This is a tier list based not based on turn count, but based on a unit's strength and usefulness overall in lunatic. Parenting influences this list.This is also not a lunatic+ tier list. No sol, nosefartu, DLC grinding, risen grinding, no renown. Anna shop only for seals, no barracks, no event tile weapons, no wifi shop, no staff grinding, no dance grinding, no logbook.
Top Tier:
Avatar-self explanatory. Def asset avatar with water trick=broken. Second best daddy. Veteran OP.
Donnel-You have 3 chapters to get Donnel to lvl 10. If he gets to lvl 10 by ch 6 and you can reclass him, then Donnel becomes a god. Otherwise, Donnel becomes useless. But we're assuming you have the patience to grind the farmboy for 3 chapters. He's also the best daddy.
Nowi-Like Donnel, if you can train her, then she becomes game breakingly strong with just her stats. If you don't give her a dragonstone +, then she's going to be harder to train, and she's going to run of her dragonstone before ch 11. Still a really strong unit.
Morgan-Veteran.
Children Tier: Children are better than High Tier units, but I would put top tier units as overall better than Children units. All children will turn out better than the parent units. I'll put chapter 16 as a cutoff. Starting from lvl 17, it's going to be really hard to train lvl 10 unpromoted units. (I'm assuming you paired your children properly and trained both parents.)
High Tier:
Panne-Panne is useful right from her join chapter(which is rare in lunatic), so she can become a core member of your team right from join. She doesn't need as much training because she starts off with good bases, and she has really good growths. The two downsides to Panne are that beaststone is one range and beaststone runs out before chapter 10. Almost a top tier unit.
Chrom-He's the main lord. It's a pain in the ass not to use him, and he's the father of a mandatory child, so why not just use him. His growth rates are pretty good for a daddy unit. The problem with Chrom is that if you don't get him strong by chapter 3, he'll be a terrible unit, and give you a terrible daughter. On the other hand, if you do train Chrom, he'll be good throughout early and mid game, and give you a good daughter. Chrom starts to fall off pretty heavily late game.
Miriel-She's the only unit besides the avatar(if you don't reclass into magic or stay tactician) that is both viable in lunatic and puts out ranged magic damage. A lot of lunatic is about defensive positional gameplay and formations, and having a ranged damager is very valuable in these kinds of situations. And Miriel is one of the few characters in lunatic that retains this role, while having good growths. She also gives you a child that can be obtained right away starting chapter 14. Miriel's biggest downside is that she is really squishy and needs to be given extra care. Can also be given a healing role.
Lon Qu-Like Panne, he's one of the few characters in the game that's not a "growth" unit. He comes with C rank swords and killing edge which makes him really strong early game. You'll see his power start to dip in the mid game, and then in the late game, he'll fall off harder than Chrom in the late game due to low strength and defense. He's also one of those few daddys that are actually usable in lunatic. The problem with Lon Qu is that he comes at a similar join time as Panne, and when you theoretically "should" be training Donnel. This forces you to make decisions on who to train, and Lon Qu just numberwise is inferior to those two.
Mid Tier:
Anna-She provides a lot of utility with healing and lockpick. Lower exp gains vs not yet promoted units causes her to fall off later on in the game, but she's still your primary lockpicker.
Sumia-Really fast, starts doubling from join time. Her mobility is really useful in a lot of maps, plus she's a lucina mom candidate. I think if you owain's paralogue, you can unlock Cynthia's. Sumia's downside is her squishiness as a character and her low str. If you get unlucky growths, you can always switch her over to a rally role. She may be placed higher.
Sully-She's a lucina mom candidate, and her own daughter is really easy to recruit. She should theoretically be a slightly worse version of Chrom, so she won't end up that great. She's in this really awkward position where she won't get enough speed, str, or def(Unless you get really lucky), and won't end up as strong as the other units. She needs pretty extensive babying to reach a point where she's available. Kjelle and Lucina might be good enough to warrant using Sully. She may be placed higher.
Cordelia-She comes at this really awkward time where she comes really close to the time you get Nowi. Nowi will end up better than her, and it is possible to split exp between Cordelia and Nowi, but you'll find that Cordelia is in a Sully like position where she doesn't have enough speed, def, or str, to really excel. She needs a longer period of training than other units to be useful, but the other units might end up better with less of a training period. Plus, her kid's paralogue is hard. She and Sully will still end up better than any1 below them on this list.
Lissa-sucks later on in the game, but she's needed for early stages of the game.
Frederick-You have to use him in paralogue to kill the myrmidons and weaken the barbs. Useless after that. He's mid tier because his pair ups make him relevant for a bit.
Gaius-Pickpocket bot. He has pretty good growths but compared to Lon Qu who fulfills generally the same combat role, he's squishier, and not as good. But he's still usable.
Tharja-One of your few viable sources of magic dmg for Lunatic. Low skill, low luck, and a split dmg growth child make her a not that attractive choice for a combat unit. The good thing about her is that she joins at a time when chapters are getting easier, and you likely won't have units to hard baby, leaving Tharja as an option for feeding exp to and growing. Tharja's growths aren't too bad either, so she's definetely usable.
Libra-Heal bot.
Low Tier:
Maribelle-Healer. Low durability keeps her here. She has the option of going in as second healer for a portion of the game.
Stahl: Never used him before in Lunatic. He may have potential as a tanky unit.
Say'ri:She's not a bad unit. However, the lack of supports and late join time hurt her a lot. At that point in the game, you probably wouldn't want to waste exp leveling her up.
Tiki:Comes way too late. Good growths, not high enough bases to make a difference. At the point when you get her, it's going to be a pain in the ass trying to train her.
Kellam: Useful early game as a pair up
Vaike: He might be useful early game as a pair up
Virion:May be slightly useful in the early chapters due to being ranged and dealing potshot damage. He has no future though, and his pair up bonus is pretty bad too.
Gregor: He has okay stats when he joins, but I don't see him getting the growths that would make him a relevant unit later on in the game. Would rather not use him at all. Gregor may be placed higher.
Bottom Tier:
Cherche:She can survive more than one hit in her join chapter. Amazing. Cherche may be placed higher.
Ricken:He comes with Elwind in his join chapter. Might be slightly useful in that chapter. Useless after that.
Flavia: Flavia is more useful than Basilio in her join chapter, but both are terrible.
Basilio:
Henry:Joins too late, stats not good enough. I don't even find him useful in his join chapter.
Olivia
Edited by gochooindontgo
