This is very long, so I’ll break it up between different time periods
Feb-June 2017
I started the game when it came out. My very first pull was a 4* Henry. A few days afterward, I was on the bus with a friend and I thought “I need a healer.” I pulled on a colorless and out came my first 5 star, an OG Sakura. Still have her to this day, but I never use her. I pulled A!Tiki and Eliwood at 4 stars early on. I also pulled Lyn from her focus banner and then a 5 star Marth from his focus banner a day afterward. I also remember pulling a little on Ephraim and Julia’s release banner but never getting anything good. I was then waiting for Ike to come out since he wasn’t in the game yet (if you don’t count the title screen).
The next banner was the Reinhardt and Sanaki release banner. I noticed Sanaki was from RD, and I decided to pull for her. I eventually did get her. Then the Ninian/Karel banner. I really wanted Ninian, but I couldn’t get her. I saved up about 15-20 orbs for pulling one day, and got a Karel and a 5 star Abel. The next banner after that was the Spring Festival banner. I thought it was hilarious that a bunny Camilla was added before Ike so I pulled for her. Ended up getting her and Ninian in the same batch.
Then the Alm banner. I spent on it but got nothing. During the middle of it, I started saving. This was a good idea, as the very next banner was the one I had been awaiting. Ike had finally been added. I had about 30 something orbs and then I redeemed the 10 free My Nintendo orbs. I used them. Only 5 star was a -atk Alm (though this was before I paid attention to IVs). Also got my first Seliph. I pulled on his banner all throughout its run, ignoring the first hero fest. Didn’t get him, nor did I get any more 5 stars, even after spending $30. His banner then ended. This led to me making constant jokes with my friends about Ike finally coming on a “Day of Reckoning.”
The Celica banner then started in mid-May. I pulled Takumi from it one day and flexed him to my friends. He was the only 5 star I got from it though. Then there was the bride banner. I was broke on orbs and considered spending money for Bride Lyn. I got her on my third pull so I didn’t need to do that.
June-Dec 2017
The Echoes of Mystery banner was the one that came after the bride banner. I had the game deleted from my phone for a day since my mom didn’t want me to play video games, but when I came back, I pulled my first Titania (she was a 4 star) and a focus Roderick.
Next up was Ylissean Summer. My first two pulls were a 5 star Merric and OG Lucina. I eventually pulled a SA!Tiki that I still have today. After that was the Alm and Celica’s Army banners, and I pulled Delthea from the former. Around this time I also pulled OG Julia from a Heroes with Hone Skills banner. At the end of July was Nohrian Summer. I liked Corrin at the time and decided to pull for her summer alt, which left me with a 5 star Cordelia (who I use a lot today!). But on that same day, after pulling, I saw a Feh Channel that announced a Hero Fest. In the silhouettes of the banner units I saw Ragnell, and I thought, “I need to save!” I did just that and had 60 orbs ready for the Hero Fest.
I pulled two OG Ikes back-to-back! I was so happy that he finally came home. The first was +def -res (still the one I use now) and the second was +res -atk. I used them both instead of merging them.
Mid-August had that Sacred Stones banner with Seth and Tana, I think I pulled for Tana a bit but I didn’t get her.
Then there was CYL1. I bet by now you know who all my votes went to. Naturally my free pick went to B!Ike. I then pulled for B!Lyn, got a 5 star Titania merge and then pulled B!Lyn a day after her banner came out. She was -atk. The next banner was Elincia and Nephenee’s. I tried getting Elincia but only got a 5 star OG Roy and 5 star Seth out of it. Seth was fine though. On that TT banner, I pulled 3 times and got OG Mist (she was -atk though). Then I think the Performing Arts banner came out, and I tried to get Azura, but quit midway through and I think I saved a bit, enough to have 90 or so orbs by the start of the next banner. It was the first full Genealogy banner, and I pulled Sigurd and Deirdre back to back. And then there was the Halloween banner and I really wanted H!Henry. Only 5 stars I got were H!Sakura and Tailtiu.
Then November brought with it the Farfetched Heroes. I really wanted to get Mia, but I walked out with a 5 star Cain and my first Soren. Then there was that Feh Channel that announced legendary banners and I thought “wow those sound cool, can’t wait!” I saved up about 90 orbs for it, and by the time it ended, I pulled a Celica and B!Lyn. December had uninteresting banners for me, so I saved up.
January-Start of Feb 2018
I also saved through the first New Years banner, and I had about 300 or so orbs by the time January’s New Heroes banner came out. It was Micaiah’s banner and high-time she got added. I spent and got her, 2 Sothes, and a pitybreaker Merric merge with 70 orbs left. I saved through the rest of the month until the last day.
There was a Feh Channel, and I woke up to my friends telling me “you’ll like this one.” It was the one that revealed L!Ike. I was like “ohshootohshootohshoot” and dumped all 220 orbs I had into his banner. 1 Sanaki and 1 Siegbert. I was very sad. I had a friend who pulled L!Ike at lunch and I got very salty (he also pulled multiples of him during this banner). The 50 anniversary orbs seemed promising, so I hoarded up all the TT orbs the day before the anniversary. The anniversary came, and I pulled at school in the morning with some friends. Almost all those orbs gone, no Ike, just another Sanaki and Siegbert. I had 4 orbs left. During my last class of the day, I drew OG Ike saying something along the lines of “Siegbert, do you like making us salty?” As I sat down on the bus with a friend during dismissal time, I grinded two of the 10th stratum quests like mad and collected 2 orbs. I then had 6, so I went for the yolo summon while on the bus with my friend. There were two reds. I chose the one on the bottom right, and out came L!Ike! We celebrated then and there. I had spent about 360 orbs total for him.
Feb-August 2018
The L!Ike summoning experience only boosted me wanting to save my orbs. I thought “if 220 wasn’t enough for him, then I need to save more!” My saving was then quickly halted by LA!Hector. I pulled him a few days after his banner came out, after getting a +atk Titania (who’s my current base for her +10) and Camilla as pitybreakers. I started saving like mad again.
I skipped everything. I hit 1k orbs sometime in May. Then Bridal Bloom came out with B!Sanaki and B!Ninian, and I pulled both of them in 308 orbs. Went back into full saving mode. I broke saving again for S!Cordelia but she came in 9 orbs so everything was fine. I free pulled a Myrrh on the Ylissean Summer rerun. Then L!Hector came out. I was on the fence due to my previous legendary banner experience, but I ended up pulling him, a B!Ike merge, and LA!Lyn in 59 orbs. On the SY!Tiki banner, I got her and an Amelia in 128 orbs. Saved a bit more, before starting another PTSD summon session…
Aug-Dec 2018
I had 1,503 orbs. The Festival in Hoshido banner came out. I wanted Micaiah and Elincia. With my orb count, I thought it would be easy. Oh no it wasn’t. Pulled red after red and green after green. Got several pitybreakers, including my first Y!Tiki, an OG Ike merge (exactly a year after I first pulled him too), Drunk Celica, a Myrrh merge, Leif, Sword Reinhardt, and a HF!Xander from an all-colorless circle. Finally, after what felt like forever, I saw HF!Micaiah. 709 orbs spent. Then one pull afterward was HF!Elincia, for a total of 714 orbs. That banner was hell. It was also the last banner I pulled on before I moved to where I am now.
Up next was CYL2. I voted for Hector and Ephraim and I was excited to see them. I chose Hector, but opted not to pull for Ephraim since I wanted to save after that Festival in Hell.
I didn’t pull again until the L!Tiki banner at the end of September. Got her and a L!Ike merge in 100 orbs. The L!Ike was in the first batch too, which was nice.
Then I spent 94 orbs for H!Mia and also got a Leif pitybreaker. During these times I thought “where tf is Ike’s seasonal alt? He should have one by now”
Didn’t spend again until the winter banner, where I spent 60 to get W!Ephraim. I hit 2k orbs by the end of December, and thanks to some tactics drills, I had 2019 orbs on New Years Eve.
Jan-Feb 2019
2019 started off great for me. The NY Hrid banner was a skip, though I did get a NY Fjorm with the tickets. I was waiting for Tibarn and co to come out. I got him at -atk on the free pull, and spent 132 orbs for a Leanne. Saved for most of January until the Nephenee and Elincia BHB banner, where I spent 179 orbs for a Sumia, Ayra, and Elincia and almost dipped below 2k orbs. I spent 12 on my free pull batch on Duma’s banner just in case L!Ike was in the reds.
Then came February’s silhouettes. I saw the one on the right and thought “Is that RD Ike?? Finally, it’s about time he gets a seasonal alt!” The trailer came out. The right silhouette wasn’t RD Ike but it was V!Greil, but the left one was V!Ike all along. I was really happy to see him and Mist finally get seasonal alts, and with my giant orb stash I decided to +10 him and pull for a copy of the others. I started with 2,152 orbs. At the end of day 1 of the banner, I had a +8 V!Ike, a +2 V!Mist, +atk V!Greil, +atk V!Soren, -atk Nephenee, OG Mia, a Delthea merge, my first Reyson, and many more good units I didn’t have before. It took me around 9 days and $21 to +10 V!Ike with 2,326 orbs total. Though I could’ve saved some money with the last one if I picked the top stone first…
So with V!Ike completely resetting my stash, I started saving again.
Mar-Dec 2019
Nothing really happened in March for me, until the end when Yune came out. I had about 300 orbs and was on the fence about pulling her, but her colorsharing with Lewyn convinced me. Spent 157 orbs for 2 Lewyns, an Eir, an extra H!Mia so I could give her staff to Mist, and Yune. One Lewyn was fed to L!Ike for Special Spiral, and the other was +spd and I still have him. He’s very fun to use AoE flashing blade builds with.
I had to skip the second RD beast banner unfortunately, but it gave me Caineghis on the free pull so that was nice
April 2019 came along, I was really hoping for older 5 star units to get demoted, but then the Thanos Snap happened. I was pissed. How was I going to fix my -atk Mist? This made me spend 81 orbs on her BHB banner, and I got a +res copy of her along with a merge for OG Ike. I also merged my old -atk OG Ike into my main one. This was the last time I spent more than 10 orbs before July 2019, when I got disappointed with the summer banners and the Weekly Revival 5 banner rolled around. I spent 350 orbs for 3 Mists, a B!Ike, and some pitybreakers.
On the Splendid Soiree banner, I only spent on the free pull batch and I ended up with S!Nephenee, which was nice. This was also around the time of Hero’s Path, so B!Ike got a merge on top of his beautiful refine.
Skipped everything until the Halloween banner. Duo units had just come out, and I thought that H!Hector and Lilina were absolutely adorable. I also wanted H!Ilyana for my Tellius collection. Hector came easily and I pulled 2 copies of him, but I got pitybroken by Thea and 3 Drunk Berkuts before H!Ilyana came home. 426 orbs total, a bit of a setback. Not too long afterward, I spent 156 orbs on Week 19 for 2 B!Ikes and a Helbindi.
Then November came with my 3rd favorite FE character Ephraim getting a duo alt. I was really worried about not getting him, but then I got both him at +atk and an Edelgard to use as Dimitri bait with my tickets. So, not too bad.
Then Weekly Revival 5 came back. I had just played a Blue Lions run and I became a huge Dimitri fan. So I pulled blues off-focus on that banner like an idiot. Had the worst luck out of all of its runs too, with only an Alm on pull 40 and an OG Ike merge on pull 50 with 195 orbs spent.
I then focused all my orbs for the December legendary banner for L!Ike merges with an original plan of spending 100 orbs.
End of Dec 2019
The legendary banner for December had been revealed, and Dimitri and Claude were in it. I started the day with great luck, with Dimitri coming on a ticket. But then everything went wrong when I went over budget like an idiot. 503 orbs, no L!Ikes, 3 L!Roys, a Peony, but a Hrid, Claude, and that Dimitri I wanted. I was very crushed.
I became really worried that IS would give Ike a NY or Hot Spring seasonal and my orbs wouldn’t be ready.
I hate L!Roy now.
2020
The first 4 months of 2020, I only spent on the 3rd run of Weekly Revival 5. On day 1 of that banner, I pulled 2 B!Ikes in the first batch. I waited for the FE 30th anniversary banner to be revealed before pulling more, and it turned out to be a skip. I then went back in on weekly revival 5 and pulled a Nagi, 3 Mists, and my first Mercedes for a total of 187 orbs. I started out the main pulls of that banner with 2,387 orbs.
I thought that this year Ike would get a summer or duo alt, but boy did May’s banner prove that to be very wrong. I covered up the thumbnail of his banner trailer before watching it so I could guess the units based off their voices. I got the first three right, so on the last one I thought “yeah Gawain’s gotta be a lock for this banner!” I didn’t hear Ike’s voice line long enough to guess who it was and when I saw him there I thought “my orbs are feeling like Infinity War Spiderman right now.” And he was colorsharing with Julia, which was scary.
I hypergrinded all the chain challenges and squad assaults I had left the day before the banner, and when the banner came out, I did all the story maps before pulling.
Started that banner with 2,772 orbs, my current record. Came out with a +10 drunk Ike, 3 drunk Lyons, 2 drunk Julias, Lysithea, B!Alm, B!Veronica, and many others after spending 1,473 orbs.
2 weeks later I got very salty when IS handed Micaiah a duo alt and full color variation after just giving Ike his 4th sword alt. Free pulled Rafiel from that banner which was nice.
I don’t feel like writing that much more, so basic summary of banners I spent on after that:
Week 16 3rd run- 63 orbs for OG Ephraim
Overseas Memories- 15 orbs for S!Sylvain (bonus Dorothea too)
Week 19 3rd run- 33 orbs for 1 B!Ike merge
Mythic Hel- 980 orbs (5 L!Ike merges, 1 Hel, 1 Thrasir, 1 L!Edelgard, 4 Altinas, 6 L!Roys, seriously L!Roy kindly f*** off)
Pirate’s Pride- 86 orbs for 1 P!Tibarn
A New Future- 135 orbs for CYL Claude spark, got 5 pitybreakers too
(still waiting on summer/duo Ike IS. Please make him blue so I don’t have to suffer Red Hell anymore)
I spent way too much time writing all this. If you’re wondering “how the heck do you remember how many orbs you spent on those banners?”, I keep track.
If you read through all of this, then you can have a giant batch of cookies. It was interesting going back through my experiences though!
as well as fully merging my favorite unit/OC Thrasir
,now with that said I started some months after launch 3-4 to be exact after seeing some feh advertisement on Serenes Forest while I was looking up where the Metis’s Tome was again (I forgot lol).
).