wait I just realized
does doob have two sets of ears? or are those horns?
3 Likes
second thing
2 Likes
is that the fucking honoured one
3 Likes
uh huh
3 Likes
Win with your favorites
5 Likes
I’m surprised Ramm isn’t in the “vaguely biased in your favor” tier, they have a whole monster recruitment mechanic to themself.
3 Likes
i feel like its balanced out by them being portrayed as vaguely a cannibal
2 Likes
TL;DR
If you really enjoy digging into the nitty gritty of every unit choice, build choice, equipment choice, and on-map choice, you’ll REALLY enjoy Dies Emblem. If you don’t, I would recommend it to you anyway just for the experience, its a lot of fun to see your favorite creators in a hack and the meta-style comedy is great. Use the Tier Lists available for help getting through it.
10/10
Difficulty
I guess I’m in the minority here, but I wouldn’t call Dies Emblem hard. Or rather, it’s the correct type of hard. It’s not RNG bullshit, the maps are very challenging, and the game provides you with enormous power to deal with those challenges - if you can identify good units, make good plans, and take advantage of the tools you are given. If you don’t bother with sharing around the potential manual, if you don’t take opportunities to capture valuable equipment, if you don’t want to consider every equipment choice, if you don’t think to give Lesk early favoritism, try Canto+ on Camdar, use the bike, use the sniper rifle on Cres, or likewise find the right tool for every job using some extensive forward thinking, then yeah I can see this game being pretty frustrating. But I LIVE for this kind of gameplay. I love theorycrafting unit builds, I love scouring every map to find exactly which units I plan to capture, I love FE games/hacks where I can spend an hour or more just planning my first two turns to perfection on many maps. I had a fantastic time.
I can’t believe I’m actually about to say this unironically cause it’s massively cringe, but Dies is like the Dark Souls of Fire Emblem (crucially: each within their own medium). For the first time in my life regarding any game, I find myself in the position of the “Git Gud” crowd from back when that whole argument was happening. People would say Dark Souls is too hard, too frustrating, and questioned how anyone could enjoy it. Fans would scoff and demean the critiquer by replying “Git Gud” - which of course was literally the least cohesive, productive, and helpful thing anyone could do, but made the "Git Gud"ers feel satisfied in elevating their precious game above the criticism. When reading others’ reviews, I definitely felt the desire to think the same way, because I’d prefer if this kind of game was accepted as the norm therefore I would get more of it. But it’s really on me to accept that this game isn’t for everyone, it’s just perfect for those like me. Is “Git Gud” wrong? Technically no, that’s the experience the game both provides you and requires from you. Please know this going in, adjust your expectations accordingly, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Mechanics Glazing
I was initially put off by the unique stats screen, but you get used to it pretty fast and it serves its purpose well, especially in combining the items, stats, and Mandate of Heaven in one tab.
Who knew that a more realistic weight system than CON/WT/SPD could work so well?
Thank you for Battle Saves. The game would be 20 times worse without Battle Saves.
I like how Mounted Units, despite having Canto+, typically better Rescue capabilities, and overweight bonuses that are less crippling than for normal units, are still not overpowered. They cannot enter vehicles nor shove and MUCH of the terrain in the game keeps them in check, especially sand, stairs, and cliffs which come up more often then you’d expect.
Trauma is brilliant. No longer can an FE game be solved by juggernauting, while still having units who could normally be considered juggernauts. Kills need to be spread around and most anti-Trauma being player phase only solidifies this. It works great, it keeps
more units contributing and growing/relevant, and the game makes it fun to break this “rule” by using the right tools later on. But Dies also never keeps the pressure off - mass Luna/Terra and similar effects makes fighting many opponents without forethought dangerous and most maps push you in multiple directions.
Equipment variance is phenomenal and lets you put a lot of thought into build choice. Would you like more armor? ARM or WIL? Or would you rather have Luna/Terra with boosts to offensive stats? Or Menacing Armor, but that’s heavy! Do you need the lightweight expensive armor or the cheap heavy armor that’s nearly as good? Etc. Same for weapons, there are very few “hey this is a slightly stronger weapon at a slightly higher rank” monotony. Nearly every weapon in the game has some kind of semi-unique effect, be it ignoring defenses, or range, or stats, or never miss, etc. Potential Manual, Mirror Ring, Skill Scrolls, and 1/encounter items like Sands of Time are all awesome.
Capture! Super fun and powerful, and doubling as Mercy is a great design choice.
Server 72 already proved this to me, but Dies really solidified it. Having weapons with 3 Range is based.
Server 72 already proved this to me, but Dies really solidified it. Allowing your units to die (for a small $ penalty) is based.
Server 72 already proved this to me, but Dies really solidified it. Encounter weapon durability is based.
Server 72 already proved this to me, but Dies really solidified it. 4 weapon slots + 1 unique slot is based.
The Pawnbroker convoy / individual gold / no trading is a nice change of pace. I didn’t hate it initially, and quite liked it by the end of the game. It provides a lot of little things to think about tactically and while I miss trade-equipping which I use frequently, it’s been a pleasure to switch things up. Never played FE4 or whichever game it takes inspiration from.
The weapons do have a power imbalance (IMO Guns/Bows > Polearms > Knives > Swords) but that’s fine and nearly unavoidable, all of them have unique entries/niches which cannot be replicated by others and Mirror Ring allows for fun customization.
I like the three-tiered Armor system. Animals don’t get armor, most units have normal armor with enormous choice, and some units have Medium/Heavy armor which is strong defensively and can be upgraded to some of the best in the game.
The interludes were fun! I’m happy that every character got at least a small moment to shine and the whole Bobby segment was a fantastic way of shouting out a bunch of hacks without it feeling shoehorned in,
Awesome choices for quickly “catching units up” or boosting them in EXP/Items using Gifting, Arena, Sparring, and Arms Scrolls.
The cast is massive - there’s a ton of good units, and a ton of bad units. I actually like this. It reduces FOMO, allows for some comedy of absurdism, and much like bad cards in TCGs the bad units exist to provide contrast or allow for people to find complex ways to make them work.
Full Bug Report (some big and some nitpicky)
Devisio’s Jack Frost says “after initiating” but actually applies the debuffs in every combat. It also applies to any friendly unit that shoves him (but not if he shoves them), and if Eric casts a spell on him. I suspect it may apply to if you Boner him and many other characters with a similar “interact with ally” ability.
Dies Command (and I imagine other commands) get deactivated if you Pawn Shop before attacking (so the Pawn Shop command “eats” the +10 damage)
Commands still available after BPat retreats on death.
If you visit the southern house by pushing the villager out of the way (City map with Vyland) and then mercy kill her, you cannot visit her village again to see what’s behind the painting. Which really sucks because the Tranq Rifle is a pretty huge item to have, I debugged it in rather than having to redo the entire chapter.
Retina’s slow start does not prevent them from visiting villages on Turn 1
The RNG for levels is weird, or intentional troll? I could load a battle save 15 times to get through a tough turn and every single time my units get the exact same level no matter what order I do my actions in - except for exactly Krim, who it seems always gets a blank level up if you load a Battle Save. Even if in the original attempt he did get a stat. Did you do this on purpose to prevent people from rigging the Jeigan’s levels?
Units loaded into vehicles do not show up in the sparring menu, perhaps other menus as well.
Head Guard’s Counter Up skill does not work at all (Boss of Unforgettable) EDIT: Vibe’s Counter Up also doesn’t do anything
Vehicles do not need passengers to fire regular guns given to them by Epicer (any gun that is not their soulbound equipment) (although they have 0 DEX & other stats)
Game crashes and closes if “Reset 1 & 2” is pressed in any shop menu.
Units can/can’t Exit a vehicle onto Cliffs/Mountains because of the vehicle they are exiting rather than their own properties (Sphealnuke can move on mountains himself (desert gear may be required?), so he transfers that to units who Exit his bike)
Portaballista does not correctly decrease weight when uses are expended, it’s always 30 WT
When you get the Mirror Ring, a popup info box that warns the player about level and stat caps (I.E. not to make promoted units into unpromoted classes) would be nice.
Bandit Chapter inside the Behemoth lags pretty badly, not sure if anything can be done about it. It doesn’t make the game unplayable or anything.
Are vehicles supposed to cost 2 MOV to move on “Floor” (not Sand) tiles in The Behemoth Chapter, the following Inside The Behemoth Chapter, and many other chapters?
Would be nice if Frungus’ +100/-20 growths skill showed a popup to let you know who suffered the -20 to all growths upon use, so I don’t have to then search through my entire party (and memorize/estimate their growth rates) to figure out / guess who it must have been.
The “Restart Level” Menu is all sorts of fucked up. It’ll give you random chapters to load from instead of ones derived from your saves or the past few chapters you’ve played. For instance, I’m currently on Lord of the Storm, and the Chapters available in the Restart Level menu are Lord of the Storm, Desert Items, Your Honor League, and two instances of The Knower.
During preps for Lord of the Storm, I did Sparring with Ignis and he leveled. He lost 1 WIL despite having a 0 WIL growth?
During Lord of the Storm, it seems like Canto+ does not check the Sandstorm Immunity Aura correctly. So if a 7-move unit moves 4 spaces, all of which are within the Aura, when it comes to doing Canto+ movement the unit thinks it has no movement range remaining, so it gets stuck - but not always??? The same thing happens if a unit Enters a vehicle as a Driver - the vehicle, despite being in the Aura, is treated as if it does not benefit from it (thus can only move a couple spaces). If you Shove the vehicle, it “rechecks” the ability and the vehicle can now move normally, ignoring Desert.
Spells like Flare from the Flare Gun can reveal enemies in the FoW without firing (you see them in the HUD) if the cursor is hovered over their space when targeting. Not really a problem and seems like a headache to fix, but I thought I’d mention it.
Vehicles are immune to the Trauma gained from Eldritch Dance, but the popup text “X gained Trauma” still pops up.
Collecting the Infinite Shroom crashes the game if you press B/Start to skip the repeating Rose dialog (This one’s intentional, right? lmao I feel bad for anyone who didn’t battle save before collecting this)
If Ramm Hunts a monster, the monster can be taken by a Capture unit and Stripped despite being non-human.
“Cannot be pawned” items like the ones bought from Vending can be sent to Convoy upon receiving an item with Ignis on the map.
If KD is pair-attacking alongside a unit with Brave, the Combat Forecast displays his attacks as x2/x4/etc but he only attacks once/twice as normal.
If KD scores a crit when pair-attacking, his crit is increased by his regular damage rather than the half damage of the pair attack effect.
Some kind of indicator for Reach in the Combat Forecast (similar to the x2) would be nice, I need many hands to count the number of times I had to reset the turn because I got ganked by Reach
In Furry Rights, if you Seize the throne with a canto unit and then try to canto away by pressing B to trigger the canto movement, the throne Un-Seizes and you return to before the unit was selected as if un-doing movement.
Doin Thangs’ gold offer exceeded my gold amount. Camdar had 20980 gold and her offer went to 21000. When accepted, she joined, her growth rates were at base, and no gold was transferred to her - as if I had “not afforded her price”
Luminescent leveled, but he did not gain strength despite having 100 STR Growth and not being capped (as an Abomination with 18 STR). Could it be that the Growth formula checks <100 rather than <=100?
The differences between Levin’s Whisper/Chant/Boon/Blessing/etc are really confusing because the status names don’t match up with the actual skills providing the bonuses. For instance, Levin Dance actually provides the Levin’s Blessing status.
Goose’s skill does not prevent her from retreating due to gaining trauma.
The “Hey look at that guy, maybe there’s someone who can talk to him” dialogue plays on Turn 2 even if Darknight Clone is dead.
When using Hard Sell, the items shown are “greyed out” based on if Doin Thangs can use them, not the buyer.
[
Game Crashed when trying to Rescue using Angel Staff on Cuban Missile Crisis:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “app\engine\driver.py”, line 162, in run
surf, repeat = game.state.update(event, surf)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “app\engine\state_machine.py”, line 256, in update
start_output = state.start()
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “app\engine\general_states.py”, line 2156, in start
self.item = self.parent_item.subitems[self.sequence_item_index]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
IndexError: list index out of range
]
Pocket Rocket tooltip does not specify its Weight
Thornhail does not deal 50% damage on miss (perhaps this only applies in “AoE Mode”, and against a single target it will deal 50% on miss?)
Mage Slicer does not divide magic damage taken by 4 (Zane League Capture dealt full damage)
Soulhawk gained a level (second in the map) and somehow lost 1 AGI?
FuriousHaunter is not labeled as a Boss and thus can be Captured
The Adventurer who comes out of the arena is immune to statuses but this isn’t stated anywhere in a skill or item. EDIT: Seems like ALL Adventurers are immune to status like this due to the Freedom skill but this skill is hidden (not using A New Challenge)
If you gain enough WEXP to gain 2 ranks in a weapon simultaneously, the higher rank will alert first (Trybel attained Rank C, followed by Trybel attained Rank D) (Does not need to be fixed, I just found it funny)
Some Chapters do not trigger “End Events” such as Cres Revival, Day Job, Rivian Demon QI reset, EXP Brew Generation, etc. I’ve found this applies to Lord of the Storm and Endless Eight (may be intended for E8?)
Deadeye Mask does not give -1 AGI as stated in its description
UltraxzBlade participating in Sparring lowers Sigma’s stats. Participating in the Arena lowers the Arena Halberdier’s stats, not sure what effects this has or if it’s intended
When Poop Knife in the convoy gives Ignis stat decreases, it’s not clear what it’s coming from, it just says “-5 Pawnbroker”
Does Mercy killing give less EXP than normal killing? My Alguien when killing Maru on Endless Eight would cap out, but when using Rune of Mercy and killing would only get ~30 EXP. If so, that should be a guide note
It is occasionally difficult to tell which bosses are Forum Members and which are not (for purposes of needing Mercy/Ransom)
If a unit Enters a vehicle using 42 Hot Wives and the Vehicle is danced, the unit can exit on the same turn and still act (this seems like it works as intended, similar to warping a unit who has not acted yet, but figured I’d note it anyway)
The Objective screen displays # of Player, Red, Green, and Purple Units, but not Orange.
Rubber Bullets should be able to reload a gun on full ammo, in case you need Mercy immediately at the cost of wasting bullets.
Leg Day tooltip should specify 1/Turn because if you get galeforced you cannot Leg Day a second time
Goldforce (and similar skills) tooltip should specify it does not stack with Galeforce (which may be expected because they are two separate skills) Also Goldforce ability is available when he has already done so and thus cannot benefit from it.
Cres’ Sniper Rifle removed its Rubber Bullets on its own, and went back to losing Mandate of Heaven stacks on kills. I reloaded Cres’ Sniper Rifle with Rubber Bullets on Darkstone and her Bullet Craft would +1 a single rubber bullet every two turns as I expected. Upon reaching the next chapter, Church Bad, suddenly her Sniper Rifle is back to using normal bullets. Is this because Rubber Bullets always reset every Chapter, or tied to killing Cres off, or tied to the Bulletcraft skill in some way (I did not reload using bulletcraft)?
Skills with limited uses (Luna/Terra/Sol/Sure Strike/Etc) can be “reloaded” by buying/selling the associated item.
Darkstone’s Tooltip does not mention that it is a Magic weapon
Redacted’s Critical Moment (and thus also being pinned perhaps) does not prevent units from Canto+ing with full MOV after attacking. Also, the tooltip should probably say “this phase” rather than “for one turn” because the benefits don’t last into enemy phase.
Toffee missed growths in several stats on Turn 1. He solo’d all the Wyverns on the map Church Bad and gained 4 levels, but only gained 3 points in DEX, MND, and WIL. Is there a depreciating effect on growths for levels gained within a single turn? Or is it a “<100 vs <=100” issue and I got REALLY unlucky? EDIT: This happened remarkably frequently, too frequent to be a <= bug I would say.
Kunai help with climbing even when the user has no Knife Rank. Perhaps applies to other effects like Golddart? Could be because Trybel has a “hidden” knife rank after Mirror Ring, too
If a unit with a Dusting Lance is Sparred with, they get no EXP for it, I assume because they don’t get an attack in (still get paragon)
Is Steal prevented by Bosses, or by the Resigned skill? My Reversecard (16 DEX + 6 Bonuses) cannot steal the Headhunter’s Hairpin on Church Bad.
The “Evil Music” on Church Bad (triggered when fighting Saint Rubenio or when the Monsters began spawning, I can’t remember) kept playing throughout the whole chapter, and it’s a terrible ~10 second loop that gets really grating.
When you use Terra, it overrides Ignore ARM modifier effect such as the attack being Magic.
On Girl Civilization, I somehow got 6 Gifts (Sir Spensir). Have no idea how.
Rivian’s Afterimage -MOV does not get restored when he is inside a vehicle. Could apply to other statuses too.
In the Lose fight, killing a charmed unit on player phase does not give Trauma, but killing a charmed unit when countering does give Trauma? May be misinterpreting something here.
On enemy phase, nobody was in 1 range of Lose, but he did not attack anyone with his 1+ range Lust (I stole the Trechery)
Bobby Asaka’s Paired Attack does not seem to work at all.
When the Ransomed units leave the party, they don’t sell their stuff into the convoy (at least, Apostate doesn’t)
The tooltips of the Behemoth’s skills (as well as Ultrax’s, maybe others) at the end of the game say “Cannot be used BEFORE moving” but should be “Cannot be used AFTER moving”, no?
If a unit, such as Bpat, is undeployed at the start of the final map (perhaps start of turn?) their Commands are unavailable.
Pawnbroker+ seems to not allow units who recieve items (such as Ramm when she gets her Meat) to send to storage, it says discard.
The only Gatchas available in the final map are Medicine and Gaijin Gatcha (this fixed itself after spending/gaining some MAG)
NobleBucket has the Interfacing Skill and Easy Pickings also specifies driving vehicles, but is unable to drive vehicles. Meme?
On the final map, nearly every one of my characters, when selected, display red spaces as if they have a 5 range weapon, even when they don’t, and it has something to do with Pawnbroker+. The only characters who do not have these displays are Ashley and Ignis, and when Ignis leaves this display no longer occurs for other characters.
During the final map, I attempted to “Return” Olivia to the Behemoth. A battle animation was played where she, in wolf form with “Return” equipped, attacked the Behemoth, and the game froze upon her hitting her “attack”. The same thing happens when I try to have her enter any vehicle.
During the final map, the Shenhazai Death Knights do not unequip their Shanhazai after using its one use.
HeroicVileplume’s Petal Blizzard is labeled as Magic, but does not ignore ARM like Magic attacks tend to do. It also doesn’t do effective damage to flying units despite being a bow (that may be intentional?). Finally, I cannot understand why but in the final map I have 53 attack but only do 1 damage to Angels (who have 25 ARM and 22 WIL, so why is the damage 1? Against Hell Knights I do 32 damage = 53 Attack - 15 ARM - 6 WIL which is correct aside from the Ignore ARM thing)
[
Several Units’ Final Map Skills do not show up in their status screens after they receive them
Bobby’s Infinite Ru (She gets virtualized shown instead?)
INeedAName’s Core Breaking Beak
Zane’s Undying
Catball does not have a quote and doesn’t get a bonus at all
RohesiaFanII’s Angelic
DG’s Crit+ (probably because he has so many skills lmao)
]
Unit Tier List & Reviews (Spoiler Warning)
My apologies to anyone misgendered, it’s a lot to keep track of.
SS
CAMDAR
Camdar is the best unit in the game, because nobody can assassinate targets as well and freely as he does, with built-in AntiTrauma, while also staying as safe as he does. This is especially important for killing Levin Boosts in the midgame right after he joins. If given the Canto+ Band, he can teleport in, kill, and teleport out every turn with literally zero downside, which is why I genuinely feel bad for those who don’t make the connection to try seeing how he interacts with Canto+. This does take the Canto Band away from Yasako, but you know - just position Yasako & the danced unit well and the problem is minimal. Camdar’s only problem is his low stats, so he needs a little help to kill consistently. This is easily remedied with a Brave Sword and by applying his Luna/Terra when needed. I don’t like being limited to just 2 Lunas and 2 Terras though, so I additionally gave him the Grinder Sword which effectively grants +5 damage (+1 from the Grinder attack itself, and then +2 from each of his 2 Brave Sword strikes). Finally, after the ArcherBias interlude, give Camdar the “Destroy Armor” Skill. This allows his Grinder strike to remove the enemy’s armor, effectively removing his need for Luna and Terra altogether except for very few high-WIL enemies. It also allows Camdar to optionally use his turn to teleport adjacent to 2 enemies and remove both their armor, weakening them for some incoming Capture/Ransom/Mercy stuff. Finally, on off-turns Camdar can easily support by applying a crucial Shove without getting left behind, or picking up/delivering explosive barrels, or carrying a Skeleton Key and assisting in some chest opening - while always being ready to jump in from any range to assist in combat. And of course, on some crucial turn in the middle of the map you can safely leave Camdar in the middle of up to 4ish enemies to soften them up or pull them closer, knowing full well they’ll all have zero hit chance against him.
CADBURY
If Cadbury gave Galeforce to ONLY adjacent units, he would still easily make it to the top of this list - but no, Cadbury has a 3-tile Galeforce Aura. Not only this, Cadbury can apply this Aura in up to 3 locations per turn without any assistance - the first where he starts his turn, the second after killing something and Canto+ing into position, and the third after his second move because he also has Galeforce himself. Absolutely absurd value, effectively dancing for as many units as there are enemies nearby (AND Galeforce in this game applies after Canto+ instead of units getting stopped in their tracks and refreshed immediately, which is huge). Cadbury himself has high enough offensive stats to usually one-shot with a Flare Stone, and I additionally gave him the Acid Bomb, Sure Strike Scroll, and Wild Proof to ensure he will always have enough damage to kill something at either 1 or 2 range (sometimes with a KD assist) and the Dazzle Scroll to give him immunity to reach weapons when attacking at 1-range, his greatest weakness. Cadbury’s only problem is low speed, but honestly it’s practically impossible for anything to be left alive within ~9 spaces of Cadbury on any given enemy phase.
ULTRAXBLADE
Ultraxblade is two dancers in one slot. One of those dancers (Ashley) is a 6-move flier with amazing stats and Galeforce, and the other one of those dancers (The Boost Gauge) can be applied to any unit at any range AND can be used multiple times per turn. It is remarkably easy to earn around 1.5-2 Boosts per turn, and much of the time you might even forget it’s there, only to remember and suddenly realize you wasted about 5-10 kills. Myson is also really useful, primarily for his multiple Anti-Trauma / Mandate of Heaven mechanics, but unfortunately Ashley is just so universally useful that I didn’t use Myson a single time (also because VIBE can Warp Pendant). Much like I said with Cadbury and adjacent units, Ultrax would be exactly this high on the list without either Ashley or Myson, but you get either one included for free. Just be a little careful about leaving Horny units in range of enemies or make sure they have anti-crit armor / Reach equipped, and you’re golden. The only thing left to figure out is what to do with Ultrax himself, as he cannot act when his puppet is out. My preferred solution is to have Alguien use 42 Hot Wives to pull Ultrax into a vehicle, which has the added benefit of allowing the vehicle to fire its weapons without the need for a separate passenger. If you don’t want Alguien (ummm… why?) or don’t have a vehicle, Ultrax can be rescued by another unit (he’s not that heavy) or left to sit there with a Spectre Ring (just in case an enemy spawns close by so it can be pulled by someone else who runs over, I did this but it was never relevant for me).
GREATDOOT
Ummmm… do you even need to ask? DOOT is -30 MIND to every enemy, which equates to -30 Hit, -45 Avoid, -15 Crit, and -30 Crit Avoid. To ALL ENEMIES. Do whatever you want with her combat-wise, she’s okay. I personally used her as a dedicated driver, making her enter a vehicle, drive, and then exit every turn to make sure her debuff is always active. You only get her for like one real map, but damn if she isn’t amazing just by existing.
LEVIN
A simply absurd number of free stats for all your allies. More damage, more hit rate, more AGI, more resilience - but also more carry capacity and rescue capacity too. Just be careful and forward-thinking with your positioning so you don’t lock anyone out of kills or movement if they’re relying on the extra strength to carry their items. With Cadbury, Canto+, Dancers, and Swarp Harp, its quite easy to get him in-and-out of hot zones and score him the necessary kills on Levin users to buff his MAG up to the 20’s using his one-shot PRF tome. From there, he’s fantastic with his PRFs, Bolting, or as a support unit with Convert, Arrest, and Cleanse tomes (use Cleanse against Lose to re-activate Stunned Units). Gaining Levingraced is also pretty great although it went unused for me.
KD
KD is phenomenal, and an auto-include on every map after he joins. He turns not-kills into kills. His damage when Pair-Attacking is 50% of his normal damage, but if he crits, he deals an additional 100% of his damage just like a normal crit would (Bug or feature? Doesn’t really matter, the crit would usually kill anyway even if it was at 50% damage). He’s especially effective when combined with long-range options on allies such as Longbow, Bolting, Meisterbogen, Portaballista, and Sniper Rifle (though that thing usually kills pretty easily, it’s never bad to have some insurance if you miss the crit). Using Long-range paired bombardment like this made the Cuban Missile Crisis remarkably easy, at least compared to the horrific reactions to that map that I’ve seen in this thread. Also, be aware that when pair-attacking an AoE, KD attacks EVERY enemy hit by the AoE, which is simply excellent with options like Sphealnuke Fire Bombs. Also for some reason KD gains +DEX to all growths, which is nice. I gave KD Fringus’ Manifest Potential on his AGI to have it easily grow into doubling territory, with the added benefit that I didn’t need to deploy Fringus manually to give it to anyone else.
When it comes to outfitting him… You know what’s a really weird item? The Mandate of Earth. It gives you +1 damage for every ally who runs out of Mandate of Heaven, but more interestingly it gives +30 crit rate when the user is out of Mandate of Heaven. It’s like, when you have expended your allotted amount of kills, it gives you a greater ability to kill. Completely useless! If only there was a unit… one which could score some kills… and then for the rest of the map assist in kills without ever having to kill humans themselves. With a Killer Bow, Mandate of Earth, and a Risky Robe, KD has 90 crit before even adding his stats. Mass Charm increases this to basically 100% hit and crit at all times, although eventually that transferred over to Ramm. Alternatively, Enchanted Bow is guaranteed hits and HUGE damage with some Formal Wear (get f***'ed, Toffee), although that eventually went to Loog. Bows are arguably the second-best weapon type in the game, and KD can make use of a ton of them - Ignore ARM with Bigshot, Ignore WIL with Silver Bow, pin with the Pinner, lower Speed with Legshunter, long range with various Long-Short-Long-Long options, Brave Bow for some easy early kills (paired attacks do not Brave), etc, etc, etc. His Go-To eventually became the Long-Shortbow, which gives him high Hit, high Might, and the ability to attack at 1 Range (for positioning if needed) and a “Long Longbow” for 4-6 range attacking, and culminated at the Minya which has Full Pierce and just kills everything. In those Transitionary phases, just be aware that some options like the Killer Bow and Bigshot have very low base hit, so even with KD’s solid DEX and MND he could suffer the tragedy of relying on hit rates in the 80’s and 90’s. Eyedrops and Sure Strike are great options.
Oh and Guard Stance exists, I have no idea what it does lol.
YSOR
Ysor is one of your MVPs at every stage of the game, and for different reasons. In early game he’s extremely effective with a Goldfish, Cool Jacket, Trident, and two Patch Kits (swap weapons/armor when needed, more good options exist. Keep in mind when swapping equipment in early game that Ysor can always buy/sell stuff to dump his cash onto Ignis if he has too much to gift away so he keeps Midas Rush x5 available), utilizing his relatively high damage with Midas Rush to consistently cheat the Mandate of Heaven curve and generate you 5000 gold per map, while also acting as an effective tank to pull enemies and then heal himself or his allies when required. Then in midgame (spoilers!) all in one fell swoop he promotes (normal) promotes again (give him the Hand Torch), recieves an AoE1 PRF Axe (promote x2 before Archerbias map), and recieves the Super Lance (see Cres) twice using ATHATH or Dr Green (Once to sell, Once to Keep, it’s worth nearly 100k, use Ignis to pay >100k to Doin Thangs who then buys it the second time to trade it back onto Ysor) and suddenly you have +20 to STR, DEX, MND, and AGI and become a god. Mancatcher for Mercy, Brave Lance or Silver Lance to kill literally anything, he has 9 MOV and Canto+, and he also provides +1 to all stats for all allies by carrying the Super Lance (it also provokes, be aware). Keep a buffer of 10k or so on him to utilize Goldrush whenever you need it in a pinch. I used Anti-Crit armor just to be safe. For endgame, I gave him the Levin Scrolls stripped from MageHero and Camdle for even more stat boosts for his allies.
LESK (included both portraits cause wow, what a glow-up)
Lesk is absolute insanity, and will cap every relevent stat aside from MIND and ARM with ease. He comes immediately comparable to Eric in stats and yet two chapters later is given a bunch of +2/+3 stat boosters (in multiple stats!) unique to him. Another Chapter or two later, Lesk can participate in the Arena and Sparring in order to use more potions in preps. Do not be afraid to swap armor so he survives the arena, then swap back if desired. He’ll have so much money he’ll be giving it away. You generate 5 potions per chapter, so even if we say one potion is desired by someone else - he gets +12 to every important growth rate per map. If you have a backload of potions, you can bring Alonzo to Vend, which I did for Chapter 5 before realizing it was wholly unnecessary, and later in early you literally cannot buy enough potions to do this consistently. If you really want to break the early game completely, powerlevel Polearms to S rank and equip the Brave Lance. He literally kills everything on Reach-counter before they even get to attack, and by this point my Lesk already had 93-103 Growth in STR/DEX/AGI so it’s not like he’s desperate to be hit and continue chugging potions (I put this off so I could enjoy some difficulty, it’s better to wait for fun reasons IMO). Oh, and doing all this potion nonsense stacks Mandate of Heaven so he almost has Imposter like Devisio. Finally, since you’re using the Arena so much with him, he can afford a really early promotion for even more stat boosts, especially for bonuses to his bulk. Just be a little careful about his Dancer Hate skill (who am I kidding, I forgot it existed 98% of the time) and you’re golden. His only weakness is low MIND, but with a Brave Lance and Menacing Armor (you did capture some of those Halberdiers on “Behemoth” right?) he should generally be able to kill melee crit weapons that comes at him before they even strike. In late game, he has 30 in nearly every stat and this setup is accompanied by the Power Staff (weapon, Cadbury chapter in the armory, costs 20k iirc) and a Training Club/FireStaff/Brave Club as needed. To fix his low MIND crit issues I gave him the Sympathetic Scroll and I additionally gave him the Sol Scroll to keep him in the fight with high tempo. Also quick tip: his Dancer Hate works on the Brave Sword Elder on his join map, making him much easier to kill.
[REDACTED]
Redacted is by far the best dancer in the game because Alpha Strike + Charger exists. You thought Reyson in Path of Radiance was a good dancer? How about Reyson’s “all adjacent” Dance except from 5 spaces away AND you warp a unit there AND you also dance them too for a total of 5 refreshed units. Then just use the Charger on Alpha Strike to reload it and you’re ready to do it again. You don’t even have to wait a turn, just spend Boost Gauge or dance Redacted with someone else, and she can recharge it immediately. Once your Charger runs low, Hammerne it and it’s good for another 4 uses (I assume it breaks if you expend the last use, never actually tested it). She also has the second best dance skill in the game in Tactical Maneuver, allowing you to dance a unit while warping it from up to 5 spaces away TO up to 5 spaces away in any direction. Deadly Trap is even another dance from 5 spaces away (the HP to 1 effect I only ever used to skip a phase in Flight of the Raven) and Critical Moment is okay, a little limited in application but theres enough 4-10 range options in this game to make use of it.
SPHEALNUKE
I am flabbergasted that anyone rates this guy anything less than Top Tier. Like, the gamer in me is actually a little mad over it, lol. Is it because they didn’t find that giving him a Desert Gear allows him to move his full 10 spaces through all generic floor/sand/desert/grass terrain on every map? I think of it like this: quite often in Fire Emblem, a dancer is used on Turn 1 just to give a unit +5-6 spaces of movement to reach some enemy or objective. Sphealnuke essentially does the same thing, except he carries the unit 10 spaces (ignoring desert, and sometimes over cliffs), plus 1 additional space for Exiting, plus he carries 2 additional units with Free Ride, plus he still gets to act himself. Is he good at acting himself? Well, he has 10 MOV and Canto+, uses the best weapon type in the game, has access to different kinds of bombs including those that Ignore WIL and have Full Pierce AoE1, and his stats are good. They’re not fantastic, he’s certainly no late-game Ysor or Lesk, but in early game they’re better than both those units, and in late game they’re good - certainly good enough to double many enemies or one-shot them with powerful guns or bombs. And for those more tanky enemies he doesn’t immediately kill, Sphealnuke has a little pal named Reversecard who tags along and finishes them off with ease. He’s tanky enough to survive a hit or two, he can shoot from 1-3 range to often avoid counter, and he can Shoot-then-Canto±back to stay out of enemy ranges and always be in position to pick up new units for transport.
Sphealnuke does have some hit problems if you insist on using low-Hit weapons, so gift him some money and have him buy a Peacekeeper. Peacekeeper, Spare Mag, and two Bombs is a perfect loadout for roughly 2/3rds of the game. Then in the second half of midgame he can scrape enough money together to upgrade to the Otherworlder and open up that Spare Mag slot for a Deadeye Mask (Sure Strike is especially deadly with Fire Bombs) or Winged Headband (now he flies and can REALLY transport units on cliff-heavy maps like Church Bad - see Toffee for details). I gave Sphealnuke a Mercy Scroll because he was so effective at being places and killing units, and he was flying around the entire final map one-shotting Angels.
But ALL of that is unnecessary to justify his inclusion because HE’S LITERALLY FREE. Bringing Sphealnuke costs 2 deployment slots. For that deployment slot cost, you get to bring one infantry unit of choice as a passenger, one additional infantry unit that you “lock in as a choice” with the Free Ride Scroll, and Reversecard, who is equally underrated to himself. If Sphealnuke had zeros in every stat, that would still be worth it. It basically asks you "would you like to get rid of your worst deployment slot’s position, and instead deploy these 3 units within 10-11 spaces of any other deployment slot, for free? That’s a yes every single time. My Free Ride Scroll went to Yasako, as I knew for a fact that I’d never regret bringing a dancer to any map, but also because she can Exit alone and immediately dance for Sphealnuke to boost him and his 2 other companion units an additional 10 spaces on Turn 1. The Drive-By is okay, it can be extremely powerful but requires having passengers which can only be Exited before attacking, effectively wasting their turn (except with Galeforce, or in cases where they just Entered, but that still kinda “wastes” their turn unless they weren’t doing anything else already and want to be transported). It’s also very heavy so I left it behind.
REVERSECARD
ReverseCard is literally free. He comes free with any vehicle (use the bike!), he doesn’t get targeted, and he can drive vehicles, shove units around, form roadblocks alongside a second unit (who will take the attacks thanks to Filler), and stand next to allies to prevent the Sniper Rifle from targeting them. If he ONLY did that, he’d be an A-Tier unit just because he’s +1 deploy slot on every map - but that’s not all.
Reversecard is also extremely valuable, far beyond what his bases and growths suggest. Give him the Fancy Knife and suddenly he can usually survive 1 counter hit. Give him the Underdog Armor and suddenly he deals a moderate amount of damage to most targets (and ignores 1/2 ARM!). Not only does this save you uses of Mandate of Heaven on more valuable units, but he can save you even MORE Mandate of Heaven by killing with Maks’ sticks to Mercy kill (I got two of these on his join chapter, but hey that’s something and they’re free). Give him Throwing Knives or Toxin Knives (when you have the rank) and he can set up kills for other units from the safety of 2 range. Attack alongside KD, and getting kills is pretty easy. Every time you bring him, try to give him just barely enough EXP to not level and then put the Potential Manual on him and Spar. Boom, he effectively has good growths and it doesn’t even cost anyone else the Manual, just a tiny amount of money for trading it around a bit. This and giving him some Gaijin Cheese allows his bulk to stay healthy enough to survive 1 attack.
Then midgame comes around, and I turned Reversecard into a monster. Take the Knaveknife (+12 AGI) from Cres’ Archerbias chapter (see Cres), trade it onto Reversecard, and suddenly everything is getting doubled (and the +12 AGI does not count towards JLPT). If you use a “No Equip” weapon such as 2-range Knives, you still receive the buffs from your equipped weapon, so you never even have to expend the Knaveknife’s limited uses to benefit (although, even if you do, just Hammerne it). Hiddenest Knife + Ladyknife allows for 4-6 attacks per turn when necessary, with some added Evasion Decay, Toxin, and Ignore ARM stacked on top. I even gave Reversecard Mercy in late game because he was so effective in getting kills and knives don’t have Merciful weapons (was great on Darkstone).
S
VYLAND
Vyland is the king of midgame, and remains strong into the late game as well. Ignore all Trauma, double everything, always hit, best weapon type in the game, and 7 MOV with Canto+ to stay out of enemy ranges. Give him a Machine Pistol and a couple Spare Mags to kill practically anything, and later a Choker to handle high-WIL enemies if you find it necessary. I recommend keeping the Potential Manual on Vyland for most chapters after you get him. His JLPT is extremely low at the start, so the Manual helps his DEX get as high as possible before reaching his 15 Level Cap. It also assists in getting Vyland’s bulk high enough to survive 1 hit and gives a valuable boost to his STR so he doesn’t have to carry a Utility Belt around. Tranq Rifle and Sniper Rifle are also viable options on Vyland, although they are heavy and provide much more value to other units like Alguien, Rye, and Cres. His PRF is whatever, it’s a 10x Brave gun on a unit who already kills without issue, and is annoying to reload mid-map. Great against the Final Boss.
TRYBEL
Trybel is the ultimate growth unit, and comes right before the easiest training arc in the entire game, Endless Eight. Use Bpat as the Soulhawk driver to Rune of Wind it out of the corner. Give Trybel the Ransom Scroll from Comedy of Errors so they’re able to Mercy, give them the Potential Manual, Paragon, and stick then next to KD and Heretic so they’re able to kill easily at the start and benefit from absolutely absurd EXP and growth rates. By the end of Endless Eight, Trybel will have enough stats to kill pretty much anything they want with their triple-brave-on-everything. Ransom remains relevant for saving you Mandate of Heaven and allowing for Mercy killing recruits for the rest of the game.
Knives are a great weapon type, giving Trybel access to consistent 1-2 range, Ignore ARM with the “Knife”, Ignore WIL with the Silver Knife, Canto+ with the Swift Knife, and some effective or crit weaponry as well. But even better is to Mirror Ring Trybel into a Magical Girl by giving GreatDoot a shove on “The Darkstone” (toward the end of the map, can sacrifice or Boost Gauge out to safety), gaining Swords, Polearms, and Bows. Trybel’s triple EXP also applies to Weapon Ranks so that’s not an issue. Polearms gives you access to Killer Lance to kill everything with Reach and the Painbringer for -15 to ARM and WIL on Bosses in a single triple attack, and Bows gives you access to 3-6 range (or, you know, 2-15 Range Meisterbogen x8 lmao) so Trybel can easily score kills with perfect positioning and near Cadbury for Galeforce. Did you know they also triple-shove? Fantastic.
Trybel also has a cheeky 3% MOV growth which gets you 3 points of MOV, and YMMV on this. There’s roughly a 50% chance that you’ll hit this growth within around 20 levels, but even if you don’t, Trybel has a free +1 MOV over a comparable infantry unit. I hit that growth twice, so my Trybel had a silly 13 MOV for the last few Chapters of the game 
CRES
Cres is a strange unit, and the one that surprised me the most throughout my playthrough. I originally had her in A Tier “Needs Favoritism” but it turns out Cres was my Overall MVP at the end of the game - and you know what? She deserves it. I was undervaluing her because I failed to cap out every single one of her stats by the end, but Cres consistently puts in work as long as you’re willing to put work into making her work. Cres comes immediately comparable to Raymond, and initially the comparison doesn’t look very good. They come at the same level in the same class, Raymond has +5-10 in nearly every stat and Levin access, and Cres’ extremely low starting growths means she would need many chapters of being sacrificed to grow those growths before she even began to gain levels which catch up her stats.
However, Cres also has several unique niche advantages. The first and most important is her starting at S Rank in guns, and thus immediate access to her Bolt Designator. This is an extremely valuable weapon, allowing Cres to one-shot even prepromotes at base as long as you give her a Rider’s Coat, in an AoE2, from up to 20 Range, and without losing Mandate of Heaven. The drone spawns are RNG, but summoning 3 of them means 90% of the time at least one will be in an advantageous position. The Drones also assist in scouting in Fog of War Raymond would need to spend 12,000 gold on Arms Scrolls just to catch up in rank and even more to be able to afford the Drones, which brings us to our second point - Cres starts with 20,000 gold, long before sharing gold between your units becomes easy, and the Bolt Designator is more of a money printer than it is a money waster, especially as soon as you get access to Yasako. This allows Cres with a Gift or two to easily afford the Sniper Rifle, which she can use at her base weapon rank and is overpowered. With 17 might and 75 crit built in, the Sniper easily scores kills even with Cres’ crappy bases, and it naturally belongs on someone with Canto+ to reposition for next turn’s shot. Finally, Cres starts with an absolutely massive HP pool and wants to be sacrificed off, allowing her to pull enemies about twice per map if ever required.
I gave my Cres Glasses to shore up her Hit Rate, and Bulletcraft to keep her Sniper ammo up. It synergizes extremely well since you only spend 1 shot per turn and Bulletcraft gains you 1 shot every other turn, plus a full reload if you ever completely run out. It also extends the value of Rubber Bullets, since the +1 ammo drip doesn’t count as a reload - particularly good on The Darkstone (although my Rubber Bullets turned back into normal bullets after that chapter ended, perhaps a bug?). By the end of the game, my Cres had +350 to all of her growth rates and all her relevant stats were ~20 at Level 20, which was more than enough to continue doing her one-shots on the last few maps. She also killed the entire top-right group of Angel reinforcements in the finale with two well placed drone shots (just Hospital her), which is arguably the biggest problem on that entire map.
Cres is also the key to getting some of the best equipment in the entire game at about the midway point. By renaming her to ArcherBias before ArcherBias’ interlude, you get access to a challenging gaiden chapter featuring her and a bunch of random dudes from which she can return with 4 items in her inventory. I recommend bringing back the Super Lance (Eastern Village), Knave Knife, Mend Staff, and one other item of choice, there’s quite a few good options. I chose the Barrier Staff, although it turned out not to be very useful for the rest of the game.
RAMM
Ramm is fantastic thanks to early availability, Hunt, and Bow access. Bows alone are already crucial in some chapters thanks to Gargoyles being extremely dangerous in Dies, but on top of that Ramm gains +MIND & +WIL to attacks against all monsters, for only -20 Hit. In early game this is already +25 damage at base with a Dark Robe, making monster one-shots extremely easy to achieve (especially with a Hunting Bow) - therefore Ramm’s low AGI doesn’t matter a lot of the time. The monster capture mechanic is actually more of a hindrance than a boon most of the time as Ramm needs to take a turn off to drop/butcher/tame the monster, but you can work around it without too much trouble or kill without Hunt if the damage thresholds work out. More important is that Hunt is one of the only Mercy Skills in the game which works at 2+ range (Mercy itself is limited availability). This allows Ramm to equip the Mass Charm, two Portaballistas, and a Risky Robe to one-shot everything with ~200 Hit, >100 Crit, and Ignore ARM - and still have a slot open for Meat if you want to tame something. I gave her Leg Day so she can still move a little bit and there was basically nothing she couldn’t kill. I didn’t bring her to every map due to her reliance on Sphealnuke or another vehicle to transport her around, but the build makes her Level/Stats nearly irrelevant and she was always a valuable inclusion, such as for Cuban Missile Crisis or The Darkstone. Taming monsters can occasionally be good, and is the easiest solution to the Final Boss using Deletion Claws. I’m sure she could be used normally as well, but I like the Portaballista build and consider it very strong.
(Note: As of writing this, the Portaballista is bugged and does not drop weight when its uses are expended. I don’t think this matters much since she never used more than 10 shots per map for me, just throw a Granz+ on her instead of the second ballista and use a monster core/vest to “reload”)
LOOG
Loog is the best capture bot in the game, at least on outdoor maps, and a very solid unit in general. Being a Wyvern with access to Bows is extremely valuable, and captures are how you get access to much of the best equipment, especially in multiple copies. His only problem is extremely shaky hit rates on his captures, so he appreciates a weapon lighter and more accurate than the Brave Lance and a Rivian assist for Evasion Decay and Toxin. The Menacing Armor assists in his damage and allows for assisting in others’ kills, and eventually he sports a Dusting Lance and Enchanted Bow with the Steely Dan skill and every WIL booster available pumped into him. He spends a lot of time loaded up on equipment that weighs him down anyway, so why not embrace that, permanently weigh him down, get +1 MOV, and eliminate his hit rate problems entirely? He also requires zero favoritism other than the capture kills you’re already feeding him and can be left behind on indoor maps without worrying about getting behind on EXP, his stats keep up well enough on their own. On the final map I gave him the Auto-Mercy Scroll so he can fly around one-shotting Angels with the Enchanted Bow. Fantastic unit, a lot of fun to use.
TOFFEE
Toffee immediately eliminates the most densely populated portion of any standard map (which is, like, two maps, but still), as long as you use him properly. Equip him with the Rifle (which has a large ammo capacity and is only C rank), the Pissant Badge (for Provoke, self explanatory), Elite Ring (primarily for gaining him extra +MOV levels) and Hunting Gear for a little extra Avoid (because Shameless, see VIBE). Load him into Sphealnuke. Sphealnuke with the Winged Headband moves 10 spaces while getting a Cadbury Galeforce kill, 10 more spaces, and then either gets danced by Free Ride Yasako or Boost Gauge’d by UltraxBlade. Position him in the attack ranges of as many enemies as possible, then VIBE can Warp Pendant (middle right house on Comedy of Errors, don’t kill the guard before visiting) next to him to give him Shameless. The entire wyvern brigade on Church Bad? Gone on Turn 1, alongside the two halberdiers to the left and both boltings miss Toffee and go on cooldown (Sphealnuke w/ Mercy Scroll and Otherworlder killed the boss who has an auto-hit weapon, use Sure Strike if necessary). Now Toffee is +4 MOV from levels gained and runs around the map scoring kills from relative safety. Excellent unit for making Church Bad and Girl Civilization a breeze, as long as you find ways to kill recruitables with Mercy before getting Toffee in a good spot to solo half the map.
SHERLORCAFAN
Extremely simple unit. Gets hit by nothing, kills everything with his trusty triple-brave SMG. Give him an Earth Mantle for the Terra option and +3 DEX or a Hunting Gear for even more Avoid when defending. Spare Mag and Milk just in case he gets hit. Extremely strong on the last map in particular because his bonus is gaining 15 MOV and Vantage, he solo’d the entire top-left squad of Hell reinforcements once I removed the “50 Hit” Skill from the Boss.
RYE
Rye is fantastic. His bulk is essentially 3 built-in always-proc Miracles (just promote him for >3 HP) and his Avoid is pretty good too. He has trouble doubling, but he doesn’t really need to thanks to his SMG’s triple-brave. He can cheat Mandate of Heaven with his Rice Shower AoE which also boosts his Hit and Avoid for a turn. He’s also extremely cheap - SMG, Spare Mag, Potion, Potion, Hunting Gear is the only equipment he needs for the entire game, and he generates his own cash by dodging. I barely trained him and even at just Level 11 he was amazing at dealing with Hell Reinforcements on the final map.
OLIVIA
Olivia is a beast. Full pierce, crazy stats, the only thing she needs is a Brave Sword and she one-shots everything. It’s too bad she’s only available for a couple of maps. On the final map, I PRFBreaker’ed ComputerHead’s Chain Sword and gave it to her for 4 range, only to then realize nearly every viable target has Mirror Armor. Genius move on my part.
ALGUIEN
Alguien is tremendously overstatted at his join time with a boosted 7 MOV, but has only 3 HP and 5 STR. He can use Krow’s Wow Dao as a primary weapon to cheat his STR to an effective 17.5, but that’ll still have him missing one-shots and taking counters, especially from Reach weapons. So why don’t we just eliminate those stats and his reliance on 1-range as a factor completely? On the chapter “The Behemoth”, you can Mirror Ring Alguien into an Arcanist by giving PlantAcademy a gentle shove, and from then until the end of the game Alguien one-shots everything with a Machine Pistol and his massive 30 DEX. That’s all he needs to become an extremely valuable unit. I would recommend also giving him the Tranq Rifle (with a Utility Belt, Spare Mag, and Hunting Gear), but be aware that sometimes it can be a tad clunky on him - if he doesn’t one-shot the enemy with that 31 damage shot, he will probably double them and it only has 3 shots per mag - but this is only a small complaint. Alguien is also incredible in vehicles, providing them with 30 DEX as a passenger and 42 Hot Wives as a driver allows a vehicle to pick up a paralyzed UltraxBlade so he doesn’t get left behind at the start of a map (he can use his DEX and fire vehicle weapons even when he cannot act). His single “Super Karel” levelup is pretty decent - it removes his reliance on the Utility Belt, ups his AGI to “double nearly everything” levels, helps his avoid, and increases his bulk to a level where he may survive a single hit which doesn’t ignore WIL. You can get him to that level easier using Patch Kits for some flat EXP gain if you want. Also check out his personal bonus on the final map.
LORD TWEED
On the surface, Lord Tweed doesn’t seem like much. Take away his Dragonstone bonuses and his base stats are mediocre at best other than 7 MOV and his HP, MIND, and WIL. Reviver is nice, Canto+ is great as always, and Patchwork… can be used to heal Rye maybe? I unfortunately have no idea what all the Fog Effects do and they are not free to activate, so no matter how good the bonuses are I would just ignore their existence. All except the last one.
Lord Tweed can permanently take one skill from any player unit once, at the cost of effectively destroying that unit for good, and Endless Eight provides a bunch of opportunities to do this effectively for free. Just kite the enemy around or trap a weak one and have them attack someone who can’t fight back while LordTweed screams in the corner attempting to go Super Saiyan. There are a lot of options and I had a lot of fun searching through the catalog, so to speak. Here are the 4 strongest options I’ve found ranked from worst to best, excluding those units who I consider not worth neutering:
ReverseCard Free Ride because Free Ride is broken, in the event that your ReverseCard is not trained like mine.
Dick Slater to double your STR/DEX/AGI/MND (does this work if your own MND is >10?)
TheColorRed for -Str to damage taken, making you invincible. This gives -21 damage at base STR + Dragonstone (only one less with Flarestone) and neutering TheColorRed is basically zero downside.
The best option by far IMO, is Ditto. Transform’s only downside is that Ditto is stuck with 15 HP, but LordTweed has 50. Copy 30 in every stat (except MIND) from Lesk, and LordTweed is a total monster. Either stay in Wolfsoul to stack Stone bonuses on top of that to rival even Ysor with full Golden Glint, or Mirror Ring into something else for any weapon type you want. Ditto is in A tier, and LordTweed is objectively a better Ditto.
YASAKO
An extremely standard dancer, with the added benefit of being able to spread up to 4 Mandate of Heaven to other units for the price of 1. [REDACTED] might be the best dancer in the game, but Yasako is the most consistent, since her dances are not limited use nor have any downside like Ashley’s as long as you position well. I kept the +1 MOV boots on Yasako, as well as giving her the Sands Of Time and option(s) to reload it for if she ever has a turn of downtime. I additionally gave her the Free Ride Scroll, as I knew for a fact I’d never regret bringing a dancer to any map, but also because she can Exit alone and immediately dance for Sphealnuke to boost him and his 2 other companion units an additional 10 spaces on Turn 1. Finally, Trauma doesn’t affect non-Sphealnuke Vehicles, so feel free to dance for them and then place them anywhere in range.
BOBBY ASAKA
Bobby is a swiss army knife of various support effects, and they all range from exceptional to pretty good. Summoning is as good as it has ever been in FE, and is especially effective at distracting Alex during the Cuban Missile Crisis without having to recruit her. Setup is the best dance in the game prior to getting REDACTED, but is unfortunately only once per map. Granzgift locks down any non-boss enemy completely by weighting them down so much they either cannot move or cannot hit anything, and can be used to custom craft a one-shotting Axe unit (see Gero). Give Command is a substantial boost in stats, just don’t let the unit who benefits from it die. Cheap Provocation is okay for activating some groups at longer ranges or over walls. For Endgame, Bobby gets the whole Granz + Reliable Pin shebang himself which is great for one-shotting anything that isn’t a superboss while retaining his usual support effects.
APOSTATE
Apostate is a second “Levin Booster” that you get to benefit from for a few chapters. +5 Damage and small boosts to Hit/etc for everyone is an easy include, his Avoid rivals that of Sherlorcafan as long as you also deploy Levin and stay out of his nullification aura, and Apostate’s stats are solid as well. You can use him normally or load him with two Boltings and an Arrest tome and use him as a long-range support unit. Can’t go wrong with including this guy.
ERIC
Eric is the only staffer you get for the vast majority of the game, and while some of what he can do can be accomplished through other means like Contro Warp or Patch Kits, Eric is easily the best and most flexible option. His combo of Warp and Rescue is awesome support, and both are great weapons for finishing off the occasional enemy. I also gave him an Ouchies for the ability to one-round Knights on Furry Rights, where he is awesome for warping over walls (just save one use for getting the Minya chest!). His 100k Gold injection makes promoting & outfitting him with his Staffs + Cool Jacket + Weapon Rank easy and allows him to gift a bunch of money in the midgame. The Mend Staff (see Cres) is what really makes him a great healer though (don’t be fooled by the Physic, it heals for very little due to zero MAG) so feel free to toss away the Judica, 10 healing is pretty crap. Eric doesn’t come to every map, but I definitely appreciate his inclusion on maps where I need the Warp or sustained healing after getting Mend. His stats are fine and largely don’t matter so don’t worry about giving him favoritism. Also, in early game immediately sell his Light Armor and give it to someone who appreciates the ARM more, like Lesk.
SAINT RUBENIO
Essentially an upgraded Eric, Rubenio comes in with great stats, Dark Armor so the only primary weapon he needs is a Killer Lance for Reach-Critting, and access* to Eric’s Staffs alongside Powerstaff (which yes, does work with Staff effects). The only downsides are his limited movement over Terrain and that little asterisk - his Staff access does not extend to the Mend and Barrier staffs (see Cres). Unfortunate, but not the end of the world. So basically, choose your path - Rubenio for good combat and Powerstaff, or Eric for Mend Access which is less restricted on uses. The Phanes Staff is fantastic for a moderate amount of healing in a 5-range AoE and 2 uses is usually enough for most maps, so I favored Rubenio after he joined.
VIBE
Vibe has one job to do, and she does that job very well - standing next to an ally and providing Shameless to cheat Mandate of Heaven. HOWEVER! Pay close attention to how Shameless changes your base MIND into 20-(base)MIND, so units with high MIND get their Avoid (and sometimes Hit) completely shafted. This is why I prefer Toffee over SherlorcaFan for that Turn 1 alpha strike strat even if Sherlorca is better in the general case (see Toffee). Her Filler Skill perfectly synergizes with her role, making enemies ignore her and go for your intended target. Give her the Warp Pendant, a Lion’s Edge, Dark Polish, and a Rage Tonic to shore up her low Strength (who cares about slightly less MIND at this point, the game is over) so she can still be useful on her own 4xing enemies and critting nearly every attack (just watch out for Reach). Speaking of which, thanks for the 4x Lion’s Edges - great weapons which sell for enough to immediately afford outfitting her.
EMMETT
Emmett is a decent transporter and dancer, but what really makes him good is REDACTED because she can Alpha Strike the 4 units that Enter and Exit his Subway Car on Turn 1, allowing units to be boosted up and still act. Particularly useful to get units up the Cliffs on Church Bad instead of being stuck in the center/left with nothing useful to do. The series of moves goes something like this:
Use someone to long-range attack so you can dance for them (to not waste a turn) or something like that.
Emmett drops his Subway Car and dances for somebody
4 Units Enter the Subway Car
Ashley dances for Emmett (or Yasako, but that means giving Emmett Trauma)
Emmett retreats the Subway, and Dances for Ashley
Ashley and Emmett dance for each other one after the other (aptly named a Bardtrain) moving 1 space every time until you drop the Subway where desired.
Everyone Exits the Subway Car
Continue the Bard Train so Emmett can retreat the Subway Car and get in position.
REDACTED walks up and Alpha Strikes either Ashley or Emmett into the center of the 4 units, refreshing all of them.
Congratulations, you now have 5 units anywhere that REDACTED’s Alpha Strike can reach on Turn 1, and the only unit who actually used their turn is REDACTED.
Nobody else in the entire game can do this, so I feel like Emmett deserves an S Tier for his niche despite otherwise being superfluous as something like your 5th dance effect. Not SS because it’s not as universally useful as what someone like Camdar or Sphealnuke does.
S asterisk
KRIM
What is there to say about Krim? Everyone knows about Krim. Estoc is amazing, Parry is amazing, Vantage is amazing, Mercy is mandatory to make it through early chapters, just don’t put him in range of Bows. Carry a Potion and Monster Core so he can always stay in the fight (his healing skill sucks cause he can’t move and it’s only 10 HP). Give him the kill on the Brave Sword Elder so he gets a great weapon that isn’t limited use, or pawn his Cool Jacket since he doesn’t need it and buy the Brave Sword so someone else can get the gold for selling it. Shemhazai is good on him for an emergency or boss kill, if only because he’s the only one with the Rank for it (“We have to use this Rocket on the Behemoth!!! lmao, no”). Eventually his single-digit stats catch up to him, there are better options even if he’s still usable. I dropped him after ActI ended (Bandit Chapter was his last map).
DEVISIO
I LOVE Devisio’s design being one massive joke about the edgy swordmaster whose dual-wielding cool guy mechanics are too complicated to understand (they’re not). He’s a fantastic secondary Jeigan-lite who ignores Trauma, has great stats, kills easily, and has a buttload of utility. Jack Frost w/ Ether Blade Offhand is your primary, Ether Blade is for killing difficult targets, Spooky Ghost allows you to teleport like a Camdar-lite, and Dies is for taking advantage of that 100% Crit if/when you get another weapon down to 1 use (takes a little forward thinking but not hard). Phasing Strike is great for getting Eternal Winter away from your friendlies or dipping in/out of enemy ranges, and the main/off hand swap can be used cleverly sometimes. Etherium is a meme, don’t worry about it. It’s all much simpler than it first seems, and very powerful and flexible.
Devisio can choose basically any armor he wants because his Knives all weigh nothing. Give him Maurader Armor when enemies ignore WIL, Lingere when he wants more WIL (which also increases his damage, his hit rates are fine), or anything else you may find useful, maybe a Hunting Gear or Monster Vest? He unfortunately cannot learn any new skills or use stat boosters unless you throw one of his PRFs away which is not worth it. His only weakness is his low HP, but it’s enough to survive 1-2 hits with his solid WIL throughout all of Act1. Just like Krim, I dropped him after that - his last map was Bandit Chapter.
PARRHESIA
Parrhesia is good. Not great, not fair, just solid, good, 7/10, and decently overstatted when he first joins (just promote him immediately). He walks, he kills something with his Steel Blade or a Silver Sword to avoid ARM/WIL as needed, and he has exceptional survivability with a Defender and Potion in his last 2 slots. Ransom allows for cheating Mandate of Heaven and some boss Ransoms are good for equipment. His extra story promotion keeps him usable for longer. Maybe use a Rage Tonic if you want, since his growths are blank anyway. That’s about it. His last map for me was the Scraiza chapter, where he was excellent as a frontliner (was especially good for tanking all 5 uses of a Shield Blade so I could capture it for myself).
ALICE
Alice is strong thanks to Shameless being one of the only ways to ignore Trauma on defense, so she can be sent into groups of 2-3 humans without worry. Sell that Sniper and throw a Rifle and Rocket Launcher onto her, and she puts in work. Her Stats are good for her join time, her HP is high, Lead Preggers gives her extra WIL over time which is okay. She was great on the Scraiza chapter for tanking those nasty Pursuers and killing things before Mandate of Heaven gets stacked high. Got benched after.
ZANE
Excellent early capture bot, comes pre-promoted with good stats and MOV, needs literally nothing except his PRF most of the time but feel free to throw an Arrest on him or something. Brave when capturing which makes it easier for him than for Loog at early stages, but he’s Infantry so he could lose MOV by taking too much equipment (Rage Tonic him if you want just for the +5 carry capacity if he doesn’t have easy access to Ignis on large maps like The Behemoth). His extremely high WIL stat is nice and he generates so much money that sticking a Cool Jacket on him is easy - beneficial to keep weight at a minimum and stretch that pitiful 20 HP as far as it can go. Brainwash is a trap, usually you just want to keep the stuff. Also got benched after the Scraiza chapter.
A
DOIN THANGS
Doin Thangs is one of my favorite units and there’s a lot of potential to talk about, so let’s begin.
Depending on how much you gift to Doin Thangs upon her recruitment (just select “No”), her growth rates increase by 2/3/4 in different stats for each increase. This massive donation is incredibly easy to max out (300k max IIRC) by buying/selling items from various units until Ignis has enough money, and Doin Thangs can easily buy/sell to give as much as you want back (so he can use HardSell to outfit himself permanently and use Zeninage, see Ignis). Essentially, consider her STR/DEX/AGI/WIL to be at 200+ growth, MIND at 300+, and HP at 450+. Lagadounian Crit is easy to trigger and Booba Portrait assists in Crits and cheating Mandate of Heaven for other units, both good effects. Midas Rush is typically an insanely good skill, but on Doin Thangs it’s a bit of a mixed bag because it competes with Moneyball. Essentially she has two “modes” she can operate in: Midas Rush mode allows her to cheat Mandate of Heaven which is one of her biggest limitations gone, and Moneyball mode assists in guaranteed crits with non-SandEdge weapons, especially prior to her stats really taking off - this helps that pitiful 9 STR when she first joins and spreads the wealth around a bit rather than it being locked to Ignis. I personally went Moneyball mode, but if I were to do it over again I’d do Moneyball Mode for a single chapter (send her to Scraiza map, plenty of Mandate available there) and then give her a permanent equipment loadout and switch to Midas Rush to uncap her kills.
Doin Thangs has a lot of beneficial equipment available, especially because so few good units compete for her best Swords. Her primary is usually the Sand Edge, giving her guaranteed crits and a nice +20 Avoid. She can stack that with Hunting Gear, go Lunar Robe for some easier kills early on, or carry a Monster Vest to reload a weapon of choice. Her Shamsheesh has better damage thanks to 11 MT and Knife Calcs and also auto-crits with a single adjacent ally, Lion’s Edge is great once it becomes available, and Shield Blade or Balmung are exceptional defensive options. Her Thangarang is mediocre but does allow her to chip from 3 range and make the enemy Horny. She definitely wants the Elite Ring for awhile to get those massive growths going, especially because her high starting level makes most EXP a very slow drip. Give her a Rage Tonic whenever you want since her MIND will cap regardless.
Doin Thangs does have some downsides though. The worst is her jointime + needing some training + high starting level, as the game is nearing its end. You have the Route Split, Darkstone (Moneyball build is bad here, no Mercy), Endless Eight (not a real map), Church Bad (good!), Girl Civ (meh), two Boss maps, and the Finale. Secondly, she’s kind of a “walk 6 spaces and get 1 kill per turn at 1 Range” unit who is also limited on kills since she’s not powerful enough with a Training Sword (Cool Sticks are great but limited). Due to this, and despite my bias in favor of her really cool kit, I have to demote her to A Tier rather than S. Had the game been a few chapters longer, I’d give her S tier easily. Why does she get Minimal Investment rather than Favoritism? Because she’s pretty fine at base, and grows just by using and feeding her kills normally. Critting every attack really does wonders for your viability.
Finally, I didn’t do this, but I believe Doin Thangs goes nuts if you turn her into a Gun class and give her the Winchester (10 Mt, 50 Crit) you get during Endless Eight. Now you use your base 19 DEX rather than 9 STR with a good weapon at 1-3 range, and can dump all your money to Midas Rush since you no longer rely on weapons in the 25-35 crit range. Each way to do this comes with a downside, so pick your poison:
Copying Toffee lets you keep Swords for that map, but you don’t have the Winchester yet and Doin Thangs is pretty bad on Cuban Missile Crisis because the entire map punishes 6 MOV + 1-range with all those Deletion Claws, Portaballistas, and shifting walls. This map really exists for your A Team, Doin Thangs gets a really chill training arc on the Scraiza map instead.
Copying a Shaman on the Scraiza map caps your stats at 20 due to it being unpromoted (can reclass again to one of the later options I guess? She’s unlikely to gain more than 1 level on this map anyway). No Winchester yet and no Swords, but I guess she’s good enough to score kills with a Peacekeeper/Chaff Gun(s).
Copying one of the Musketeers on Endless Eight also lets you keep Swords but Musketeers can’t enter vehicles, can’t Shove, and suffer on Terrain and Stairs, which are featured on the next two maps.
Copying the Arcanist on Church Bad means the game is practically over and you won’t even have the weapon rank to use the Winchester on that map unless you also bring Alanzo.
Like before, if the game had like 5 more maps or if Doin Thangs had a Winchester and someone to copy on her join map, easy S or SS Tier for reasons similar to Lesk. But she doesn’t. Still good tho.
ULTIMITER
Dusting Lance for 63 MT, or Mirror Ring into a gun class to use any high-MT gun with his massive DEX which will cap with time. Basically Alguien but -1 MOV, less AGI after leveling, and the Tranq Rifle doesn’t benefit from CEO of Racism, so better off with a Mercy scroll (which is a pretty huge cost, tbh). Their bulk is comparable after Alguien levels depending on if the enemy ignores WIL or not. Just don’t get owned by Bows.
DICK SLATER
Dick Slater has excellent stats (as long as nobody with MIND > 10 is nearby) and Shameless. Dark Armor is some of the best armor in the game if not the best. Provoke is nice too, although Swords don’t have 2+ range options so sometimes this may be clunky to work with. His only problem is that his PRF sucks, so toss that into the trash and use Dr Green to trade him some decent weapons. Unruly penalties are not a big deal and be a little careful about his Weight since he could get stuck if Larger Than Life turns off at an inopportune moment. Good unit, no training required. You could go the extra mile to Mirror Ring him if you want, but it’s not necessary.
DITTO
Really simple here. Copy Lesk, get 30 (or close) in virtually every stat except MIND, ARM, and HP, kill whatever you want. Probably Mirror Ring into a class with better weapons like Bows so the 15 HP matters even less. However, if you want to use Ditto, just use Lord Tweed and Assimilate the Transform skill instead. They come at the same time and Endless Eight gives the perfect opportunity for you to do so.
RETINA
Retina kinda sucks until he gets his promo on Comedy of Errors & Slow Start swap shortly after. Can do nothing on Turn 1, locked to 1 Range, and no Mercy access really hampers him - just use Parrhesia or Sir Spensir. At least he’s very rich and Luna is good twice per map. When he’s given the option to promo by the man on Comedy of Errors, either go for the 35000 or 60000 options - both give you a few great swords. IIRC the latter gives you Genji Armor for +1 MOV (I went with this) and the former gives you a Medium Armor which can be upgraded to Dark Armor for +30 Crit (then VIBE doesn’t get it, but that isn’t a huge deal). The important bit though is Hell Slash, which is usable twice per map and allows Retina to “chase attack” within 4 spaces (assuming you bring 4 swords). Essentially after making any attack within 4 spaces of Retina, Retina himself then attacks the target, ignoring range. Now, I don’t know some of the particulars of this such as Do they get counters? (Irrelevant) Can Retina double? (Probably?) and Does this apply to enemies? (It seems to imply that it does, also irrelevant). Why? Because I literally never found the need to use Hell Slash, not once, even when I brought him to Cuban Missile Crisis, despite being quite excited to use it. Most of my units are already built to kill or can use KD, whose Pair Attacking is different in specific ways that make it better. Sure, Retina can apply his Hell Slash in a 4-radius aura while KD requires adjacency, but KD can Pair Attack both before and after moving. Pair Attack applies after the attack instead of after combat finishes as a separate combat, meaning KD helps to remove enemies’ ability to counter and can “borrow” allies’ Mercy while Retina scores the kills himself and has no in-built Anti-Trauma (correct me if it doesn’t work this way). And of course, Pair Attack is usable always instead of only twice per map and doesn’t spend KD’s action (which is also worth more than Retina’s due to Bows > Swords.
That being said, there’s no denying that Hell Slash can be very powerful. If you want to maximize Retina’s usefulness, I would go with the 35,000 option and upgrade to Dark Armor for extremely likely crits, give him a Mercy Scroll so he never Traumas himself (again, if it works like I think it does), equip stuff like Katana, Lion Edge, Steel Blade, and Silver Sword, and go crazy.
When you use Retina in the Desert Items chapter, Vend him some Arms Scrolls and give him a Brave Sword to Luna-One-Shot Spiders. If you don’t have the money, just promote someone (Loog, Sir Spencer, or Lesk work)
SCRAIZA
Scraiza is a good unit somewhat held back by terrible AGI. Ignores Trauma, can sometimes double-move, and has enough Warp charges to basically ignore terrain like a flier. Demon Scythe is an incredibly strong weapon with effectively 5 uses, so carry a monster core. Armor should be a Risky Robe to get that Crit to 100, otherwise Scraiza’s damage is quite unreliable. Last two slots go to Soulwork of choice, I’d recommend a Pursuer so you can kill reliably at 3 range and a “Knife” because it’s Weight 1. Risky Robe = bad on defense though so be careful.
On the final map, Meisterbogan + KD Minya + Cadbury galeforce absolutely shreds angels thanks to Scraiza’s personal bonus.
RIVIAN
Love how Rivian’s design takes inspiration from the chickens in Cerulean Crescent.
Rivian is pretty great. A High MOV Canto+ Flier for uncounterable kill setups is excellent, especially for Captures which often suffer from low hit rates. Kills are hard to achieve after early game and prior to his Level 15 bonus, but he does ignore Trauma. His inventory is nearly always empty and he doesn’t use armor, so he’s great for opening chests with a Ninja Clothing, although he doesn’t get much out of selling the equipment he collects so keep that in mind. The extra inventory can also be used for many of those niche items like Cold Bottle, Hand Torch, Patch Kit, Hour of Destiny, etc. Demon Qi is how Rivian scales his damage, and 5 attacks is very easy to achieve (Shove counts!), but unfortunately even if you make sure to get his +1 MAG on every map he doesn’t keep up with enemy bulk and will still be doing 1-5 damage the majority of the time as Toxin builds up. Once you reach Level 15 everything gets better, as with a Gremlin Shoes you can now Collapse Heaven twice, have the copies Surpassing Man twice, and then attack once more with a weapon of choice all in one turn. Friendly Levin Boosts in the late game actually scales his damage to reasonable levels, too. Unfortunately Rivian has to choose between having the Gremlin Shoes vs the I.Phy.S and a gun (personally I like the Pursuer for its Brave and high MT) as Rivian is probably the best user of the I.Phy.S, but he only has 2 slots available after his 2 weapons get added into his Inventory. Finally, Rivian can pull some shenanigans with Double Time in Vehicles which seems strong, I used it a few times.
LUMINESCENT
I have no idea if Lumi is good in his base class. But I do know that Lumi is fantastic when Mirror Ring’d into a different class, as his massive growth rates and low starting level can really take off when they’re not limited to only his two PRFs and 15 Levels (he does get knives and some other misc stuff but you can do better IMO). I decided to have him copy an Abomination (big spider with bows) on the Camdar Desert Chapter as Lumi’s higher STR with outpace his DEX and Bows provide 4+ range & other various benefits. Give him Paragon, give him the Potential Manual until he reaches 50 JLPT, and grind, grind, grind until he catches up in level. From there you have an uncounterable melee option for Essence of Face Twisting, a 9 MT melee that pierces WIL (I recommend picking the Brave upgrade when given the choice) for Capture, and all the usual benefits from Bows with the ability to dip in/out of enemy threat ranges using Canto+.
Now do note that Essence of Face Twisting only works when Lumi does exactly 1 damage, and that he does lose his Trauma Immunity although that isn’t so bad because Capture is Merciful.
GOLD
Gold is Gold. Failnaught is a great weapon especially for killing those terrifying Gargoyles but 5 uses is tricky and requires carrying a monster core. I think I was above the average on securing monster kills for her and by the end of the game her STR growth was only 70ish. Bow Lord is amazing for securing some good bows early on and gets her DEX to grow much faster than STR, but she suffers some weight issues so that isn’t ideal. With some Gaijin Cheese her bulk is really good early on too. Unfortunately, her base stats are god-awful for using anything other than the Failnaught and her AGI growth is especially bad so even with her promo bonuses her AGI will lag later in the game. On the other hand, she does have one of the best promo classes/bonuses in the game (at the cost of Failnaught) and Auto-Mercy is one of the best skills in the game. I gave my Gold a Mercy Scroll not knowing she got Auto-Mercy on promo so I instead used the second Underdog Vest on her and she did pretty well despite being only 5 MOV.
Alternatively, you could set up a Bow-Pawnbreaker chain to Bow Lord a friendly unit until you have 1000 DEX growth and then turn her into a Gun class, but that seems like cheese that breaks the spirit of the game and doesn’t even make her better than Alguien anyways.
HATSURU
This is all speculative as I didn’t use Hatsuru since she didn’t make the deployment cut early and then fell behind, but I think she’s pretty good. Cavalier is a good class, Virtualized is a good skill, and Capture is as useful as always. Give her as many WIL boosters as possible, give her Lingere/Pink Robe/Formalwear, give her as many Golddarts as she can carry, and have her fight with a Goldfish or something that ignores WIL/ARM. Unfortunately her low STR makes carrying all of that an issue, capturing for equipment doesn’t synergize well with weight/inventory space issues either, capturable Golddarts don’t show up often, she competes with good units for her preferred equipment (WIL boosters for Enchanted Bow, early Goldfish for Ysor, Potential Manual for Vyland & others, Lingere for Devisio), and her growth rates are not good (WIL & AGI is only 35, STR for purposes of Weight is a pathetic 25). Still, effectively +9 to STR/DEX with a Lingere & 1 Golddart is a pretty huge boost and is only 4 Weight on top of your main weapon - pretty hard to argue that’s not strong.
Oranges
RAYMOND IV
Raymond has one of the best classes in the game, access to Magic, and not much else. Her base stats are good for Act 1, her growths are bad (when compared to many of this game’s super-growers), and her starting level is pretty high. She can do the same thing as Cres and will do it better for awhile, but this requires a lot of money for weapons/rank that Cres starts with and Raymond doesn’t. Her PRF is a decent tome with a bad downside, I threw it away for a Firebrand sword the moment I got one.
GERO
Gero is useful for exactly one purpose: To be “Bobby Asaka at home” long before Bobby gets his powerup. You can give him a Granz+ and Reliable Pin and he one-shots everything and doesn’t even take penalties to defenses because the PRF he gets uses your BLK. Either cart him around in a vehicle or Mirror Ring him into a mounted class so he has 5 MOV but cannot use vehicles. Pretty mediocre all things considered, but hey, he one-shots.
HEROIC VILEPLUME
I mean, he can get a 100 Accuracy, 27 MT, AoE1 Bow with 15 encounter uses (Petal Blizzard, IIRC it’s the bottom option). I feel like that’s good enough to be notable even if it’s the only thing he can do.
LOWRES
Lowres is just limited on what he can do compared to other dancers. His main dance is effectively limited to 4/map, and his Reyson dance is limited to 1/map plus removes your growth rates. Compare that to REDACTED’s 5-range warping 5-man Alpha Strike refresh and Yasako/Emmetts’s consistent 1/turn dance.
IGNIS
Ignis has Pawnbroker. You want Pawnbroker. It allows you to keep Chest/Droppable equipment and much more Capture equipment, which alone is worth the deploy slot on the majority of maps. It also acts as a medicine/reload station which in this hack can be pretty huge, considering how limited healing is. There are two types of Potions & Spare Mags in this game - those bought from Vending cannot be pawned, but those that units come with can - so whenever you recruit a new unit sell their consumables into the Pawn Shop for mid-map use and buy new ones from Vending.
It’s a shame then that Ignis himself is pretty terrible. His AGI is high enough to always double, but his bulk is awful, his STR is one of the lowest in the game, and his DEX isn’t much better. So we have to bring a unit which is pretty dang useless - lets find him a job to do.
First and foremost, Ignis can drive. This easily gives him usefulness on any map, and he can Enter/Exit every turn so his Pawnbroker doesn’t even have downtime.
ATHATH, Doin Thangs, and Dr Green are practically the only ways he can get new gear, so once you get them to join Ignis’ options really open up. Now, you do have this crappy Zeninage skill scroll floating around which costs 10,000 gold per use. Is there perhaps a unit in this game who can recieve any amount of gold from any unit without using Gifting/Arena? Equip a “Knife”, Silver Knife, Special Slayer, Chicken Knife, Murder Knife, basically whatever you want as long as it’s not too heavy. For the same reason I found it easy to put a Cool Jacket on him.
Of course, being the gamer that I am, I only used Zeninage like twice. But that’s a problem with me, not Ignis.
DR GREEN
Trade bot good. Allows for trading items onto Ignis, and moving large amounts of money between characters using expensive items. I gave her a Dusting Lance and Red Mantle to eliminate her hit issues, allow her to contribute without taking counters, and guarentee one random kill when she’s included.
ATHATH
Besides being necessary for the Camdar desert chapter, ATHATH can also trade similar to Dr Green although only once per map. He can also use Swicheroo to steal equipment from some units who cannot be captured.
HERETIC
Instrumental to giving Trybel overpowered WIL/MIND levels during Endless Eight. You can also place her next to a deployed unit that is about to spar to get a little extra growth. I also deployed her during Church Bad which acts as a lucrative training grounds for units like Epicer if you can dismantle many of the threats by turn 2 (see Sphealnuke/Toffee).
EPICER
Epicer can outfit your vehicles. “Normal” guns can be fired by vehicles without a passenger (bug?) and give them a secondary option to not “waste” their main weapons. The problem is (a): Vehicles don’t get much weapon rank so they can’t use the better guns, and (b): turns out firing guns with zero DEX is not very good. Still, I threw an Air Repeater on The Mule and Beckpic so they have a replenishable gun that can be used for small hits or to trigger KD.
Epicer is also a very strong unit when trained late. Hire him at every opportunity and in late game nearly all his growths are hovering around the 90 mark, with MOV in the 20’s. Promote, Promote again using the Super Lance (see Cres), Spar for Paragon, bring Heretic for +60 to MIND and WIL growths, and you can easily gain 10+ levels very quickly on Church Bad (see Sphealnuke/Toffee on how to neutralize this map and turn it into a reinforcements training ground). The game is nearly over at this point, but hey, it’s something.
YEAHNICE
Spectrum Scrollery is awesome. Deploy her and take Levin skills off of MageHero & Camdle and stick them on someone else, I chose Ysor.
TRIKKI NIKKI
Deploy her to trade away her Dracorocks, they’re worth nearly 100k each.
ALANZO
Can always be pulled out for immunity shenanigans if you need to, plus is a good deploy on the Sir Spensir join map to feed potions to Lesk to build up those growth rates early.
NEREID
Nereid looks pretty good on paper and can get permanent Galeforce. Unfortunately, the awful hit rates of Axes and high base level + mediocre growths really hampers her usefulness. She can get you some goodies from the houses on the Cadbury map and Darkstone though. She could probably be good with a Mirror Ring reclass into Bows, but it’s a shame to waste one of the few unique classes in the game.
SIGMARAVEN
Bring Sigma to any map to give a boost to your sparring. More Sigma levels = higher level cap for Paragon, which is especially nice. I fed him a few kills on the Camdar desert map.
DOC
Bring Doc to a map (sometime during Endless Eight is easy) alongside Ignis to farm some Milks and throw them in the convoy for later use. Better than Potions.
DARRMAN
YOU FOOL! Do NOT pop his summon as soon as you get him! Bring him to a difficult map and use the summon then, so you effectively get +1 deploy slot. (I totally did this, and absolutely did NOT end up putting it off for the entire game “because what if I could use it later”). In my estimation the best summons are Braixen, Ganon, and Sonic. I prefer Braixen for overall usefulness, Sonic if you want to use his excellent Sword on someone else (assuming that’s possible).
BPAT
Bpat Rune Commands are decent, especially if you use him as your dedicated driver during Endless Eight. Rune of Wind out of the corner, Rune of Mercy/Dies to help feed kills to whoever you’re training.
MAKS
Like Doc, but with Sticks.
FRINGUS
Bring to give someone Manifest Potential, or Manifest Potential KD’s AGI on his join map. Just make sure to double check who got the debuff after the chapter ends.
Yellow
AMATSUM
4 Kills. You get 4 Kills. Gets 15 move on the final map which is nice.
KROW
Growths not good enough to really take off, but useful early. Goes bananas on the final map.
CONTRO
Warp
RASTA
Good driving skill, and multiple Leaderships can be pretty nice. His +Range can be used diagonally with Shove to Shove 2 spaces, making him great for 1-turn’ing the Cadbury chapter.
POLINYM
Decent unit, but the game is over. Kills something on the last map.
NOBLEBUCKET
His 3-range debuff is okay on the final map
DARKNIGHT & DARKNIGHT CLONE
Kills something
MERCURY MERC
Decent stats at jointime with a good stone
MAG
Supposedly able to do something with the Debugger, but I couldn’t figure out how. Am I stupid or is it bugged? Who knows. Stats are mid. Placeholder here seems correct.
MARU NAHARU
I never used him, but I guess he’s not terrible?
GUARDIAN
Not bad filler. Took him to the Scraiza Map.
ZEROXA
Bad filler. Took him to the Scraiza Map.
DOOBLERINO
Very good on final map with no investment. I guess you could take him on any other map to nuke the board? By which I mean tickle the board.
VULGARD
Softlock Prevention can be useful, and can help with Angels on the final map unlike VIBE who I otherwise prefer.
SHRIMPEROR
Excellent for tanking the final 2 bosses. Final boss on even turns only so you don’t lose your provoke & don’t have your ARM pierced. Use someone else to tank on odd turns. His Taunt is stronger than Super Lance and Mass Charm.
ELPINGUINOT & BLOBLE
Taunts for final boss on Odd Turns alongside ATHATH and a few others I can’t be bothered to remember. For regular Provoke, use Pissant Badge if necessary to override other Provokes such as Super Lance and Mass Charm.
JON
Pokémon! (Never used him, used Ramm)
GREG
Decent stats. Big bonus against final boss.
DONUTPLAINS
Kill something on the final map, once.
ROZE
Underdog on final map.
SIR SPENSIR
Overstatted when he first joins, especially good for killing hordes of dogs with reach on his joinmap. Promote him, use him for a few chapters. Get him a level to up your gifting cap.
KRASH
Overstatted when he first joins with a good weapon. Give him some healing.
CATBALL
Good on joinmap for obvious reasons, outclassed by other Musketeers afterwards.
COMPUTERHEAD
Great at the beginning, but clunky to use. Specifically on this list because he’s perfect for tanking all the units to your immediate left on the City map WITHOUT killing them, so you can easily sweep them up and spread the Mandate of Heaven loss. You could train him until he can actually move around, but there’s so many better units.
DEX
Decent for helping on Joinmap
DAT
Fantastic tanky early unit to use temporarily.
MORIS
Good on Joinmap. If there were no battle saves, she’d be SSS tier just for the convenience despite her terrible AGI growth.
PKLUCKY
Carries her Joinmap.
QUROC
Decent for driving for a map or two.
ZAPPYPANTS
Helpful on several maps early, thanks to guns being good. His meditation is annoying to use because you can’t even move, so it’s just a “delay the map ending for 4 turns at the end for +1 level” button on maps where this is feasible. Apparently he gets some kind of super promotion with swords, but I didn’t get this because I benched him for much better gun users (including those who can Mirror Ring into them), so if you disagree on this placement let me know. I can’t imagine giving Swords to a Gun unit makes it much better but Zappy has good growths so I can see it if he gets Blade Dance and/or Iai or something.
ALEMOWL
Good for killing SherlorcaFan on his joinmap using a Rune of Wind.
CAMDLE
High MOV and good growths/stats for Mirror Ring into a gun class. Cocklore makes Rivian better. Levin Whisper is a great tiny boost but YeahNice makes that kind of a moot point in endgame.
LUNAPROC
Horny enemies are great. Horny Friends are not. Wait… what?
WII SPORTS REMOTE
+40 Crit on everything and Terra built in soon after jointime is pretty good, okay growths with a low starting level, but at the end of the day she’s a “walk 6 spaces and kill one thing with no Mercy option” unit. Basically WSR is a worse Doin Thangs.
GODS PET TUTRLE
I leveled this MFer to 15 hoping to see what cool bonus he gets like Vyland and Rivian. He doesn’t get anything lmao. Still, technically the tankiest unit in the game. Level him as high as you can with Paragon, Potential Manual, and Heretic bonuses, turn him into a human class, and stack armor on top of his 60 HP, 30 ARM, and high WIL. Then proceed to do nothing with this 4 MOV soup ingredient.
PARAGON
Double Paragon. Good growths. Good class. No Mercy. Should have trained her over the stupid turtle.
RENOUD
Good growths, and Hold Out is cool, but another “walk 6 spaces and kill one thing with no Mercy option” unit.
Dummies
Lmao no
And with that done, I go to my bedroom to cry over Server 72 and Dies being complete. Alongside Cerulean Crescent these are easily in my Top 3 favorite hacks, and much like when I completed CC I am distraught over there potentially not being another hack out there with similar gameplay. I have a long list of new hacks to try now, so there is hope. (If anyone can point me to one which is most like these, please help )
BigMood / SigmaRaven, whatever your name is, you are the GOAT. I am so happy to have stumbled upon Isekai Emblem and found a creator who crafts exactly the experience I look for in a Fire Emblem game. Will be trying your LEAF entry next and awaiting your next full project with bated breath.
8 Likes
i dont know how i feel about having a high placement but none of the ??? frames worth of animations i made for knife rabbit got seen 
4 Likes
If it makes you feel better, I did test promo into knife bnuy and saw the animations
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hell yeah
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I have to laugh a little at people loving the Trauma system because it only exists due to my joke character inspiration having Mercy and needing to give it a use. This game has absolutely insane levels of emergent storytelling.
7 Likes
On a unit in Yellow
Yes you can do it
DOOBLERINO
Very good on final map with no investment. I guess you could take him on any other map to nuke the board? By which I mean tickle the board
How to do it
Yes you actually can nuke the map with Dooblerino, you also have to bring Bpat and REDACTED too
Full steps in message 1824-1826 (whichever is sent by me)
3 Likes
I was looking forward to seeing how I perform in the game… It’s a shame I couldn’t see that.
1 Like
All of these are intentional. A certain thing you’ve done has had consequences beyond the ones the game told you about.
IIRC, if you don’t have enough money to pay Thangs, he joins anyway for free, which means he won’t get the growth boosts.
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self sucking a bit here but the nuke is possible without the second unit in his join chapter if you swap a mandate of earth onto him
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@Riziq Ahh you are right, that totally works. Good idea, missed this myself.
@darknight97 I believe my review of your unit(s) to be 100% accurate. In all seriousness tho I do think your build(s) is very cool
Okay I know we’re all cheeky about things in this thread to not spoil the mysticism but can I use my 1/lifetime “just come on bro” to reveal the trick on this one? I’m quite curious.
The bug I was reporting was that Thangs will increase the offer to the 3000x threshold above the money you can pay rather than stopping the offer just below the amount you can pay. Unless I’m not remembering right / didn’t check thoroughly and the offer cycles 99 times regardless of how much gold your unit has, that’s possible
2 Likes
Sigmaraven made the build, I gave him my unit description and a potrait.
1 Like