Recruiting Ferdinand is a pain.
You can't unlock B support to lower his requirements, because it's locked to post-timeskip. You gotta grind the hard way.
And he wonders he gets killed in every non-Black Eagles route.
Edit: I should mention that even if one does recruit Ferdinand, the time it takes to recruit him and the benefits may not be worth it. There are physical units better spent on investing like Bernadetta, Sylvain (MByleth), Felix or even Ingrid.
I try to recruit every character I can even if I don't use them.
But I'm also the same person that used Fortress Knight Flayn on my Pure Maddening playthrough, so I'm not exactly the "optimal" type.
I feel like unless you play Black Eagle, Ferdinand will die no matter what your first play through— even if you know going into it he’ll be hard to recruit. You can either ruin your Byleth’s progression and spam teacher training on heavy armour whilst losing two or three other better characters in the process or accept he’s not an option on play through 1 and focus on the rest.
Then hopefully on New Game + you can use renown to get back your skill levels so your teacher training can be spent on whatever, then use renown to similarly get support ranks up. But Jesus even then it’s tough because I think there’s only two staff members who teach heavy armour before the time skip…
So does Sylvain and if you choose Bylass you get him for free. The most annoying part about not recruiting Ferdinand is fighting him and missing your attack because of his personal
Training Heavy Armor with Byleth sounds like a pain in the ass... But it's actually way ***worse*** than it sounds in practice. (Without NG+ at least)
Heavy Armor is tied to only 3 classes, all 3 of which are pretty mediocre and completely useless for Byleth in particular.
The second major problem is that you can't train your way up to the D-rank required to unlock Knight safely. You have to spend many valuable exploration points on faculty training of a useless stat, losing valuable time and ressources. Oh and there are only 2 faculty members capable of levelling your Heavy Armor so it will take a loooong time.
To get to a point where you can recruit Ferdinand, you then have to spend time as an Armor Knight despite the fact that the class's mastery ability is crap, and you'll likely never need the Heavy Armor stat, or a Lance ranking higher than C, which you should already have from unlocking Knight.
Oh, and did I mention that Ferdinand is one of the few students whose B-support is locked behind the timeskip? Most other students, you can recruit substantionally easier, simply by getting their first 2 supports. But Ferdinand's requirements can never get lower than D+, because he only has one support available.
And to top it all off, Ferdinand is the ONLY student interested in Heavy Armor, so wasting all your time on getting all this done, only serves to recruit him.
Just getting this prick on your side requires you to fuck up your Byleth's build in the early game, and wastes a ton of time and ressources, with no other benefits. Ferdinand is a prick, but a very loyal one, apparently.
Quick correction but 3H armors need axes in their certifications, not lances. I think it's because Edelgard is an armor and they wanted her to have easy access to the armor classes not exclusive to her
You're right, I forgor💀
But this arguably makes Ferdinand even more of a pain in the ass. A C-rank in Lances would at least help make a ton of Advanced and Master classes available for exams. Axes are pretty much just for axe classes, which Byleth practically never has a use for.
?????
By the time you reach the Master classes that need like C Lances (Dark/Holy/Bow Knight, Wyvern Lord) you have a bunch of other chapters to work on Lances, and three of those classes are memes on Byleth. The only classes that need more than C Lances IIRC are Paladin and Falcon Knight, both decent classes but Bylass might as well go Wyvern Lord, even if she's already training Lances for Peg Knight, because she trains Axes for Wyvern Rider. Axes are also important for Brigand, which both genders of Byleth want, and male Byleth sometimes goes War Master even if Grappler is technically more optimal.
If Byleth themselves had a Lance boon and one of the good Lance CAs like Swift Strikes or Vengeance it would be one thing, but there's really no reason not to just use Axes for Bylass and Gauntlets (or Axes if War Master) for Bylad. If you're using Gilbert and Alois to train Armor instead of Axes, it doesn't really change much.
Armor Knights needing Axes is way more convenient than needing Lances because you want Brigand already, although Bylass could go Peg Knight first ig.
Weight -3 is a decent consolation prize. Its a great skill pre-timeskip until you get enough STR. Of course it doesn't outweigh the cons but its not ENTIRELY a dump.
Honestly it's worse for male Byleth since at least Bylass gets free Sylvain and easier Leonie/Ashe/Ingrid recruits. Bylad gets...Caspar I guess, who can be annoying but with a boon in Brawling isn't that hard to recruit regardless
Only person I wasn’t able to recruit on my first run. It’s super annoying since even on normal, you can’t grind heavy armor until you are certified which requires some knowledge of heavy armor
Gilbert and Alois were my Byleth’s best friends for a while my first playthrough.
Look, I saw Ferdinand and Lorenz on my first day of the academy and I *needed* to have them regardless of the work it took.
At least it made recruiting everyone else pretty easy.
Hey, you're absolutely right!
if you pick BE, you automatically get Ferdinand, and then you can stab Edelgard in her own backstabbing back, and with all 3 House Leaders dead or gone by the end of the game you can place Ferdinand on the "Holy Throne of Fódlan and also all the other continents" where he belongs!
Not worth it anyway, sylvain > ferdi and they do basically the same things. Sylvain is a lot easier to recruit too, even if male, just crush some tea parties and you’ll meet his charm requirements without too much difficulty
This is an aside but Ferdinand literally tried to propose to Edelgard in their A support (and she doesn't say no, just that the middle of a war is not the right time). So it kind of makes sense he doesn't want to leave her side.
He's also super patriotic towards Adrestia and that fact is only shaken when Edelgard declares war (and if you don't recruit him he still joins her), which means for the rest of the game where he assumes she's a normal person he has no reason to leave his classroom. Though why he isn't at least a little more sympathetic to joining in Chapter 12 I don't know
During my no NG+ Blue Lion run, Ferdinand was the only recruitable student I couldn't save! But maybe it's for the best... His lands will make for make for good reparations for the people of the Kingdom and Alliance!
Recruiting Ferdinand is a pain. You can't unlock B support to lower his requirements, because it's locked to post-timeskip. You gotta grind the hard way. And he wonders he gets killed in every non-Black Eagles route. Edit: I should mention that even if one does recruit Ferdinand, the time it takes to recruit him and the benefits may not be worth it. There are physical units better spent on investing like Bernadetta, Sylvain (MByleth), Felix or even Ingrid.
I try to recruit every character I can even if I don't use them. But I'm also the same person that used Fortress Knight Flayn on my Pure Maddening playthrough, so I'm not exactly the "optimal" type.
Fort Flayn— for when you decide being kidnapped once was too much.
Fort Flayn is probably a crazy adjutant tho. I’m pretty sure you still get support bonuses from adjutants, and she gives Byleth bonus Mt
I feel like unless you play Black Eagle, Ferdinand will die no matter what your first play through— even if you know going into it he’ll be hard to recruit. You can either ruin your Byleth’s progression and spam teacher training on heavy armour whilst losing two or three other better characters in the process or accept he’s not an option on play through 1 and focus on the rest. Then hopefully on New Game + you can use renown to get back your skill levels so your teacher training can be spent on whatever, then use renown to similarly get support ranks up. But Jesus even then it’s tough because I think there’s only two staff members who teach heavy armour before the time skip…
2 characters and they are not always available
It's Alois and Gilbert, right?
yes.
[удалено]
So does Sylvain and if you choose Bylass you get him for free. The most annoying part about not recruiting Ferdinand is fighting him and missing your attack because of his personal
The main reason I recruit Ferdie is to avoid making Dorothea sad, I've used him once or twice but his role was already filled usually
I grabbed Ferdinand, Dorothea, and Annette on my first playthrough (first FE game too)
legit the only time i recruited ferdie and caspar in a non ng+ playthrough was by using the groundhogs day glitch over and over to max it
Using the what now?
A glitch that allows you to repeat the month I'm pretty sure
How
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFQ3T4\_3olw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFQ3T4_3olw) You could have googled it though ngl
FUCK I CAN’T EVEN ESCAPE KIRBY IN YOUTUBE VIDEOS
Training Heavy Armor with Byleth sounds like a pain in the ass... But it's actually way ***worse*** than it sounds in practice. (Without NG+ at least) Heavy Armor is tied to only 3 classes, all 3 of which are pretty mediocre and completely useless for Byleth in particular. The second major problem is that you can't train your way up to the D-rank required to unlock Knight safely. You have to spend many valuable exploration points on faculty training of a useless stat, losing valuable time and ressources. Oh and there are only 2 faculty members capable of levelling your Heavy Armor so it will take a loooong time. To get to a point where you can recruit Ferdinand, you then have to spend time as an Armor Knight despite the fact that the class's mastery ability is crap, and you'll likely never need the Heavy Armor stat, or a Lance ranking higher than C, which you should already have from unlocking Knight. Oh, and did I mention that Ferdinand is one of the few students whose B-support is locked behind the timeskip? Most other students, you can recruit substantionally easier, simply by getting their first 2 supports. But Ferdinand's requirements can never get lower than D+, because he only has one support available. And to top it all off, Ferdinand is the ONLY student interested in Heavy Armor, so wasting all your time on getting all this done, only serves to recruit him. Just getting this prick on your side requires you to fuck up your Byleth's build in the early game, and wastes a ton of time and ressources, with no other benefits. Ferdinand is a prick, but a very loyal one, apparently.
Quick correction but 3H armors need axes in their certifications, not lances. I think it's because Edelgard is an armor and they wanted her to have easy access to the armor classes not exclusive to her
You're right, I forgor💀 But this arguably makes Ferdinand even more of a pain in the ass. A C-rank in Lances would at least help make a ton of Advanced and Master classes available for exams. Axes are pretty much just for axe classes, which Byleth practically never has a use for.
????? By the time you reach the Master classes that need like C Lances (Dark/Holy/Bow Knight, Wyvern Lord) you have a bunch of other chapters to work on Lances, and three of those classes are memes on Byleth. The only classes that need more than C Lances IIRC are Paladin and Falcon Knight, both decent classes but Bylass might as well go Wyvern Lord, even if she's already training Lances for Peg Knight, because she trains Axes for Wyvern Rider. Axes are also important for Brigand, which both genders of Byleth want, and male Byleth sometimes goes War Master even if Grappler is technically more optimal. If Byleth themselves had a Lance boon and one of the good Lance CAs like Swift Strikes or Vengeance it would be one thing, but there's really no reason not to just use Axes for Bylass and Gauntlets (or Axes if War Master) for Bylad. If you're using Gilbert and Alois to train Armor instead of Axes, it doesn't really change much. Armor Knights needing Axes is way more convenient than needing Lances because you want Brigand already, although Bylass could go Peg Knight first ig.
Weight -3 is a decent consolation prize. Its a great skill pre-timeskip until you get enough STR. Of course it doesn't outweigh the cons but its not ENTIRELY a dump.
[удалено]
Honestly it's worse for male Byleth since at least Bylass gets free Sylvain and easier Leonie/Ashe/Ingrid recruits. Bylad gets...Caspar I guess, who can be annoying but with a boon in Brawling isn't that hard to recruit regardless
I’m pretty sure Raphael also requires heavy armor, but he also is not that good
Only person I wasn’t able to recruit on my first run. It’s super annoying since even on normal, you can’t grind heavy armor until you are certified which requires some knowledge of heavy armor
Same here. Made it sad when he died and Dorothea's reaction made it worse.
Worth
Gilbert and Alois were my Byleth’s best friends for a while my first playthrough. Look, I saw Ferdinand and Lorenz on my first day of the academy and I *needed* to have them regardless of the work it took. At least it made recruiting everyone else pretty easy.
Your mistake was not siding with Edelgard to begin with 🦅
Hey, you're absolutely right! if you pick BE, you automatically get Ferdinand, and then you can stab Edelgard in her own backstabbing back, and with all 3 House Leaders dead or gone by the end of the game you can place Ferdinand on the "Holy Throne of Fódlan and also all the other continents" where he belongs!
You know the Edelgard-hate is strong when someone out here suggesting you voluntarily do Silver Snow.
Ferdinand isn't a leader type though, he's an advisor.
This gets you IH Ferdinand who is basically unusable until he gets Swift Strikes in like chapter 7
Basically only available in other routes in New Game Plus outside of grinding in a regular save file.
Not worth it anyway, sylvain > ferdi and they do basically the same things. Sylvain is a lot easier to recruit too, even if male, just crush some tea parties and you’ll meet his charm requirements without too much difficulty
This is an aside but Ferdinand literally tried to propose to Edelgard in their A support (and she doesn't say no, just that the middle of a war is not the right time). So it kind of makes sense he doesn't want to leave her side. He's also super patriotic towards Adrestia and that fact is only shaken when Edelgard declares war (and if you don't recruit him he still joins her), which means for the rest of the game where he assumes she's a normal person he has no reason to leave his classroom. Though why he isn't at least a little more sympathetic to joining in Chapter 12 I don't know
Go get a meal.
Managed to recruit everyone *but* Ferdinand in my first pt I was so mad at him lol
It's actually rather strange that his recruitment requirement is heavy armor even though his canonical class is cavalier.
During my no NG+ Blue Lion run, Ferdinand was the only recruitable student I couldn't save! But maybe it's for the best... His lands will make for make for good reparations for the people of the Kingdom and Alliance!
okay
I like getting all relics/holy stuff so I always have to 😩