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rptv-starwars · 4 years ago

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'The Empire Strikes Back' at 40: What the 'Star Wars' sequel's iconic special effects owe to Ray Harryhausen

By Ethan Altered-States (Ethan Alter)

Yahoo Entertainment, Yahoo Movies • May 27, 2020

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/the-empire-strikes-back-star-wars-special-effects-ray-harryhausen-212159259.html

[article was edited for brevity, clarity, and to omit dumb commentary by the original author]

Dennis Muren poses with an AT-AT walker behind the scenes of The Empire Strikes Back. (Photo: Lucasfilm)

Both Ray Harryhausen [special effects creator prominent in the 1960s for stop-motion animation] and The Empire Strikes Back (ESB) are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year. 2020 marks the 100th birthday of Harryhausen, the special-effects pioneer behind vintage Hollywood spectacles like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts, as well as the 40th anniversary of the second movie in the Star Wars original trilogy.

But they have more in common than the calendar year: The AT-ATs and Tauntauns that walk through ESB are inspired by Harryhausen’s menagerie of stop-motion creatures, from cyclopses to krakens. “They had character, they had performance and they had purpose,” says Dennis Muren, who parlayed a childhood spent watching Harryhausen’s films into a groundbreaking career as a Star Wars F/X legend. “They were wondrous to look at, and the designs of the shots were dynamic. Ray’s work grabbed you emotionally, because it began with him. I’m the same way: being emotionally connected to the performance and design of a character who, simply put, looks really neat.”

Currently the Senior Visual Effects Supervisor and Creative Director at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Muren first joined George Lucas’s pioneering visual effects studio in 1976, when it was still making and photographing spaceships in a Van Nuys warehouse. After the success of Star Wars (A New Hope), Muren followed ILM to the Bay Area as Lucas planned for a sequel. “It was the hardest film by far,” Muren says of how ESB came together behind the camera. “Everything just got bigger. The spirit of the film was still fun and adventure, but it had more romance, it had more action, the Empire was bigger and the universe was bigger than we thought on the first movie.”

Muren’s role also expanded with ESB as he took point on directing the fleet of miniatures in the film’s iconic opening on the ice planet, Hoth. With the advent of digital technology still many years away, Muren and his team brought the Rebel’s herd of tauntauns and the Empire’s squad of AT-AT walkers to life by hand. And through it all, he followed the example established by Harryhausen.

“I always think of the Cyclops from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, who comes out of his cave roaring and angry, and his hands are up because he’s ready to grab one of the sailors,” explains Muren, who later won his first Oscar for his work on the film. (He currently has nine statues, the most of any living person.) “That’s what I always strive to put in my work: that there’s a reason for that creature to be there. You’re not just giving the audience an effect: You want them to feel something from it, whether that’s ‘Oh my God, that’s amazing,’ or ‘Oh, that’s really creepy,’ or ‘Wait, that’s impossible!’”

In honor of ESB's 40th anniversary, Muren walked us through the seemingly-impossible task of making the Hoth sequence, and his own close encounter with his F/X hero.

Yahoo "Entertainment": You said that The Empire Strikes Back was the hardest Star Wars film to make. What was the reason for the degree of difficulty?

Dennis Muren: Well, The Phantom Menace may have been equally difficult, because there was a lot of real groundbreaking work on that in terms of getting all the digital stuff to work. But we had two supervisors on that. For Empire, we had just moved up from Los Angeles, and only brought about 12 people up from the 50 in L.A. and had to hire locally just to get the thing done. All of us working on it wanted to top ourselves, and George had already done that with the designs. The number of lands and battles you saw in Empire was at least five times more than you saw in Star Wars. You had an ice planet and a city in the clouds — how are you going to get that to look right?

Doing any kind of compositing over a light-color background is very, very hard. And the whole movie was full of that in addition to your normal space battles. The vision was so big, and we had a couple of years to do it, but it took us so much time to get the fire to do it and the people to do it. We all wanted what George wanted, which was also what the audience wanted: to show you that this universe is so much bigger than what we saw in Star Wars.

Yahoo "Entertainment": What was the most challenging part of the Hoth sequence specifically?

Dennis Muren: The opening tauntaun shot was one of the most difficult things, and the most interesting. The story behind that was that George had brought back this helicopter shot from Norway [where the Hoth exteriors were filmed], and it was about 200 or 300-feet off the ground with the cameras looking straight down. He didn’t know whether if that shot was going to be necessary to the movie, but at the very end, he said, “Yes, it’s necessary to have this shot. Do you think there’s a way you can add a Tauntaun to this?”

There wasn’t! There were no tracking markers on the ground that would have helped us make the stop motion camera map exactly with the moves the helicopter made, and then we could have combined that with an optical printer. But none of that stuff was there. I thought about building a big model, but I didn’t think it would work with the background. George said, “Well, just think about it.” I spent 15 minutes thinking about it, and figured it out in 15 minutes! I learned an amazing lesson from that: There’s usually an answer, there’s always some way that you can fiddle around with what you know to attempt. If I had stopped thinking at 14 minutes and 59 seconds, we wouldn’t have had that shot in the movie.

Yahoo "Entertainment": The tauntauns definitely feel very Harryhausen in their design and behavior. Did their form match what you could accomplish then with stop-motion or did the stop-motion dictate their form?

Dennis Muren: George had the idea for a galloping horse kind of thing, and I think Ralph [McQuarrie] and Joe [Johnston] worked on the design. I was involved in how we were going to create a setting that looked like it was going to be real, and wouldn’t be encumbered by any of the cameras. I don't know how many shots we had of it — maybe 12 or 15 or something like that, and they were some of the last ones we did. There were a couple that George added right at the very end of that. It was like, “We can finally take a breather after two years, but no, there’s one more shot!”

Dennis Muren (behind the camera) filming Suzanne Pasteur (a friend of Lorne Peterson's) on her horse for tauntaun movement reference. (Photo: Lucasfilm)

Yahoo "Entertainment": I remember connecting to them very strongly as a kid — I always through they’d be fun to ride.

Dennis Muren: That comes from the design and purpose of it. It doesn’t act like an evil creature: It’s a fairly big, bulky thing and it actually looks kind of cute with a horn and steam coming out of its nose. It’s not a creature that could kidnap you or anything — it’s just a beast of burden. That’s true of all the Star Wars movies: The behavior is familiar, so the audience can relate. Even with the designs of the spaceships; I tried to show how they would bank off to fly to another planet or something, like an airplane would do in the air even though there’s not gravity in space and that would never happen. It looks really neat and you can relate to it.

Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) on a tauntaun on the planet Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. (Photo: Lucasfilm)

Yahoo "Entertainment": In terms of the AT-AT walkers, that’s a case where you’re bringing character to a non-living thing. There’s behind-the-scenes footage of the ILM team studying elephants for movement reference.

Dennis Muren: When we saw the designs, we thought they were kind of like big animals. We went to an animal park in Dunn, California, and put a bunch of chalk marks on the elephant and had it walk by left to right and right to left with the camera on. That gave us the weight; those things would have weighed thousands of tons, and we had to make it look like they had gravity or else they were just going to look silly — not as powerful and as evil as they're supposed to look. We also shot the elephants in slow motion to make them look even bigger, and observed traits like how far up the knee goes up and how far forward the body travels. Does the foot just lift up? Does it drop back down again? All that stuff was used as a basis so that when we went to animate, we had a body part to do that.

We also had some really good equipment to look at the frames as we were shooting them and make sure the animation was working well. Like now, there's all sorts of stop-motion photographers, and ours wasn’t done like Ray would have done it where you couldn’t tell if you made a mistake and could go back and say, “Did I move this too far?” We were able to compare and say, “Oh yeah, we did move it too far,” and then change it to move to a better place. So it's probably more of a fluid motion than you might have seen before and that was important. Any sort of chatter in the stop-motion looks like the mechanics of the walkers. They're all mechanical anyway, so there's got to be little bumps and grinds in the motors. So that adds to the feeling, you know?

Yahoo "Entertainment": Besides Hoth, what was your favorite sequence to work on?

Dennis Muren: I don’t know — they’re all so different! [Laughs] I really like the asteroid sequence; that might top Hoth a little bit. It was also really difficult, but a lot of fun to do. George wasn’t interested in the beats of the action, but the attitude. It had to have a certain clarity to see what was going on, which was difficult because the asteroids were coming in from any direction. I did a mock-up of that sequence and realized that everything had to be based on the Millennium Falcon blasting through the asteroids. We came up with the idea of having all the asteroids going in one direction, from one side of the screen to the other, and then you could show how the Falcon makes evasive maneuvers.

Yahoo "Entertainment": Did you get a chance to meet Ray Harryhausen before his death in 2013?

Dennis Muren: Oh, yes. I was probably about 14 at the time, and he used to be in the phone book as was almost everybody else in those days in L.A. I called him up, and he was living up in Malibu, so my mom drove me two hours up to his house, and I met him and his wife. They were just the nicest couple in the world. They invited me in for an hour or two, and we kept in touch. As I got older, I went back to his garage and showed him my home movies, and he showed me some of his early home movies. He was a kindred soul. He later moved to England, so I didn’t see him very often after that.

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen working on a model for a Clash of the Titans character. (Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection)

Yahoo "Entertainment": Did he ever visit you while you were making Star Wars or Empire?

Dennis Muren: No, but I did see him while I was working on Dragonslayer. We were at the same studio in England, and he was making Clash of the Titans. I think I brought him by to show him the dragon, and the rear-projection work. We were working on the next step beyond stop-motion, which was the combination of animation with a motion-controlled motorized camera. He didn’t entirely relate to that, and I can understand why: It could take five days if you’re lucky to get a full shot. At the end of the day, [his method] didn’t have quite the realism that ours ended up having, but he also had the energy to just get in there and grab the figure with his hand and spend the next eight hour animating it.

After Empire and things like the Tauntaun sequence especially, I realized that we needed to get away from stop motion and try and look for something else. I would say that we didn't get the tauntaun to move quite as much as we wanted to, and there were some shots that we didn’t quite finish. But George was utterly accommodating about everything, and there was a feeling of real accomplishment when it was all over. Empire just opened everything up: You can see there’s a lot more stories you can tell, and they’re still going on.

#star wars #empire strikes back #empire40th #ray harryhausen #george lucas #lucasfilm #yahoo news #stop-motion #80s movies #i love the 80's #denis muren

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dailydoseofcolor · 4 years ago

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FEH Divine Code Path Breakdown

So I am a near-launch player and am semi-F2P outside of the FEH Pass and occasional orb packs. I’m a hoarder of premium currency that isn’t orbs and I was starting to wonder what the overall return on investment a full path of Divine Codes would yield to someone who might also be a F2P hoarder. Since many F2P players who have hoarded their Divine Codes will begin hitting the 6,000 Divine Codes mark soon, I figured now was a good a time as any to look at this from a mostly fodder standpoint (no need to tell people who to go for if they’re looking specifically for merges). The final member of each path’s fodder more or less speaks for itself, so what else will you get along the way?

It’s been almost half a year since we learned what the Divine Codes were going to do, and the meta has already shifted in some ways, so I suspect this semi-analysis will be outdated by the time new paths are added.

The last obvious asterisk to all of this is that every player can and should evaluate exactly which path yields them the most usage, whether via merges or fodder. This is colored by my experience, but I’m going for objectivity.

Below is the full write-up, but here are a couple of interesting facts that I found after reviewing all of these:

Every route offers roughly 8 or 9 full skill sets, depending on what you invest in additional fodder. Radiance is the highest, but requires the most additional outside inheritance investment.

Almost every single additional investment to make the most of your choices requires sacrificing a unit available in the Grail pool.

Every route except for Holy War includes at least one inheritable weapon. Heroes is the most at 4 inheritable weapons. The vast majority of them are powercrept or less “meta” choices, but they are super fun aesthetic weapons.

Four of the six paths will net you Swift Sparrow 2.

Only three of the thirty available units have specials that are worth inheriting. I personally view that as IS needing to increase the number of interesting specials we have. I'm tired of mostly every unit showcase having one of the same 5 specials.

It goes without saying, but IS has some very, very strange positions on what skills are considered more premium than others. But, I find that most of the routes are balanced and, true to intent, will draw different players for different reasons.

Let me know what Paths you choose! I’ll probably choose mine in the next week or so.

Awakening/Fates

Summer Cordelia — Fallen M!Robin — Owain — Dancer Xander — Adrift M!Corrin

Summer Cordelia — It’s safe to say that S!Cordelia’s main skills are her Shell Lance+ and Dull Close 3. Neither of these are top tier fodder, but Shell Lance+ provides at least a little bit of utility with its inherit spectrum blow and Dull Close has the distinction of being a decent B Skill for physically-minded fliers. Shell Lance+ also has the aesthetic factor for many, never count that out. Dull Close 3 is only available at 4* on Cormag, so not a bad way to avoid spending grails. If you want her lance, you can also get Sturdy Blow 2 (make sure to pick up Armored Blow 1 from Gunter, Titania, Athena, or Catria). Otherwise you’re getting her lance and Dull Close 2.

Fallen M!Robin — The prize for continuing down this Path is either A) a merge for the OG Armored Dragon or B) Vengeful Fighter 3 and maybe Ward Dragons. If you’re here for the merge, you’ve already likely grabbed it. Otherwise you’re probably here for Vengeful Fighter 3. We don’t have a 4* option for Vengeful Fighter yet, so this is a solid fodder gift. For what it’s worth, the only other character with Ward Dragons is Spring Idunn. I wouldn’t blame you if you were shooting for Ward Dragons, but I’d have to ask how your Dragon Emblem team was holding up a year after the meta moved on.

Owain — The man with the hungering hand will net you Blue Flame (if you’re not considering this, I suppose I’d just be confused) and your choice of one extra ability: Atk/Def Bond, Wrath, or Spur Spd/Def 2. Theoretically, you can get Spur Spd/Def 2 and also level 1 of the other two, but that’s just dealer’s choice. Atk/Def Bond is also on Fjorm, Young Summer Tiki, New Year’s Hrid, Rutger (at 4*), Groom Hinata (at 4*), and, funnily enough, Adrift M!Corrin. Wrath is now on a cavalcade of 5* heroes and is most notably available on Astram. Wrath isn’t the premium fodder it once was, but it’s got its uses. If you’re looking for a more or less “free” Wrath without spending the grails and feathers to get Astram to 5*, then this is a pretty solid choice. Spur Spd/Def 2 is available on Oscar, just pull on Blue for a while and you’ll get it.

Dancer Xander — This is the first place in this Path where the choice for fodder is not an enviable one. Close Counter is the prize here, no doubt about that. So what do you take in addition? Dusk Uchiwa+ is a budget version of Dancer Micaiah’s Dawn Suzu and has at least some utility in AR and other modes. However, that requires choosing a dagger user that wants to be used in that way. The other (and more likely option, from my vantage point) is Quick Riposte 3. We’re 3+ years deep into this game and there’s still not a common unit with 4* QR 3, that value is hard to pass up for F2P. Another small note of commentary — it’s interested that Close Counter is considered less valuable than Distant Counter, even with no character having unconditional Close Counter built into a weapon, I’ve stopped trying to decide why IS makes the decisions it does.

Adrift M!Corrin — Finally, your grand prize for this Path is a character who just got powercrept by his own nightmare/fallen form. Null Follow-Up 3 is the jewel of this path and it makes sense — it’s still the main tried and true method for Infantry units who want to punch through those big, nasty armored units and their fighter skills. You can snag Atk/Def Bond 1 or, if you’re merging onto another infantry dragon, Hone Dragons. The only other character with Hone Dragons is Myrrh, so you’d be forgiven for pausing to consider infantry dragons that could utilize this skill.

All in all, you get Shell Lance+ OR Dull Close 3; Vengeful Fighter 3 with potential for Ward Dragons; Blue Flame, dealer’s choice of Atk/Def Bond 3, Wrath 3, or Spur Spd/Def 2; Close Counter, Dusk Uchiwa+ OR Quick Riposte 3; Null Follow-Up 3 with potential for Hone Dragons. That’s 7 to 9 full skill sets across 5 units, which is an okay haul.

Radiance

Leanne — Dancer Elincia — Lethe — Bridal Tanith — Valentine’s Greil

Leanne — Leanne might actually have the most interesting fodder of the 400 Divine Code options. But you’re likely here for one of two things: a Leanne merge or Flier Formation 3. If you’re interested in the merge, you’ve already likely grabbed it. Flier Formation 3 is only available at 4* on two grail units that are both popular in their own ways: Spring Loki and Young Minerva. As noted before, fliers don’t have access to a ton of B skills so this is a solid way to get it for “free.” Interestingly enough, Mirror Stance 2 is only available at 4* on Gharnef, so you’re spending grails for this. It’s by no means a top tier skill, but it has its uses on some builds (or, specifically, holding onto it as an easy way to get Mirror Stance 3 from Osian with a little less headache.) Finally, Hone Beasts is only available on Leanne and Lethe, who also makes an appearance on this path. You can grab both Flier Formation 3 and Hone Beasts for some special flying beastie.

Dancer Elincia — They continue to increase the difficulty of the inheritance math with Dancer Elincia. At her release, Dancer Elincia was probably the 3rd most enticing member of her banner, with her dragon-effective dagger being the main draw. Push skills were flawed and only desirable as one of the only options offensive healers got. Now, with the advent of Push 4 skills and the growth in dragon effective weapons, the calculus on Dancer Elincia’s fodder has changed. Her best fodder utility is to help you get Atk/Spd Push 4 onto the unit of your choice. If you do go the dagger route, you’ll get that and Atk/Spd Push 2. Drive Res 2 is available on Soleil, Lyon, and Summer Rhys, so you could at least get Atk/Spd Push 3 and Drive Res 1. If you’re here for her Dancer Skill in Rockslide Dance 2, you’re also getting one level one of the other two skills.

Lethe — The calculus for Lethe, on the other hand, isn’t hard at all. She’s the only character with Spd/Def Solo 3 and (as stated) one of only two characters with Hone Beasts. While it’s not the same as Atk/Spd Solo, boosting Speed by any means necessary is the name of the game for most units. Plenty of Calvary units would thank Manual Lethe for her sacrifice. Funnily enough, Lethe falls into that barrel of heroes where her base kit is mostly asynchronous, especially since she’s the one that wants the Hone Beasts buff. If you have a character in mind that can inherit all four, you’re a lucky Summoner.

Bridal Tanith — Again, they’ve decided to make the Summoner’s decision pretty hard. Getting both Lofty Blossoms+ and Swift Sparrow 2 on your favorite lance unit is nothing to sneeze at. However, you’d be forgiven for taking a few extra seconds to consider the other combinations. While Chill Attack 3 is available on 11 different units (tied with Chill Speed 3 at the time of writing), all of them have Chill Attack 3 5* locked. Gharnef and Conrad, two grail units, are the only characters that are easily obtainable, and you’ll be spending 20k feathers for the pleasure of inheriting that skill — not exactly economical. Sacrificing a 4* Gharnef or Conrad for Chill Attack 2 helps with the math, but you’ll have to make your own decision about that. If you do go that route, you can snag Chill Attack 3, Swift Sparrow 1 & 2, and Harsh Command+ (Harsh Command can be found on Clair, Gunter, and Saizo in the common pool) OR Fortify Fliers. So while this set up requires sacrificing a grail unit and a common, it’s a pretty potent combo. Fortify Flyers is available on Caeda, don’t spend 1,600 hard-earned Divine Codes on Fortify Fliers alone

Valentine’s Greil — You’ve made it to the end of this path! Your prizes are Aether and Fury 4, with some combination of Faithful Axe+ and Armor March thrown in for good measure. Ike’s heroic, if flawed, father has two skills that are excellent for Arena scoring, if that’s your thing. If that arena scoring character happens to be an axe unit, even better! You’ll get Faithful Axe+, Aether, and Fury 4 (make sure to pay homage to our Fury 3 lord, Hinata, beforehand). If these skills are destined for an armored unit, I’d suggest Fury 4 and Armor March 3. Grab a wayward infantry Chrom, stuff him full of 20,000 feathers, and Aether is yours as well. Obviously there are plenty of units that would love an Aether/Fury 4 combo and those alone are a pretty solid gift from Greil, don’t fret too much about the decision (Faithful Axe+ isn’t that great anyway).

This Path nets you the following: Flier Formation 3 or Mirror Stance 2 and potentially Hone Beasts; Atk/Spd Push 3 and Drive Res 1 OR Cloud Maiougi+ and Atk/Spd Push 2 or Drive Res 2; Spd/Def Solo 3 with potential for Hone Beasts; Lofty Blossoms 2 and Swift Sparrow 2 OR Chill Attack 3 and Swift Sparrow 1 or 2 (depending on other fodder) OR Chill Attack 3, Swift Sparrow 2, and Harsh Command+, for those willing to spend; Aether and Fury 4 with potential for either Faithful Axe+ OR Armor March. All told, this Path nets you 9 - 12 full skill sets over 5 units (with maximum inheritance investment). That’s pretty solid for people willing to make the math work.

Blades / Sacred Stones

Valentine’s Lilina — Amelia — Flying Nino — Winter Ephraim — Valentine’s Hector

Valentine’s Lilina — Hector’s pride and joy’s first Alt didn’t age well. She personally pity broke me 4 times while attempting to entice her father to come home, which he never did. I’d say she was Atk Tactic 3 fodder, but Legault really has that covered. HP/Atk 2 has some utility on HP-support builds, but is available at 4* on both Valbar and Iago. Green Gift+ has Dull Ranged built in, which provides some interesting builds, but that’s all there really is to say about it. After all that…yeah, she’s Atk Tactic 3 fodder.

Amelia — While hovering on Amelia shows you her PRF weapon in Grado Poleaxe, Amelia is also packing Slaying Axe+. She’s the only character who comes with Slaying Axe+ naturally, otherwise you’re evolving it from Beruka, Hawkeye, and Sheena. This is the default “best axe” for Axe Heroes who don’t have a PRF, so I’d actually give it a bit more weight than the original draw of Amelia — Armor March. If the intended recipient is an Armored Axe, you’ll need to choose between the two unless you want to spend 20k feathers to inherit Killer Axe+ and send it on over.

Flying Nino — She can’t read, but she sure can fly! Your likely goal here is a “free” Swift Sparrow 2, and you’re not wrong. However, Aerobatics is great for flying units and, something I’ll mention for a 3rd time on this write-up, Fliers are hurting for B-skill options. Speed Smoke is a great skill, but is available on the otherwise lackluster Chad as well as Fallen Takumi (although you’ll spend 20k feathers for it from him). You’ll need to make a not-so-fun choice between those, but Swift Sparrow fodder is becoming more available every few months, so I personally feel Aerobatics is worth more.

Winter Ephraim — I will break F2P form slightly with W!Ephraim. At the time of writing, the man who can’t be bothered to put down Siegmund in any of his alts is featured as a Hall of Forms unit. Now would be a pretty decent time (if you like him) to grab a merge and enjoy using him with some primo fodder. If not, he’s got plenty of options for the more casual Summoner. Atk/Def Solo 3 is the main draw. Only available on 4 total units, this skill is regularly coveted by those who want a little more bulk. However, Bold Fighter 3 might be more your speed. I will caution, however. Bold Fighter 3 is available on 12 unique units and that list grows every time IS wants to add an Armored Unit but can’t think of what to put in their B slot. You’ll likely find other options for it (from personal experience, Kjelle might as well change her name to be Bold Fighter Fodder). Close Guard 3 is a Sacred Seal and also available at 4* on the Death Knight. Grab it if you really want, but know you have better options.

Valentine’s Hector — He’s DC fodder. If you know you need DC fodder (which is more or less evergreen in this game), this has been your prize from the start. Pamper your favorite new unit that wants to smack others from near or far.

Our friends from the Blazing Blade and Sacred Stones Path gets you Attack Tactic 3 OR HP/Atk 2 and Green Gift+; Slaying Axe+ and Armor March 2 OR Armor March 3; Aerobatics 3 and Swift Sparrow 2 (with investment) OR Aerobatics 3 and Speed Smoke 1 OR Swift Sparrow 2 and Aerobatics 2 etc; Atk/Def Solo 3 and Close Guard 3 (with investment) OR Bold Fighter 3 and Close Guard 3; Distant Counter. This totals to roughly 7 or 8 full skill sets across 5 units, which is the lowest return on investment so far. However, you now have Distant Counter fodder, so was it worth it?

Holy War

Leif — Deirdre — Sigurd — Lewyn — Dancer Ishtar

Leif — If you’re here for his merge, take it and go and don’t look back. If you’re looking to use him for fodder well, Drive Atk 2 is your main bet. However, with proper investment from common units, you can get Steady Blow 2 and Drive Atk 2 in one fell swoop. Easy, simple, no fuss.

Deirdre — So, Gamepress has Deirdre listed as Tier 2 on their Heroes Tier list. They make some questionable recommendations, but this one is a real head scratcher. Her Res holds up well and she has decent flexibility with her Dragon effective weapons but, I just don’t see it. Regardless, you’re here for one of two things: Quick Riposte or Speed Ploy. As mentioned four Paths ago, there aren’t any 4* QR users, so a free QR that’ll save you 20k feathers is excellent. Especially considering Speed Ploy is available at 4* from Saias, a rather unremarkable Grail unit. If anything, this goes to show you that the Ploy skills really need an upgrade and also they need to spread out their skills a little more evenly, this is just ludicrous. Take QR and don’t sweat the decision.

Sigurd — Our favorite BBQ father is an example of the level of power creep that now takes place every few months. Six months ago, we were only a month removed from the inclusion of Chad — a straight to 3/4* unit that packs Speed Smoke at 4* in the hell that is pulling on colorless. Most Summoners have now had 7 months to pull on colorless and find Chad waiting for them. You maybe are here for Close Defense, because you have a pretty solid idea for stacking Close Def on the A and SS slots on a stall tank. I respect it. Also, Miracle isn’t rare, but it’s here. Take Close Def 3 or Speed Smoke 3 for fodder but, I suspect you’re here for a merge. Honestly Sigurd and Deirdre should be switched, if they were following any kind of real rarity considerations, so just thank the stars you got QR 3 1,200 Divine Codes ago.

Lewyn — Special Spiral. Don’t even hesitate. Swift Sparrow 2 is great, and you can snag that as well if you’re judicious with your Grail sacrifices, but don’t let Odd Atk Wave 3 cloud your judgement, especially since Spring Bartre was just added to the Grail pool. It’s Special Spiral or bust.

Dancer Ishtar — One of the few dancers that can boast to have offensive utility outside of dancing, maybe you’d like a merge. Otherwise, you’re here for Swift Sparrow 3 and I don’t blame you. However, if you’re content to hoard a little longer, this skill will continue to be added on newer units that you might snag and not care for. Outside of Distant Counter, Swift Sparrow 3 is the second most available skill of the 2,000 Divine Code options. If you don’t spend them, you pretty much have enough to snag the first three options from any other Path…sometimes F2P is about quantity over quality. One last thought: if you’re particularly fond of Flier teams, Air Orders is an excellent C skill and some lucky flier could get both Air Orders 3 and Swift Sparrow 3 as new tools in their tool box.

This Path has the distinction of having only one unit that’s a seasonal, everything else is in the summoning pool. This makes it the Path I suspect the fewest people will take (as well as a testament to just how little IS seems to care for the Jugdral cast.) You’re getting Steady Blow 2 and Drive Atk 2; Quick Riposte 3 and Spd Ploy 1; Close Defense 3 and Miracle OR Speed Smoke and Miracle; Special Spiral 3 and Swift Sparrow 2 with the right move; and Swift Sparrow 3 OR Air Orders and Swift Sparrow 3, depending. That’s roughly 9 skill sets across 5 units, but I’d say the quality of those skills is lower, simply because most of this path’s units are available in the summoning pool.

Mystery / Shadows

Bridal Caeda — Celica — Picnic Genny — Spring Palla — Kliff

Bridal Caeda — Listen, Bridal Caeda has a nigh-useless weapon, and skills that are either borderline between useless and powercrept. You started on this path for a Bridal Caeda merge, and you likely took it months ago.

Celica — Another candidate for “you likely wanted a merge.” Distant Def 3, while 5* locked, is best used on units that can Distant Def stack (Guard Bow+ users), everyone else can just use the SS. If you’ve got a good Guard Bow+ user in mind, that’s solid fodder. Spur Def 3 is available on both Sully AND M!Robin at 4*… you have this.

Picnic Genny — Here’s where this calculus starts to get fun. The least painful decision is Toasty Skewer + and Fireflood Balm+, these are direct upgrades for most common healers (plus the aesthetic of Toasty Skewer+ is top tier). Your other options are weird, less satisfying choices of Wrathful Staff 3 and Def Opening 3. Similar to how new 5* armors get Bold/Vengeful Fighter 3 if Intelligent Systems is having a bad brain day, new 5* healers get either Wrathful/Dazzling Staff 3. Stay focused. Def Opening 3 isn’t a bad choice, but it is available on Cormag, a grail unit +20k feathers. It’s also just not as useful as Attack or Speed Opening. Your most satisfying bet is Toasty Skewer+ and Fireflood Balm+.

Spring Palla — IS is showing us that they really, really value the AR-related skills highly. For the layman, take Pegasus Carrot+ and Swift Sparrow 2 for your favorite dagger user, they deserve to be spoiled a little bit. Hone Fliers is one of those weird rarer skills that find their use on Flier teams. If that’s what you need for your barracks, no one will hold it against you. Otherwise, Armored effective items are always excellent to have for things like AA and various high-level Lunatic/Abyssal maps. If you must take Disarm Trap…I’ll leave it at that.

Kliff — I’ll actually say that, while Kliff isn’t a particularly effective unit, you gotta give IS props for trying to be creative. Fortress Def/Res 3 is your prize for finishing this Path. Make sure you inherit either Fortress Def or Res 1 from one of the various common units that possess it. Chill Speed 3 is enticing, but there are other avenues for it (or sacrifice a Panne). Enjoy your unit’s newly enhanced defenses!

This Path really doesn’t hit its stride until the third option. All told, you’re getting Blessed Bouquet+ and Attack/Res 2; Distant Def 3; Toasty Skewer+ and Fireflood Balm+ OR Def Opening 3 OR Wrathful Staff 3; Pegasus Carrot+ and Swift Sparrow 2 OR Disarm Trap 3 and Hone Fliers; and Fortress Def/Res 3 and Chill Speed 3 (if you sacrifice a Panne). Roughly 8 or 9 full skill sets from 5 units, half of which are (debatably) not worth the cost.

Heroes

Spring Alfonse — Yglr — Spring Bruno — New Year’s Fjorm — Summer Laevatein

Spring Alfonse — Alfonse’s first alt hasn’t aged well, but packs a couple of useful skills, namely Giant Spoon+. The seasonal version of Wo Gun+ has aesthetic appeal for many. You can also snag Def Smoke 3 if you sacrifice a 4* Panne or Rath as well, which is a decent return on investment.

Ylgr — The only non-seasonal unit in this Path. For a while, Ylgr was one of the only source of Speed Tactic that wasn’t on a Legendary Hero and is still the only source of Sorcery Blade (both of which are now seals). Speed Tactic obviously still has use on mixed teams, but the cost is much lower with the addition of Summer Lute. Sorcery Blade, while a fun skill, is actually better as a sacred seal, allowing units to shine with an A skill as well. Chill Speed technically has wide-spread availability, but on either 5* locked units, seasonals, or Panne. The skill is usually very nice to have on a team, and I suspect most Ylgr’s pulled will be for Chill Speed.

Spring Bruno — As with Picnic Genny before, Spring Bruno’s main draw is his Ovoid Staff+, which provides solid utility to teammates, especially in longer maps like Chain Challenges or Tempest Trials. Atk/Def Push 3 was rare for a period of time before released on Heath a few months ago. Dazzling Staff is useful, but widespread, with more units packing it surely to come. Atk/Def Push 3 is the main draw for boosting other staff merge projects and will be useful to hold on to for when Atk/Def Push 4 is released on a character not named Bramimond. Either pull and wait or use him for his staff.

New Year’s Fjorm — Another unit that will make you do some major inheritance math. Fjorm packs the Kabura Ya+ bow (which has Chill Speed 3 built in) as well as Atk/Spd Bond 3, Atk/Spd Link 3, and Even Res Wave 3. Chill Speed in a weapon allows its inheritor to be one of a short list of characters able to run the Triple Chill strategy, which has significant merit. Unfortunately, going that route more or less locks you out of a full skill in addition. Atk/Spd Bond 3 is available on 11 different units, the cheapest being Bridal Louise. Sacrificing a 4* Bridal Louise will allow you to snag Atk/Spd Bond 3 as well. Atk/Spd Link 3 is even rarer, appearing only on seasonal units, none of which appear at 4 stars. Even Res Wave is slightly cheaper, being on Brave Hector, but it’s honestly a skill you can pass on. If you’re willing to spend a Bridal Louise, grabbing Kabura Ya+, Atk/Spd Bond 3 (after sacrificing Bridal Louise), and a “free” Reposition is your best bet.

Summer Laevatein — And finally, the last unit on the last route, S!Laevatein. You’re gonna grab Mirror Impact, currently a skill only available on a Legendary unit and two seasonals. If you take the time to sacrifice an Oliver, you’ll be able to snag your choice of either Def/Res Link 3 or Odd Attack Wave 3 — both of which are available at 4* on Grail units (Sigurn for Def/Res Link 3, Spring Bartre for Odd Attack Wave 3). Feel free to attempt to snag Buoyboard+ as well for the aesthetic, but you’re better off with other tomes. All in all, dealer’s choice!

As stated, this route has the distinction of only having one non-seasonal unit and provides a decent amount of variety. You’ll get Giant Spoon+ and Def Smoke 3 (with Panne/Rath sacrifice) OR Sturdy Blow 2 and Def Smoke 3 with common sacrifice from someone like Athena; Sorcery Blade 3 OR Chill Speed 3 OR Speed Tactic by themselves OR Chill Speed 3 and your choice of the others with a Panne sacrifice; Ovoid Staff+ and Atk/Def Push OR Wrathful Staff 2, or one of those fully and a Martyr+ to avoid other feather costs; Kabura Ya+ and Atk/Spd Bond 3 (with Bridal Louise sacrifice) OR Atk/Spd Link 3 with Atk/Spd Bond 3, thanks to Bridal Louise’s sacrifice; and Mirror Impact and Def/Res Link 3 OR Odd Attack Wave 3 with Oliver sacrifice. All in all, you’re looking at 8 or 9 full skill sets across 5 units, which is an average return, but the variety in these skills is slightly higher due to the number of seasonals and Ylgr having a strangely high number of desirable skills.

If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me. I hope some people found this helpful!

#fire emblem heroes #fire emblem #divine codes #fire emblem heroes f2p #ddc talks feh

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