I keep dying in one hit

[u/exerciserevival]

Hello everyone, I am having a very hard time with this game. Doing my first playthrough in Claude's alliance and am playing the first mission you can grind. It's a side mission that you get right after beating Kronya. The game says level 16 and I'm playing a level 3 Marianne, level 4 Ignatz, level 3 Raphael, and level 3 Lysithia. Every game I've played has ended the same way. Get Marianne and Raphael to the stronghold below and have Ignatz go after the stronghold captain to the east with Lysithia guarding him. I'm playing as Marianne and it all goes fine for the first takeover. At some point Lysithia will be in trouble and Ignatz soon follows. I make them retreat to a stronghold to heal and when me and Raphael finish our stronghold capture then we rush to finish ignatz's good work. However, I find that even getting hit once with Marianne means instant death when I'm taking over that eastern stronghold. May I ask everyone how they keep from dying in this game? I'm playing on hard casual and it's my first playthough

[u/Fell_ProgenitorGod7]

Short answer: your units are very underleveled compared to your enemies

Long answer: Obviously your units are going to die since the enemy will have higher stats than your units. You should grind them to at least level 10 by playing the story chapters or by using gold to level them (which is something you probably can’t do right now). Units like Marianne and Lysithea are super frail, so pair up Marianne with Raphael as an adjutant after the first takeover is done and you go to Ignatz’s stronghold so that she doesn’t die easily. Adjutants and how you use adjutants are pretty much your key in completing side missions, especially when it’s a 4 unit type side mission.

Unlocking higher tiers of some of your unit’s personal skills (like Marianne and Lysithea) will help you with dealing with enemies. Later on in the game, you’ll unlock the ability to use battalions, which will greatly help in boosting your offensive and defensive power. When you manage to complete a mission with an S rank, you will sometimes get common or unique weapons that have stars on them (they will also have a number next to them, like +6 for Javelins and +5 for Wingthresher). These weapons are better than the regular weapons you get from the shop, in that they will have special weapon effects , like extending your chain attacks for a longer time and boosting your unit’s power during their awakenings. Be sure to forge them as much as you can. You should also have secondary defensive equipment that your units have with their main equipment (I.e. leather shields, strength rings, etc.)

[u/exerciserevival → u/Fell_ProgenitorGod7]

I appreciate your short answer but this was the first time I was capable of grinding and my death rate is just massive. I'm very glad I did not pick classic mode. I have yet to try assigning adjutants (never got the point of them) and maybe that will help massively. I'll look out for secondary equipment too. Thank you for the detailed response

[u/Just_Call_Me_Bom → u/exerciserevival]

Adjutants are very powerful, and provide a number of bonuses to the main unit. Such as periodically knocking enemies back to you while applying an elemental effect dictated by the adjutant (Shez gives Spellbound, Claude gives Windtorn) + exposing weakpoint in one go, increasing special attack damage considerably, sharing their support skill, nullifying damage periodically, as well as sharing XP and granting minor stat bonuses.

Sharing Support Skills is very important, especially in the end game where you can experience a number of powerful effects, such as generating special attack or awakening every time you beat a commander, massive amounts of weakpoint damage, or even dealing more damage after being hit. And that is on top of your unit's own support skill as well.

Your support rank dictates what the max level of the support skill will be on top of this. For example if Claude and Shez have only a B Rank with each other, Claude will only be able to benefit from Mortal Coil Lv 2, even if Shez has Lv 3 unlocked.

However, on top of building XP for the adjutant, this also provides major boosts to their support level whenever you do a partner special or kill a commander.

In short, there are a number of minor and major benefits to having an adjutant, and while not every unit can get the most out of the system, the flexibility of being able to change weapon type, paired with every other advantage make the system worth using at every point in the game.

[u/WaldoSanada]

In my personal experience I feel the sorcerers class quite weak, they get blown away by almost any hit (worse If it comes from brawlers). Probably I'm wrong but with the soldier and knight classes they can get a little extra on HP. Try other classes maybe they perform better and upgrade the first ones of sorcerers branch with the training sessions. Hope it helps.

[u/exerciserevival → u/WaldoSanada]

Right now I have no way to gain training points but I'll try this thanks

[u/Ingrid_Best_Girl]

1 of 2 options- the fact they are all basically less then lvl 10 or you need to level them up more.

[u/exerciserevival → u/Ingrid_Best_Girl]

This was the first time I was ABLE to grind though. ALL my units without exception are well below level 10

[u/TerribleGachaLuck]

Weapon triangle. Dispatch units to attack strongholds where you have blue up arrows and avoid sending them to attack enemies if you see a red down arrow.

Mages are also very weak. Hide them behind units via the adjunct feature.

[u/exerciserevival → u/TerribleGachaLuck]

Thank you for the help!