Fire Emblem Awakening Getting Started (very minor spoilers)

Fire Emblem Awakening has been considered 'hard' and with certain things being locked in at the beginning forcing a restart or regrets later I'm going to provide a brief guide to the early game and touch on the StreetPass a tad.

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When you first start the game you have to pick your difficulty setting and your mode.

The difficulty setting changes not only the enemies' stats, but also the amount of enemies so you want to make sure you pick something suitable to your skill level I would however recommend not playing the easiest mode even for beginners I feel it makes the game extremely simple. If you beat Lunatic mode you are rewarded with Lunatic+ mode which I wouldn't say it is really harder, but due to the RNG it can create completely unwinnable scenarios early on so I don't recommend it even if you are looking for more of a challenge, it just wasn't enjoyable to me.

The mode options are Casual and Classic, this is what I'd change instead of setting to Easy if you're a beginner. Classic mode means when a unit dies it is gone forever, if you're looking to play around with PVP even if you're seasoned you should really set this Casual so you don't end up with a file you worked hard to plan out just to have Lethality make it unplayable and if you're one of those who resets to keep your unit you can simply reset on Casual if a unit is forced to retreat or simply continue and choose not to select that unit the rest of the game and yet still have it available for post game. Casual mode is more forgiving, as mentioned you can play Casual the same way you play Classic if you choose to do so (I recommend using an Excel sheet to keep track of who's 'dead' and who's not if you choose), but you never lose any units once you recruit them so you don't have regrets post game, for beginners it gives you a far more forgiving way to play the game without making all the enemy units inferior to every decently leveled unit you have.

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The next screen you are taken to is your Avatar creation and you're locked into it the rest of the game so you have to take that into account.

The avatar has a child attached to it no matter which gender you play and it's always the opposite gender of your avatar, so if you choose a Male Avatar your child is Female and vice verse. Just to make sure everybody is aware marriages in Fire Emblem are between a Male and Female character only, you can not get an S rank between the same gender, Fire Emblem also staves off the implication of incest by changing the Married status of two S Rank Supports to Companian if they share any blood relation what-so-ever, this is only possible through the Second Generation (and the single Third Generation) characters. Avatars can get an A Rank Support with everybody and an S Rank Support with any character of the opposite gender including the children of the First Generation characters which is the only way to produce a Third Generation character as no matter who you marry you will always have Morgan. Avatars also have the unique characteristic of being able to be any normal non-gender specific class including the special Tactician class, they can pass this on to any children they have which means Morgan by default will always have this characteristic.

Largely I would consider the Male Avatar to be worse than the Female one if you are just concerned with in-game you're probably better off choosing the Female, but the Male has certain advantages too. The main disadvantage the Male Avatar has is that you cannot learn the Skills afforded by the Female Classes which includes Galeforce which I'd consider to be the best of the gender specific skills. The second disadvantage is you can't get an S Rank Support level with Chrom, no matter what difficulty you're playing or what mode you're playing if Chrom or your Avatar dies you fail, so you can remedy this into a single risky unit by pairing them together, which is still possible with an A Rank Support as a Male, but won't be as effective as an S Rank Support. Children in Fire Emblem are mainly tied to Female characters with the exception of Chrom and possibly your Avatar if you are Male, so the first advantage of having a Male Character is that you can hand-pick the Asset and Flaws (We'll get to this later) for more two children than the Female Avatar which just has one option. Male Avatars have the unique opportunity to marry a Manakete as there are no Male Manaketes in the game, this allows you the unique advantage of creating a Morgan that can use the Manakete Class which I would consider one of the best classes in the game. The last advantage cannot exist with the first advantage and comes from marrying a Second Generation Manakete to create a Morgan with the highest stats (Tied with Male Taguel Morgan) and the powerful Manakete Class.

The Female Avatar's advantages were touched on in the Male Avatar's section, but I'll restate them her in a bit more detail. The ability to marry Chrom allowing you to choose his child's Asset and Flaws while creating a single unit you have to worry about (minor exceptions from special conditions), which to those just interested in beating the game is the main advantage. The very powerful ability Galeforce is from a Female Class only so you have the opportunity to utilize it on your Avatar if you choose a Female. Like the Male you too can create Morgan with higher stats then normally obtainable, but you can only get the only special class you have the option to do this on is the Taguel Class which I'd consider much worse than the Manakete Class.

So now you've picked your gender and it's time to pick your Appearance, Asset, Flaw, Name, Birthday, and Voice. Appearance, Name, and Voice have no bearing on anything gameplay wise, but you cannot change them at a later date. On your Birthday you get a present and some temporary stat boosts, so if you don't see yourself still playing on your Birthday, just make one up if you want to see those benefits, but it's nothing you're really going to need. Your Asset and Flaw determine your Starting Stats, Maximum Stats, and Growth Rates, all of which in will affect any children you have as well. The game doesn't give you much info in-game so the break down is as followed (image is a little large): https://2img.net/h/oi61.tinypic.com/52dsgn.jpg

Some tips for selecting your Asset and Flaw:
In-game
On anything other than Lunatic what you pick doesn't really affect you in-game, but a smart choice for Lunatic is a smart choice for any difficulty so you can use that to help you pick too. For in-game the smart choices for your Asset are Def, Spd, HP while the smart choice for your Flaw is Lck. HP is probably the most helpful Asset to get you through the game giving you +5 starting HP helps you take damage on either end of the spectrum and the added growth rates in your defense stats will help you survive in the early chapters where most of the difficulty lies on Lunatic mode. Most of the enemies at the start are physical so you might find yourself getting more survivability out of Def personally, but at the start of the game units that can deal with magic are few and Def won't give you an early advantage for both ends. You if you want something that can be considered post-game material for StreetPass and you want to help your time with campaign alike Spd gives you some of the best of both worlds. Not getting double-attacked and double-attacking yourself is key to both StreetPass and in-game especially with some of the more difficult enemies so taking the Spd asset and aligning yourself with Chrom early on will provide enough Speed that you won't get doubled in the first few chapters and after a few levels the added Spd growth should let you start doubling the enemy letting you rely less on the Pre-promoted Unit Frederick early on so you can get more usable experience, since Frederick is so hard to level early on. For flaws the obvious choice is Lck, Lck is pretty universally the worst stat in the game despite affecting a lot of things it has so little weight on things that matter and the skills it affects aren't remarkable that you can safely reduce it and not worry, you do need some for critical avoid though, but generally Spd helping evasion and Def/Res reducing the damage is enough.

Street Pass
For StreetPass Def and Res are both pretty negligible you and you usually need to kill in one round meaning. If you can double the enemy that's great, but barring a few special circumstances you have to avoid getting doubled this usually means that you can't hurt speed in anyway at the minimum and kudos if you can raise it. The Assets that I'm looking at Spd and Mag. Magic is generally stronger than Physical damage and the Magic Asset will give you +2 maximum Spd so you get a boosts in two vital stats. With the Spd asset you're looking at more Avoid and Hit Chance that the small boost can start to make a real difference in StreetPass additionally I still rate Spd the most important stat in the game so giving it the biggest boost is my choice and if it's the difference between single attack and two (Four with the Brave Weapons you'll likely be using) then speed will add more damage than either of the offensive choices, the fact that it makes the campaign easier is icing on the cake. For Flaws Lck is still the worst stat IMO, but you can also take the Skl Flaw if you're going to be Magic and you can take the Def Flaw fairly safely too. As the Avatar Lck will reduce your Damage by 4-8 usually if you're running Brave weapons, which in the grand scheme of things is negligable and you don't lose anything else important. Skl is your accuracy and missing is obviously a bad thing, but you might not miss a few points and it doesn't touch anything Magic related, considering the Sorcerer can be the best option to be it can be pretty much like you're not losing anything at all. Sacrificing Defense is the age old add adage that the best Defense is a good Offense, it doesn't touch any of your attacking stats, but lowering Defense and fighting a strong offensive foe can leave you with problems. Overall I like +Spd/-Lck for StreetPass

2nd Generation
They say children are the future right? Why not build your Avatar around the Children characters that have the Stat advantage over your Avatar anyway? This takes some planning and you might not end up partnered with who you like if you're just focusing on raw potential, but if you're okay with that there are some fairly clear choices to make and some guidelines to follow. First you have to decide if you want to affect two children or simply want to make the best Morgan for you. If you want to affect two children then the main idea is plan for the child that you're going to have and simply have Morgan follow suit as they'll have the same modifiers, keep in mind that both children get the advantage of have all normal non-gender specific classes. What you'll want to do is look at their parents not only what they can pass, but their modifiers as well, the children characters are generally so good growths don't matter, so maximum stat modifiers are what you should concern yourself with. If the child is male I look to see if they can inherit Galeforce first and foremost. When you pick the child you want the wise thing is usually to increase the same things the other parent increases so you can create a much more exaggerated stat cap. (upwards to +8 with parents that can produce a sibling for Morgan) If you do that your Assets and Flaws pretty much pick themselves, but as a general rule you want to try to pick the non-offensive stat if they have one. (If you planning for StreetPass you want to avoid mixed offenses as a general rule) The second type of 2nd Generation Asset/Flaw planning is actually 3rd Generation planning. Morgan doesn't get the blanketed +1 to every stat after the parent modifiers if you Marry a child character, but the child characters are always better overall than either of their parents since there is no character with negative overall stats. The non-humans have the best overall stats at +5 each so a child character resulting from either the two that produce children are inherently stronger stat-wise. Chrom has a son from marrying Maribelle or Olivia, you can have your Female Avatar marry that son to produce a stronger Rightful King Morgan than if you married Chrom directly and you can have a Morgan with an S Rank Support with Lucina instead of an A Rank Support whom thanks to Dual Strike+ does make her best female pair support unit in the game which Morgan should almost always be the best unit in the game. The next section goes through some notable Avatar pairings.

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I can't go through them all in even a fairly succinct manner, so I'm going to hit the ones that stand out the most.

Female Avatar:
Avatar x Chrom - You get to affect Lucina and Morgan with your Asset and Flaw and make the best (self-contained) Lucina in the game who has unique advantages over the other children, but more importantly it's the only way you can affect two children as a Female Avatar. My choice, two +1 Str, 0 Mag, +4 Skl, +6 Spd, +1 Lck, 0 Def, 0 Res, +12 Overall with all classes is better than one normal child and one godlike one.

Chrom x Maribelle, Brady x Avatar - Chrom and Maribelle don't go together particularly well for a few reasons, Lucina is Str based naturally and most refuse to take her out of her native class, but Chrom x Maribelle Lucina makes a solid Dark Knight/Dark Flier/Sage that keeps most of her natural advantages and can still get Galeforce. The second reason is that Maribelle x Chrom Brady is a bit lackluster compared to what he could be with a different father, so not benefiting as Much as Inigo or Cynthia could from Chrom. The Brady resulting from Chrom may not be ideal, but he will still pass Rightful King to Morgan and provides a +3 Mag, +2 Spd, and +2 Res modifiers than you can buff through the Magic Asset. My choice for Brady father third generation Morgan is a +Mag/-Str modifier this will result in a Rightful King Morgan that excels as a Sage or a Sorcerer that isn't sporting a suicidal -6 Def modifier that would happening if you took Def Flaw. Results in -4 Str, +7 Mag, +2 Skl, +4 Spd, +5 Lck, -4 Def, +4 Res, +14 Overall

Chrom x Olivia, Inigo x Avatar - Chrom and Olivia make a good Inigo so you aren't hurting any second generation children with this pairing. Olivia doesn't have an increase overall so Morgan doesn't get any overall boost from Inigo, but it moves the bonuses around a tad that can be used to make a better unit and provides a better (statwise) partner. I suggest +Spd/-Mag for a higher Str less defensive variant of Rightful King Morgan than the direct Chrom Morgan, results in +2 Str, -2 Mag, +5 Skl, +6 Spd, +4 Lck, -1 Def, -2 Res, +12 Overall.

Lon'Qu x Panne, Yarne x Avatar - Panne has +5 overall stats like all the non-human character and Lon'Qu has +2 overall stats in useful offensive stats. Vaike is probably the more popular choice for greater Str at the cost of some Spd and Skl, but overall you get more stats out of Lon'Qu, so you can safely take a Str Asset and still have the Spd you're going to want where a Vaike x Panne, Yarne x Avatar might be tempted to go Spd Asset. (you can still go that route, but +11 Spd doesn't have that much use to be that high) For Asset and Flaw I suggest +Str/-Def it's pure offense, but an S Rank Support with a Dual Strike + Lucina you can end with Morgan as support after a Galeforce and not really lose any power and if Lucina dies the extra Spd is your best tool to keep Morgan alive as a bonus. Results in +7 Str, 0 Mag, +8 Skl, +7 Spd, -1 Lck, -1 Def, -3 Res, +17 Overall.

Male Avatar:
I'm just going to go through these quickly since there are so many and assume natural promotions.
Lissa x Avatar +Spd/-Lck, Levin Sword Owain (Pretty bad pairing Lissa works against Owain, but you can salvage it with a Levin Sword)
Sully x Avatar +Spd/-Lck, Quick General Kjelle (Bad pairing Sully takes away from Def and Str both main selling points of a General)
Olivia x Avatar + Spd/-Lck, 50 Skl Inigio (Fair pairing, Olivia's benefits don't work against Inigo, but you also don't gain overall)
Maribelle x Avatar +Res/-Lck Anti-Magic Brady (Bad Pairing, Maribelle gives poor modifiers to Def and Str which is can cause Def to drop dangerously low and Morgan prefers a mixed offense)
Sumia x Avatar + Mag/-Def (Good Pairing, Cynthia and Morgan will both have +5 Mag and +5 Spd without too much sacrifice elsewhere)
Cordelia x Avatar +Spd/-Lck (Good Pairing, +Spd give you +7 Spd and +4 Skl so you hit 50 Skl and significant Spd boosts with no loss in Str)
Cherche x Gerome +Str/-Lck (Great Pairing, +6 Str and +5 Def is hard to beat in-game)
Panne x Avatar +Str/-Def (Bad Pairing, the overall gains are good, but you get a permanent beast weakness for no real benefit as the Taguel class isn't that good)
Miriel x Avatar +Mag/-Def (Great Pairing, high Mag and high Spd while your negative Def modifier is a tolerable -4)
Tharja x Avatar +Mag/-Def (Great Pair, Degrading luck soo much can be dangerous so you're forced into taking -Def, but you still end pretty balanced with a high Mag cap for Morgan while native Noire misses on stats she gets Galeforce freeing up Gaius and Donnel for Kjelle and Nowi resulting in every 2nd gen having Galeforce)

Nowi x Avatar +Def/-Spd (Recommended for in-game, with such high Def and Res passed with an already suffering Spd stat you can make 3 units that are become incredibly hard to kill for in-game, backing these units with a Falcon Knight or General where the situation calls for it can make you brush off Magic or Physical attacks with impunity thanks to the boost generated by the Dragonstone+ for both the children. Results in two +2 Str, +2 Mag, -1 Skl, -4 Spd, +2 Lck, +8 Def, +5 Res Manaketes, getting doubled isn't a real problem with 61 Def (Dragonstone+ mods added), that unlike a General they can't even exploit Magic very effectively with a 54 Res (Dragonstone+ mods added) so with a General you can reach 66 Def with 56 Str to counter attack with after your Dragonstone+ mods or with a Falcon Knight you can reach 58 Res and negate your -4 Spd modifier to keep 39 Spd with your Dragonstone+ mods, no matter what you choose you can utilize Ignis as your attacking skill effectively for both Nah and Morgan off a 43 Mag (21 Damage) and at perfectly respectable 39%, you can still use Luna, but it tend to be lower or the same in terms of effectiveness. The only real downside is Galeforce isn't hugely helpful if you can't get a double attack or use a Brave weapon as you can't reliably guarantee the 1 round kill)

Nowi x Kellam, Nah x Avatar +Def/-Spd (Complete and total overkill, if you thought 61 Def/54 Res was looking nigh invincible well prepare to meet the unit that you have to actively work to get killed during the course of the game (DLC not included). A defensive Avatar with the product of Nowi and Kellam result in a +3 Str, +2 Mag, 0 Skl, -6 Spd, +1 Lck, +11 Def, +5 Res, +17 Overall, Manakete Morgan with the Dragonstone+ that's a whooping 65 Def there is nothing that can compare to that kind of Defense and you just have to worry about your pretty uncommon Dragon weakness, if you supplement that with a General that's 70Def you can get a max of 75Def (without limit breaker or skills) with a general you have an A-S Rank Support with that has over 30 Def, it's high enough that you'll get no damage after no damage after no damage and when people do hurt you it won't be anything you can't heal off with Sol, Renewal, Lifetaker or a combination of them if you feel it's necessary.)

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Well since you have your Avatar created it's time to start playing, the only other thing that can permanently cause regrets are your other character pairing and you can refer to my child pairing guide for help with those, so I'll leave you with some general tips to help you out so hopefully you can navigate even the hardest of difficulties.

1. Give Frederick your Avatar's Sword, this will allow him to save his Silver Lance for major enemies at the beginning where he will be used quite a bit.
2. Heal minor damage with Lissa, this will help her level and can turn her into a very competent unit without taking exp from anybody else.
3. Always try to pair your Avatar to take advantage of Veteran, this will give you a usable secondary unit to replace Frederick quickly.
4. Keep your team sizes low, if you spread out the experience you're going to end up hurting yourself on Lunatic mode.
5. Don't neglect Chrom, Chrom should be lower priority, but when you can get a kill safely with him take it to spread Exp his way, you're kinda stuck with him for the entire game, he can't remain weak the entire game or you'll pay for it later.
6. Don't throw out Frederick, Frederick sucks experience sure, but he's a promoted unit that can serve as a solid support through out most of the game without taking exp.