grand Hero Battle: Berkut

Say Uncle! Returning from the depths of Grand Hero Battle purgatory is Berkut, giving you the chance to beat his map if you haven’t completed it already. This is a great opportunity if you’re a newer player or didn’t have the right units to beat Berkut the other times his map has been run. As per usual, you should expect some curveballs, but the lack of reinforcements and easy-to-use defense tiles should make completion of Infernal a bit easier than it normally is. While the strange starting positions may give you some pause, there’s no issue with trying out the map until you figure out where to properly position your units. Trial and error will likely be key here -- and will serve you well if you don’t allow it to try your patience.

Before you begin teambuilding, it’s completely possible you already possess everything you need to beat this map. Created by Gamepress staff member RedFerrari1998, the video guide below uses only F2P units, no Skill Inheritance, and Seals -- see the description for more details. If it doesn’t work for you, though, then read on!

Who To Use

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

Baiters

Although the enemies on this map will start moving regardless of whether you bait, damage, or KO them, it’s advisable to use a baiter so that your other units won’t be overwhelmed by your advancing foes.

Armors such as Hector, Valentine Hector, Fallen Hardin, Black Knight, Zelgius, and Winter Tharja are able to hit hard very upon counterattacking, especially if they’re making use of Quick Riposte or Vengeful Fighter, and can make use of Armored Boots to extend their range as well as class-specific buffs. Cavalry tanks like Sigurd, Xander, and Camus perform particularly well with class-specific buffs, but may struggle to maneuver due to trees.

Nowi, Young Tiki, Adult Tiki, Fae, Myrrh, and Fallen Robin all boast decent mixed defenses and also have access to class-specific buffs. Legendary Robin is also a potential choice, but may struggle due to her lack of color advantage, and, like Myrrh, must be wary of archers if she does not run Dragonskin or Iote’s Shield.

Great F2P options include Legendary Ike, who natively sports Warding Breath which boosts his Resistance and grants him cooldown reduction, and Fjorm, who is able to tank the red mage with her high Resistance and battle ranged foes with her exclusive Special, Ice Mirror. Brave Ike is another potentially F2P option (depending on if he was chosen as one’s free hero or not) who also offers cooldown reduction.
 

Brave Ike Screenshot
Brave Ike’s native Steady Breath makes him an excellent physical tank, and also allows him to use his amazing Special more frequently in combat.

Strikers

As per usual, strikers are a potent force who can usually take out most foes without breaking a sweat. Though they can get easily cornered on this map, skills like Escape Route and Wings Of Mercy can grant them even greater mobility than they already possess.

Archers are powerful strikers that can either finish off foes on their own or provide an assist. In particular, however, Brave Bow users can be incredibly potent on this map due to their ability to overpower and finish off any foes your tanks may otherwise struggle with. New Year Corrin, Brave Lyn, WF Hinoka, Bridal Cordelia, Klein, and Setsuna are potential strikers you may want to use, with a special mention going to New Year Corrin and Brave Lyn given their 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, Hinoka, Elincia, and WT Reinhardt are all great Brave users who can make excellent use of class-specific buffs. Finn is a great F2P option who would work particularly well in a cavalry team.

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 effective strikers. Tharja, Reinhardt, Tailtiu, Linde, Nino, and WT Olwen are potential options here, especially if they are equipped with a Breaker skill to add to their coverage and are provided with class-specific buffs or a buffbot like Eirika or Ephraim.

A striker, however, doesn’t always require heavy investment. Although Alfonse isn’t speedy and doesn’t possess a native Brave sword, Death Blow (which he naturally learns) ensures that he can heavily damage if not outright KO most green enemies. Additionally, his good physical bulk ensures he can survive a foe’s attack if he must.

Alfonse Screenshot
Alfonse may not be stellar, but he is generally able to battle green foes who cross his path.

Dancers

Dancers help provide support, may even have a decent offensive presence themselves, and can usually tank a hit or two, if need be. OliviaPerforming OliviaPerforming InigoPerforming ShigurePerforming AzuraAzuraNew Year Azura, and Ninian all give the refreshment that high-firepower units need while also possessing the ability to provide an assist to KO an enemy.

Healers

While not generally a great choice over units who can deal heavy damage or dancers, Healers can be incredibly useful in this Grand Hero Battle due to their ability to provide valuable healing to your tanks. Genny, Priscilla, Elise, Nanna, Wrys, and Lissa are potential additions to a team that may serve you well on this map.

Strategy

Strategizing for this Grand Hero Battle shouldn’t be too challenging 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.

Stuck In The Middle With You

Berkut’s map certainly has unique starting positions, and that’s to put it lightly. Since it essentially forces you to split your forces, your first priority likely should be to either fortify your position or re-unite your team.

Ideally, you’ll want to influence the AI by at least having one baiter here, though if you can reach one of the defense tiles with a unit who can counterattack regardless of range, that may work as well. Otherwise, simply aim for KOing or heavily damaging one of the foes that charge forward. Do note that the archer carries a Firesweep bow and therefore can’t be KO’d on Enemy Phase.

Brave Ike Bait Screenshot
Brave Ike’s position draws most of these foes to the top of the map, allowing him to nearly KO Berkut himself almost immediately. Moreover, Alfonse’s Spur Atk further boosts his damage output!

Mad Skillz

If you’re using a striker or a dancer, you may want to consider allowing them to receive damage on this turn as well. Doing so will grant them the ability to use Escape Route to rejoin the rest of their teammates on the top of the map, and will also activate Wings of Mercy if any of your other units possess it. Since both of these skills are reasonably accessible (Escape Route 2 can be found on a 4 star Marth and Escape Route 3 can be found on a 4 star Cecilia, while Wings of Mercy 2 can be found on a 4 star Frederick and Palla and Wings of Mercy 3 can be found on a 4 star Cain) they shouldn’t require a lot of feather investment -- and unsurprisingly, teleporting around this map certainly makes it much easier to handle. Another handy tool is Savage Blow 3 (found on 4 star Camilla) and the Savage Blow Seal -- its AOE damage makes finishing off foes a less arduous task.

Hinoka Warps due to Escape Route Screenshot
Since WF Hinoka took enough damage on the first Enemy Phase, she’s now able to warp up to Brave Ike and Alfonse to finish off Berkut. Azura is equipped with Wings of Mercy, so she can follow close behind -- getting her out of a potentially sticky situation.

Two For The Price Of One

Unless your tank is desperately low on health, it’s almost always a good idea to bait more than one foe at once. Because almost every foe on this map is slow as molasses and they do not carry brave weapons, you don’t have to worry about being doubled -- meaning that even a disadvantageous matchup that pits the weapons triangle against you shouldn’t prove devastating. There’s no need to be overly cautious, especially one your team is reunited and you have numbers on your side.

Brave Ike Bait (Again) Screenshot
Although Brave Ike will be in-range to take damage from a neutral matchup here, his upcoming Aether proc ensures that he’ll hit back incredibly hard and net the KO. The lance cavalier is even less of a threat -- Brave Ike has a weapons triangle advantage over it and will likely weaken it to the point that it will become a non-issue.

Manipulation Mastery

As with every map, it’s possible that the AI will act in unpredictable ways like how the lance cavalier attacked Brave Ike first in the screenshot below, causing the axe cavalier to advance. If this happens, don’t panic! Slow down and see if there’s an immediate solution to your issue -- it’s possible that you will be in an even better position than you were in before. If you’re well and truly stuck, you may want to try the map again while adjusting your positioning. Moving a unit one space up, down, right, or left can sometimes make all the difference.

Alfonse Is Actually Helpful Screenshot
Although I expected the axe cavalier to attack Brave Ike first, it’s not a problem that the lance cavalier attacked him instead. Alfonse can easily KO the axe cavalier due to the Savage Blow chip damage it received earlier, and even if he couldn’t, he (and Brave Ike!) could survive an attack on Enemy Phase.

The Key Of Caution

Nothing is worse than losing at the very last moment, so once you’re down to only one foe in the enemy’s forces, it’s always a good idea to take your time. They may have a special charged, or they could have a Defiant or Brazen skill active that you’re not expecting -- which, if it catches you off-guard, will cause you to curse your quick fingers. In general, being methodical with your moves and paying close attention to the battle forecast is a good habit to have, since it will grant you the ability to see if you need the help of Seals or skills to help you KO or survive a foe. Since there’s no benefit to performing your turns quickly, you can stare for as long as you want… and maybe the solution will come to you when you least expect it.

Kinoka #GetsRekt Screenshot
Although my first instinct is to attack this mage with WF Hinoka, the battle forecast has spoken -- I’ll need to try weakening it with Alfonse first.

If At First You Don’t Succeed

Don’t be fooled by video walkthroughs of any Grand 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 and 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.

Map Enemies

  • Hard
  • Lunatic
  • Infernal
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
45 41 16 24 18
Weapon Berkut's Lance+ A Water Boost 3
Support B
Special Blazing Flame C Ward Cavalry
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
36 34 18 19 23
Weapon Killer Axe A Life and Death 3
Support B
Special Moonbow C Breath of Life 2
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
29 34 19 12 27
Weapon Rauðrwolf A Distant Def 2
Support B Axebreaker 2
Special C Fortify Cavalry
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
34 31 25 15 20
Weapon Gronnraven A Warding Blow 2
Support B Seal Spd 3
Special C Threaten Res 2
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
34 35 18 19 23
Weapon Firesweep Bow A Swift Sparrow 1
Support B Seal Spd 2
Special C Fortify Cavalry
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
60 49 23 31 25
Weapon Berkut's Lance+ A Water Boost 3
Support B
Special Blazing Flame C Ward Cavalry
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
49 46 25 26 30
Weapon Killer Axe+ A Life and Death 3
Support B
Special Moonbow C Breath of Life 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
40 46 26 17 35
Weapon Rauðrwolf+ A Distant Def 3
Support B Axebreaker 3
Special C Fortify Cavalry
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
45 42 32 20 28
Weapon Gronnraven+ A Warding Blow 3
Support B Seal Spd 3
Special C Threaten Res 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
48 47 23 25 24
Weapon Firesweep Bow+ A Swift Sparrow 2
Support B Seal Spd 3
Special C Fortify Cavalry
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
69 52 25 34 27
Weapon Berkut's Lance+ A Water Boost 3
Support B Vantage 3
Special Blazing Flame C Ward Cavalry
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
57 54 32 23 28
Weapon Killer Axe+ A Life and Death 3
Support B Desperation 3
Special Moonbow C Breath of Life 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
46 49 28 19 38
Weapon Rauðrwolf+ A Distant Def 3
Support B Axebreaker 3
Special C Fortify Cavalry
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
52 45 35 22 31
Weapon Gronnraven+ A Warding Blow 3
Support B Seal Spd 3
Special C Threaten Res 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
55 50 25 27 26
Weapon Firesweep Bow+ A Swift Sparrow 2
Support B Seal Spd 3
Special C Fortify Cavalry
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
57 53 27 28 33
Weapon Silver Lance+ A Grani's Shield
Support B Renewal 3
Special C Goad Cavalry

User Submitted Teams

Hector Cheese
12-13
Submitted by Phdgf
Show Explanation

Put Hector in the center right spot with distant def 3 seal. Also have a fast sword fighter in the top position with spur atk 3 c-skill, spur def-1 seal, and rally attack. Have cordelia with quickened pulse, galeforce, brave lance in the bottom left and any reposition cavalier in the bottom right spot (Reinhardt or Brave Lyn if you screw it up)

BIke tanks Berkut!
12-13
Submitted by Brando5985
Show Explanation

Caeda was mostly used for support with her Bladetome, with help from Azura. BIke was paired with Genny so that she could slow down and weaken enemies with Dazzling Gravity+ and double Savage Blow 3.

Infernal was easier than lunatic
12-13
Submitted by Nezyrael
Show Explanation

Effie with Ridersbane, Vanilla Arthur, Vanilla Sigurd, Olivia dances and has to survive one mage attack.

Actually easier than lunatic because baiting was easier

Lol
12-12
Submitted by Dibby
Show Explanation

-HP +Def B!Lyn with Brave Bow
Inigo equipped with Gale Dance and Hone Atk
Two level one 4* Olivias

Powercreep heroes ftw
12-11
Submitted by ecpgieicg
Show Explanation

The two armor units have WoM 3. Fjrorm has her default build with QR3, though it probably doesn’t matter. (I haven’t decided how to build her and what IV to use.) Un-merged Fjorm will take enough damage for WoM regardless. Merged Fjorm needs to take either A passive off or use Glacies to chop through.

Fjorm baits Berkut and Bow Cavalier at the top in order to activate WoM. Hector and BK starts bottom. Hector baits and kills Lance Cavalier. It’s all too easy from this point on. An unmerged neutral IV Hector can OHKO Berkut. Ayra can ORKO Bow Cavalier. Etc etc.

You can of course go cheap and use a 4-star Frederick instead of Hector (In that case, perhaps use Cain instrad of BK) and any fast offensive infantry unit instead of Ayra. Hector just naturally benefits from WoM. And BK comes with it. Various dancers should work too. As for Ayra, I pulled Ayra within 10 orbs when she first came out. So I grew to like her. (Did that with Mia too. Come bite me.)