Walkthrough

Part I • Part II

Part II: The Road to Gallia

Chapter 5 – Chapter 9

Written by DMAJohnson

Welcome to the second part of our Path of Radiance Walkthrough. Here, we continue to give you hints, tips, and strategies to progress in the game. Hopefully if you’re stuck this will help get you on track and on your way.

Again, you’re welcome to critique this walkthrough and suggest additional hints, tips, and strategies. Just join us at the velt pvp forums and post in the Path of Radiance section.

SPOILER WARNING!

This walkthrough contains spoilers concerning the events in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance! It is intended to help you if you are stuck in the game. If you wish to play through by yourself, you should hit your browser’s back button now.

Chapter 5: Flight!

Tips:

For an easy win (but less EXP), simply hold the gates.
Charging the enemy lines in the south is easier if you equip Titania.
After a set number of turns, the boss will begin to move towards your position.
The enemy will recieve reinforcements, so don’t let your guard down.

This is the first chapter to feature all the characters you’ve used thus far. The goal here is to protect the flashing green tile, but if you just encamp around it, you’ve basically already lost (unless you’re doing something like an Ike-only playthrough, which is outside the scope of this guide). You’ll want to create a human wall at the southern and western entrances to the fort. The enemy cannot break through the eastern gate that Greil is (invisibly) holding, so don’t worry about it. Keep in mind that reinforcement units will show up for the enemy in both the western and southern areas.

You’ll need at least two people per entrance. I recommend that you send Boyd and Oscar to hold the western gate, while the Gatrie and Titania hold the southern gate with their uber defense stats. Initially you’ll probably want a long-range capable fighter at each entrance, so divy up Shinon and Soren as you see fit. I like to hold Ike back for most of this fight. His defense is not high enough to put him on the southern front lines against lance users, and Boyd, Oscar, and a long-rang character are more than enough in the west (unless you’re playing hard mode, in which case sending him west isn’t a bad thing). Instead, I have him stand by where I can have him charge south later. Remember to select your units’ initial positions before the battle so that they’ll be ready to go wherever you want to send them at the beginning.

At the absolute minimum, you could just stand around for six turns and let the enemy crush itself pummeling your lines until you win by default. However, you’ll get more experience points by taking out the boss to the south. If you want to do this, I highly suggest equipping Titania so that the enemy doesn’t bottle up your path to the south trying to attack her and not dying for it. You won’t have a lot of time, so charge Titania and Gatrie down the cliff as soon as you possibly can. After dealing with the initial enemies in the west, whichever distance attacker you had on that end sould join the southern group along with Rhys and help pick off enemies from afar. Oscar and Boyd should be able to handle any western reinforcements alone so long as they each have a vulnerary. Be careful positioning your units along the cliff. The boss can attack from a distance and, unlike the other bosses thus far, he will begin to move towards you before you get into his range. Try and take out as many enemies as you can before your six turns are up.

Chapter 6: A Brief Diversion

Tips:

The enemy will not react until you move out of the thicket.
If Ike is the last unit to “escape” then you’ll get extra bonus experience that you can use later. It’s not much, but every little bit helps.

This is a pretty cut and dry chapter when you get down to it. As long as all your characters stay in the thicket, the enemy will not move or react to you. Thus, your main choice here is simply where to strike first. I recommend sticking to the thicket while moving towards the western bridge to spring on the tougher troops over there, but if you want you can take out the weak units near the area you start and work your way across the eastern bridge. I prefer the western bridge, personally, because it allows me to strike first and I feel it gives me a better defensive position. It’s really up to you. It may be a good idea to make sure you have someone watching your back so you don’t get taken from behind.

Progress slowly. For the most part, you should draw the enemy to you. If you’re having trouble with the knights, Ike’s Regal Blade should come in handy. Soren is naturally strong against them as well, but at this point, his stats are likely too low to be a real threat to them. Most of the enemies will stay in place until you come near them. However, once you move into the range of the boss, he’ll order all the enemy units to rush you at once, so be prepared to mop the floor. As for the boss, he and the two units beside him stay put throughout the entire chapter. Use this to your advantage, but beware the fact that they can attack two squares away.

Chapter 7: Shades of Evil

Tips:

A new character, Mia, will show up after you end your first turn. Have Ike near the western entrance so that she doesn’t have to treck halfway across the map just to join you.
A thief will show eventually show up around the end of your second turn from the south-western entrance. Make sure he doesn’t get to any of the treasure chests, stealing the loot for himself! Keep in mind, he’ll show up regardless of whether or not you’ve triggered the reinforcement event.
Shinon and Gatrie are big boys. They can take care of themselves when they show up; don’t worry about making a beeline for them.

While this chapter may seem difficult when you first look at it, so long as your characters are leveled up enough, it’s not all that hard. Most of the enemies here are little more than fodder, really. Your only major worry are the knights, but a good hammer or armorslayer (you’ll find an armorslayer in the chest nearest your starting point) will help out in that respect.

There are several different ways to go about this battle. I prefer to direct all my units up the hall to the right and into the room just below the right-side treasure room. Mia, a myrmidon, will show up after you finish your first turn. When her turn comes up, she’ll make her way over to Ike and she’ll automatically join you after the two speak.

When you pass a certain point on the map, enemy reinforcements will show up along with your own pair of reinforcements, Shinon and Gatrie. These two will start in the upper-left corner of the map, and you can use them to hold the left-side treasure room and kill off the thief before he steals anything from the chests. They both have high defense, and Shinon has high avoid to boot, so you don’t need to worry about them too much. Back on the right side of the map you can use your high-defense units to lure the knights towards you and pick them off. After you’ve cleaned house, carefully decide who should take out Balmer (the boss) and his remaining guards based on who needs the experience, and, of course, who stands a chance of landing adeguate damage without getting killed.

Another strategy you can use here is to go left at the beginning and stay on the southern side of the map at first so that you don’t have to deal with the present enemy and their reinforcements at the same time. Just keep in mind that reinforcements will show up from the south, west, and north so make sure your units are where you want them before triggering the reinforcement event. You could also split your forces up, but with only a handful of units and wide chokepoints, dividing your forces in two just makes defending you rear line(s) even harder.