Premium Fodder

I collect things i might want in case I want to use them eventually. This is why i have two eirs, two tibarns, etc.

Give it to units that 1) use said skill well, and 2) I frequently uses. Can’t afford trailblazing with weird builds and trials and errors, being a F2P player. What’s tried and true, I use it. Merge projects, most of the time I give them skills available at 4 stars, only if a premium fodder is recommended, I go ahead foddering expensive units.

A combination: a unit that I like or would like to use, that could use the skill effectively. Premium skills on units you don't care for, are wasted.

Plus, with the new merge system, you don't need to +10. A single merge to eliminate flaws and gain a couple of stat points is good enough.

i'm the same way, it just doesn't seem right to give premium fodder to units you won't merge. i gave h. henry close counter back when ranged armor units first released and i regret it now.

not trying to knock anyone else down tho, theres some units like ophilia that become gods with premium skills, even unmerged.

I used to say merge projects get priority as a matter of principle, and I still take that line to some extent, but it's qualified.

I view the decision in the context of my entire activity in the game. So suppose I had only one spiral and it's a decision between Ophelia and a fully merged Nowi for a dark breath + DC + aether build, depends on how I want to handle different kinds of game content. If I want more ranged blasters in the barracks, I don't care that Nowi is fully merged; it's not what I'm focusing on at the moment.

Also, consideration of performance. Ophelia, Lilina, Sonya, etc. these function mostly off of one stat, so merging doesn't actually do that much to them. Unmerged Ophelia scores more kills and exerts a lot more pressure on my AR defense than any of my merge projects if I put them in. So it's definitly fallacious to claim that a unit should get the premium fodder just because they're a merge project. Units with +0 who get more done than them with the same fodder don't deserve to be written off just because they don't receive merges.

In the past a lot of us merged units because we really like that unit for whatever reason - personality, good experience with that name in the original game, like their playstyle in FEH, whatever it might be. I think that's a good reason to give premium fodder to that unit, not necessarily from a utilitarian or mathematically pragmatic standpoint, but from a philosophy that embraces that there's more to this game than the numbers. But the same philosophy justifies giving premium fodder to non-merges. What if you like a unit a lot but not enough to spend 2000+ orbs merging him/her? What if you like what a unit can do with one spiral and no merges? To me, the only reason to hold back would be cost.

I tend to avoid any 5* locked unit fodder usage, not that there was no exeptions (B!Lucina, L!Ike and Hector all for merge projects). But i never use only copy i have for fodder, i always have spare.
I'm mentally not ready to use 5* for fodder yet, due to how impulsive i can be, i tend to promote units and bench them (Naesala comes to mind), so why should i fodder off rare units if i might bench said units. Not that i need much of premium fodder as well, nowadays we have enough great skills on budget to build almost everything i need.

I hold onto them till I have a unit I'm willing to invest in.

Only my merge projects or unit's that I have been slowly merging up gets premium skills.

The only exception is if there one of my favorite characters and there 5* exclusive

Build specific.

Once this month's update drops I have a H!Sakura (+2) I plan to give Null-C and Splashy Bucket, she will then become a staple in an AR Offense team at least.

If I really like a unit I’ll inherit to them. I only have a few +10 projects.

I do also have some 4 star +10 projects that I have given premium fodder. Tharja got Joint Hone Speed and Swift Sparrow, Nino is waiting for a C Slot Wave skill and something fun in slot A. Tailtiu is currently 5 star but I will probably make her a 4+10 when I have enough copies. She inherited brazen/attack spd, so not super rare but not everywhere either. If I’m never going to 5star + 10 them I still think it’s a good investment even though they are technically not at full potential.

I mostly keep them in manuals ;)
I inherit rare skills on units that I plan using a lot.
Mostly they are at least +2 (starfish+bold figher+spd tactic W!Cecillia or DC Ares), but there are exceptions (like +1 special spiral Ophelia).

As for manuals:
Some of units that I maunaled I have and use other nonmerged copies with good IV (+atk/-spd L!Hecotr, +atk/-hp L!Lyn, +spd/-res Nephnee) or IV dont matter (L!Azura, Grey), some I merge one or twice and keep rest in manuals (Veronica, Mikaiah, Hinoka).
Some of them I get to 40lvl to get unlock in hero list, and as I dont plan to use them I manuald them and keep only as backup fodder (F!Celica, Olwain, Faye, S!Linde, Olwain, Clair, Takumi, Lucius).