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Grand Hero Battle - Panne

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  • Infernal
Panne
Panne
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Grand Hero Battle: Panne

We’re all just creatures of habit… oops, make that a rabbit! Our second beast-featuring Grand Hero Battle pits us against Panne from Fire Emblem: Awakening, whose cavalry movement and ability to deny follow-ups may prove to be a bit problematic. Other foes on this map include a variety of ranged enemies and a sword armor with Rally Spd/Def+ – while he himself isn’t much of an issue, the +6 Spd/Def he can grant his allies can be a bit troublesome. As always, though, there’s plenty of ways to work around these obstacles. If you’re really stuck, it may even be a good idea to try a new strategy entirely. You might surprise yourself with how much a single unit swap can make a difference.

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 – see the description for more details. If it doesn’t work for you, though, then read on!

Who to Choose

As is generally true of Grand 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

Making use of at least one tank on this map is highly recommended as striking and retreating is somewhat awkward due to its layout. Depending on where you decide to bait, you’ll likely need a strong red that can counterattack regardless of range or green.

Since they simply have more stat points to work with, armors are almost always effective tanks. Zelgius, Winter Tharja, Valentine’s Ike, Legendary Hector, Surtr, Valentine's Greil, and Winter Fae are able to hit hard very upon attacking and counterattacking. Regular Hector is particularly notable for his ability to override Panne’s follow-up denial with his Omnibreaker build. Black Knight is a powerful F2P option due to his potent semi-exclusive Special, Black Luna, but Halloween Dorcas can also set up a nice chokepoint.

Infantry F2P options really are functionally limited to Legendary Ike, whose native Warding Breath grants him accelerated cooldown and extra Resistance, and Fjorm, who can easily tank ranged damage due to her exclusive Special, Ice Mirror. Green options include Brave Ike. Calvary tanks are similarly limited – Xander may struggle, but may survive if under the effects of Ward Cavalry. He must also be particularly careful of Panne, as she will deal effective damage to him.

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). They are also incredibly useful due to their damage-seeking effect against ranged foes.

vanilla ike screenshot
Legendary Ike actually works much better as a red tank, but if you’re unable to use him, any red that can counterattack at-range will likely do fine.

Strikers

Due to Panne often receiving +6 buffs to every stat but her relatively low Resistance and most other foes not being too magically bulky, you will probably want to consider bringing with a powerful green mage. Blue mages are also a great choice to deal with the red dragon and sword armor.

Brave and Blade tome wielders can also serve to be useful if your team composition provides them with the appropriate buffs, though other mages can also be powerful strikers. Reinhardt, Tailtiu, Ishtar, Linde, Ophelia, WT Olwen, Lewyn, SF Nino, and Nino are just a few examples of potential options here. Do note that it’s incredibly likely that speedy mages will be affected by Panne’s Chill Spd, so don’t be afraid to take some of your slower but powerful mages off the bench.

Refreshers

Refreshers help provide support, may even have a decent offensive presence themselves, and can usually tank a hit or two, if need be. Any of them will work, since they really shouldn’t be battling too many foes anyways – though Legendary Azura is particularly notable due to her ability to grant her flying and infantry allies 1 extra movement when she sings for them.

lv 1 silvia screenshot
Even though you’re forgoing any and all combat potential by using them, you may find that a lv 1 refresher’s ability to heavily manipulate the enemy’s AI is more than worth the trade.

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 known as the scourge of Aether Raids for good reason: her excellent exclusive weapon prevents counterattacks, buffs allies, and debuffs foes after she attacks, and her access to Wrathful Staff makes her a potent offensive force in her own right. If you don’t have her, though, other healers like Genny, LokiEthlyn, Wrys, and Lissa are potential additions to a team that may serve you well.

Strategy

Strategizing for this Grand Hero Battle should be reasonably uncomplicated 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.

Beast Mode

Just like the last Grand Hero Battle, it’s probably a good idea to familiarize yourself with beast units in general. Unlike Naesala, Panne has 3 movement permanently – being technically categorized as cavalry – and she will deal physical damage. If she transforms she also gains the ability to deny follow-ups when she initiates, meaning that units that make use of Skills like Quick Riposte or Vengeful Fighter will revert to a regular Speed check. The sole exception is Hector; his Omnibreaker build allows him to follow-up regardless.

Bombastic Beginnings

As per usual, you’ve got a few options for getting this map started. If you’d rather not employ a Red tank, the space in front of Panne is an option for a green that can counterattack regardless of range. Hector is a great option here due to his ability to follow-up on her, but will likely need some support to subsequently KO the green cavalier mage.

hecc b8 screenshot
While not ideal, Hector is able to handle Panne and the green mage cavalier with help.

Unfortunately, this likely won’t help you much if you don’t have the ability to just use Hector, but that’s perfectly fine. If you place a red tank in the space furthermost in front of the green cavalier and the archer, then the mage won’t be able to attack your green tank. Legendary Ike is a particularly good choice for filling this role – if you need more guidance, try referring to the F2P clear video above.

red rank + green tank option screenshot
Though a green Wary Fighter armor is probably a better choice of Panne tank here, you can always experiment with the units you possess if you don’t have one. Brave Ike’s ability to reduce the damage he takes from follow-ups along with his infantry mov makes him a good option.

Finally, if none of the above options work for you, give consideration to being a little more creative. Placing a red tank in the spot where only the green mage cavalier can reach almost guarantees you’ll net one KO this turn, while baiting the AI towards the upper left gives you an effortless way to make Panne charge forward to her doom. You may need to use a lv 1 refresher to make this work, although a Ruby Sword Olivia will also probably do the trick.

silvia baits panne screenshot
Moving a green mage here puts them in the perfect position to KO Panne next turn.

Adeptive Addition

Annoyingly, Panne carries Chill Spd along with a Speed value of 40. This means that barring exceptional circumstances, it’ll be incredibly difficult to follow-up on her with your mage – there’s no Beastbreaker Skill or Seal yet, after all! Still, there’s no need to worry; you’ve got a few options to finish her off. Triangle Adept continues to be an excellent Skill for hard-counters, and when combined with refresher support, you shouldn’t have any issues KOing her.

julia kos panne screenshot
Any green mage along with a refresher should be able to take out Panne, but if they can’t, consider having them inherit Triangle Adept.

Feeling Chipper

Even though the archer has relatively low Resistance and middling Speed, you may find yourself unpleasantly surprised by how much damage they can deal with Vengeance active. This is especially problematic if you attack them with a ranged mage without a brave tome (i.e. without Reinhardt) – your unit will hit them once, and they’ll activate their Special to squash your squishy mage friend like a pancake.

The solution to this issue is, as always, make use of chip damage. If your tank doesn’t deal quite enough damage for your mage to finish off this foe, try using Poison Strike or a Brazen Skill/Seal to soften them up a bit.

ike chips at the archer screenshot
Ike attacking this archer first gives Ishtar more than enough leeway to KO them handily.

Retreat! Retreat!

The mage/refresher/Draw Back combo has been a mainstay of Grand Hero Battles since their inception, and for good reason. The ability to get refreshers out of a foe’s range while also keeping your mage out of danger in the process really is a great option. Moreover, considering most mages don’t really make use of their assist, it’s not like you have to worry about wasting their assist slot on a Skill that doesn’t have a direct effect on combat.

julia uses draw back on silvia screenshot
Julia is able to Draw Back Silvia so that this red dragon can’t target either of them.

Broken Barriers

Finally, be aware that the sword armor is deceptively tanky towards magical attacks. Their low-ish Resistance may not imply as much, but their Barrier Blade as well as Distant Def will grant them a whopping +13 Res whenever they’re initiated on… whew! It’s enough to prevent KOs even when a blue mage makes use of a Special activation, but it’s really not that hard to work around. If you don’t have a refresher, just use a movement Skill to get your mage out of the armor’s range and KO them next turn,

Ishtar fails to ko the sword armor screenshot
A charged Luna isn’t enough for Ishtar to KO this armor, but not to worry. Silvia will dance her so she can attack again. Even if that wasn’t an option for me, I could just have Ike or Julia use their assists to get her out of the armor’s range and attack again next turn.

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 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.

Map Enemies

  • Hard
  • Lunatic
  • Infernal
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
41 38 29 26 19
Weapon Taguel Fang A Fury 3
Support B Chill Spd 3
Special Astra C Def Smoke 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
49 40 11 32 13
Weapon Barrier Blade A Distant Def 3
Support Rally Spd/Def B Lunge
Special Bonfire C Threaten Atk 2
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
30 30 29 11 24
Weapon Thoron A Swift Sparrow 2
Support B Lancebreaker 2
Special Moonbow C Guidance 2
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
37 32 22 21 11
Weapon Slaying Bow A Brazen Atk/Spd 2
Support B Poison Strike 2
Special Vengeance C Atk Tactic 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
29 36 18 12 26
Weapon Rexcalibur A Warding Blow 2
Support B Guard 2
Special Iceberg C Atk Smoke 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
57 46 37 33 26
Weapon Taguel Fang A Fury 3
Support B Chill Spd 3
Special Astra C Def Smoke 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
66 52 16 40 19
Weapon Barrier Blade+ A Distant Def 3
Support Rally Spd/Def+ B Lunge
Special Bonfire C Threaten Atk 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
40 42 37 16 32
Weapon Thoron+ A Swift Sparrow 2
Support B Lancebreaker 3
Special Moonbow C Guidance 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
51 44 29 29 16
Weapon Slaying Bow+ A Brazen Atk/Spd 3
Support B Poison Strike 3
Special Vengeance C Atk Tactic 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
39 48 25 17 25
Weapon Rexcalibur+ A Warding Blow 3
Support B Guard 3
Special Iceberg C Atk Smoke 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
66 49 40 36 23
Weapon Taguel Fang A Fury 3
Support B Chill Spd 3
Special Astra C Def Smoke 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
76 56 17 44 21
Weapon Barrier Blade+ A Distant Def 3
Support Rally Spd/Def+ B Lunge
Special Bonfire C Threaten Atk 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
46 45 41 17 35
Weapon Thoron+ A Swift Sparrow 2
Support B Lancebreaker 3
Special Moonbow C Guidance 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
59 47 32 32 17
Weapon Slaying Bow+ A Brazen Atk/Spd 3
Support B Poison Strike 3
Special Vengeance C Atk Tactic 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
45 51 28 18 37
Weapon Rexcalibur+ A Warding Blow 3
Support B Guard 3
Special Iceberg C Atk Smoke 3
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
61 48 33 32 31
Weapon Light Breath+ A Sturdy Blow 2
Support Reciprocal Aid B Wrath 3
Special Noontime C Drive Res 2

User Submitted Teams

Together is easier
03-03
Submitted by SirTempo
Show Explanation

It was pretty easy :3