Grand Hero Battle - Navarre

As yet another GHB without reinforcements, Navarre’s map features a reasonable layout with a chokepoint lined by trees, some ranged and melee foes, a dragon, and, *gasp* a healer. The presence of this last enemy can make baiting slightly difficult, but luckily this map presents opportunities to deal a burst of damage or a KO and then retreat with the use of a dancer, therefore getting the enemies moving in a slightly different way.

Out of all the GHB maps, however, this is definitely one of the least challenging. If you have hard counters for each color (and ranged enemies) available to you, then you should be able to beat this GHB with relative ease. ​​​​​​

Before you begin teambuilding, it’s completely possible you already possess everything you need to beat this map. Created by Gamepress staff member RedFerrari1998, the video guide below uses only F2P units, seals, and light, accessible Skill Inheritance -- see the description for more details. If it doesn’t work for you, though, then read on!

As is generally true of GHBs, the individual units you will use is very important as they will primarily inform your strategy. There are a few routes you can take depending on what units you have available to you, and, of course, adjustment based on the units you possess is always a possibility.

Baiters

Being able to bait enemies to get this map moving is going to be your primary strategy, and in this GHB due to the presence of a healthy mix of melee and ranged attackers it’s going to be worthwhile to bring a unit who can counterattack no matter what who can traverse forest terrain. If you’re going to bait the dagger users and not Navarre and the green axe, a non-cavalry tank is a must here. Hector, Valentine Hector, Black Knight, Zelgius, Ike, Legendary Ike, Adult Tiki, Nowi, and Fae don’t have issues moving on forest tiles and can all use class-specific buffs to pad their defenses if they need to. Triangle Adept Raven mages with decent def can also bait these dagger users, but be warned that these enemies have high res that makes them difficult to KO without the use of a Special. 

If you instead choose to tank after using a striker, you can use units like Xander or Camus to hold the chokepoint, especially if they have buffs. Otherwise, all the tanks mentioned above will work as well -- provided they're not put in the path of a unit who has a color advantage against them.

Strikers

Brave Bows prove useful in this GHB due to the neutral damage they deal and their ability to perform follow-ups on speedy opponents such as Navarre himself. Brave Lyn, Bridal Cordelia, Klein, and Setsuna are potential strikers you may want to use.

Alternatively, Brave and Blade Weapon users can also serve to be useful as Brave Bows if your team composition provides them with the appropriate buffs. Cordelia, Summer Corrin, Spring Camilla, Hinoka, Cherche, Elincia, Reinhardt, Cecilia, Valentine Lilina, Nino, Tharja, and Tailtiu are all options here.

Dancers

Dancers help support units with high firepower, may even have a decent offensive presence themselves, and can usually tank a hit or two, if need be. Olivia, Performing Azura, Performing Inigo, Performing Olivia, Olivia, Azura, New Year Azura, and Ninian all provide the support that high-firepower units need while also possessing the ability to net a few KOs themselves. Performing Azura and Ninian are particularly useful on this map, as the former provides a hefty +3 Atk/Spd/Def/Res buff to any unit she dances, while the latter can provide dragon units with a +6 buff to Def/Res, further adding to their baiting capabilities.

Healers

While not generally a great choice for GHBs over units who can deal heavy damage or dancers, Healers will generally be prioritized by the enemy AI, can now deal full value colourless damage due to Wrathful staff refinement, and can also heal your primary damage dealing units when they’re low on health. The presence of a chokepoint in this map only serves to make healers more useful, as they can ensure your units have enough health to wall out the enemy.

Fliers

It’s worth noting that the presence of many forest terrain movement penalties in this GHB means that fliers will have much less trouble traversing around this map than cavalry or infantry units. A flier can also make use of the Guidance skill / seal to grant infantry and armor units on their team greater mobility, while a dedicated flier team can use class-specific buffs to power through threats that may otherwise give them difficulty.

Strategizing for this GHB is made much simpler by the fact that there are no reinforcements. While it’s difficult to exactly predict what will happen due to IV / Merge variance, here’s some general tips to get you started.

Now, Shall We Begin?

As is customary for most GHBs, the enemies on Navarre’s map will not start to move unless they are baited, damaged, or KO’d. Since this map layout allows for both an attack + dance + draw back / reposition strategy and a baiting strategy, you’ll have to choose between an offensive or defensive opening turn.

If you’re choosing to bait, you have three options: a) the space in the trees directly to the right of starting space (2), b) the space in the trees a space away from starting space (4), and c) the space directly above starting space (1). While options a and b only bait one or both of the dagger users, option c requires one of your units to successfully survive a round of combat from either Navarre or the green axe and both dagger users (or all four, if your unit manages to KO whichever one approaches them). Because of this, option c is far from ideal if you’re baiting -- you’re much better off using option a or b.

Of course, choosing between options a and b depend on if your chosen bait has the capability to KO both dagger users without being KO’d themselves. Due to their refined Lightning Breath hitting ranged enemies in their weaker defensive stat, dragons are an excellent option here, especially if used in conjunction with Quick Riposte and / or Distant Def. If your chosen bait unit is up to the challenge of surviving this onslaught, go for option a. If they aren’t, try option b instead.

Alternatively, the space mentioned in option c above can be used to attack Navarre or the green axe with a ranged unit, have that unit be danced, and then reposition or draw back the dancer to safety. This is a common strategy on most of the older GHB maps, and may be the best option for you if you lack an effective bait unit. Once you've done that you can maneuver your tank into position to defend from the oncoming enemy.

Preferably, you’ll want to net as many KOs as you can this turn, although that may not be possible, especially if you’re using the strike and retreat method. If your bait is missing out on finishing off the dagger users, try the Quick Riposte seal or inherit the 2nd level of the skill onto your chosen baiter (which can be found on a 4 star Subaki). If your striker is missing out on the KO by a few points of damage, the Attack +3 seal or Death Blow 2/3 can work wonders. A healer may be useful here if you're baiting, especially if they tote Physic+ -- they’ll be able to heal at-range or provide an assist with a Wrathful / Dazzling attack, if need be.

Divide and Conquer

Since there’s a chokepoint above the rightmost top starting space, you can use the fact that enemies must funnel through a narrow path to your advantage once you’ve gotten the map moving. From there, you can set up another buffed tank to KO the melee enemies while your first tank keeps the dagger users busy. Alternatively, you may attack them from a distance with an attack / dance / reposition strategy, and then either tank or strike the foe's forces and retreat. Be warned, though -- if you keep on hitting and running, very soon you will run out of maneuvering room yourself.

Use Dancers

As always, dancers serve a valuable role refreshing your units and allowing them to get some KOs they cannot net outright. Moreover, the narrow path through the trees allows you to keep your dancer out of danger if you’re careful with your positioning.

Questions Need Answers

The lack of mages and cavalry on this map definitely makes it one of the easier GHBs, but it’s worth noting that the blue manakete does complicate the matter of KOing Navarre and the green axe somewhat. Because of this, it’s worthwhile to bring a hard green check with you to specifically handle this enemy. Julia and Deirdre are great options to serve this purpose, though other powerful green units like Hector, Nino, Blade Cecilia, and Brave Axe Cherche will also get the job done and are powerful units who can check other threats in their own right.

If At First You Don’t Succeed

As is true of all high difficulty content, the potential variance in unit builds that Skill Inheritance brought along with the random nature of summoning has resulted in pretty much every single player having different “building blocks” to work with. This, when combined with the high difficulty level of Infernal, may prove frustrating while someone is trying to find the right combination of units and moves. The key thing to keep in mind is that it may take multiple tries of the map and a few stamina potions for you to find a strategy that works for you. Every single turn you complete gets you one step closer to completing the puzzle. Reading about or watching videos of successful strategies may also help you break through a particularly difficult turn that you can’t complete, or may give you ideas of a new unit to use.