[FE8] Sacred Stones Duality [Eirika Route Complete]

Semicolin · July 26, 2026, 3:06pm

Hey guys, who’s ready for ANOTHER Sacred Stones revamp?

I love Sacred Stones. It’s probably the official FE I have the most fun playing from start to finish overall. But even it has a lot of flaws, some of which keep me from wanting to play it again from time to time. Hand Axes and Javelins being the meta weapons, characters that require intense amounts of babying for less-than-noteworthy payoff, the vanilla GBA support system, promotion options for 90% of characters not offering an interesting choice, Seth being able to destroy most maps on his own, Chapters 5x, 9!Ephraim, and both Chapter 12s being painful slogs to play, EXP gain being too low for unpromoted units to catch up to pre-promotes, so on and so forth. This hack aims to fix all the notable issues I had with the game and create a smoother, more tactically interesting experience. Whether or not it is successful at doing so is up to you.

This version only has changes made to Eirika’s route, and due to the extent of the changes, I highly discourage you from playing Ephraim’s route until I work on it. I am releasing the game now to hopefully get some feedback on the design choices I made and see what needs improvement for when I do work on Ephraim’s route.

Difficulty is definitely higher than vanilla Sacred Stones, but when I did the test playthrough it still felt easier than I would have liked, so as of now I plan to increase the difficulty in the future.

Three versions of the patch exist: 1RN, 2RN, and restored overworld shops. The first two are likely self-explanatory, with a note that the game was entirely playtested on the 1RN version on Difficult Mode. “Restored overworld shops” returns the overworld shops to the game, which have been removed by default. It was added as an option due to someone outright refusing to play the game without them.

Link to downloads.

Changes to characters’ stats.

New promotion bonuses.

Notable Features

Characters’ stats adjusted to be more in line with what I felt they should be like as characters. Marisa is talked about as if she’s an unrivaled combatant in her introductory dialogue, so why are her bases so bad? Innes is known for his skill as an archer, but his highest stat is speed? How on earth does Ewan have the same base Con as Vanessa?
Promotion options are changed so that all should offer some distinct niche. Generally, higher movement classes will give worse stats and weapon ranks on promotion.
Supports increase by simply having two units deployed on the same map. Characters can also reach B Rank support with all their partners. Affinity bonuses have been lowered to account for this (found in other changes section).
Casual Mode.
Weapon Triangle buffed to +/- 3 Mt and 15 Hit.
Rewards from villages, chests, etc. have been shuffled around and changed to make fulfilling the more difficult objectives more enticing.
More fun weapons and items being given to the player early on. Brave Weapons aren’t hoarded until the last couple of maps, and the monster-effective weapons and FE7 Dancer Rings have been added into the game. Many minor and a handful of major adjustments have been made to weapons’ stats.
Infinite-use S-Rank weapons. You put in the work to get there, go wild with them! Additional effects have been added to all of them as well (i.e. extra range, brave effect). Characters are no longer restricted to one S-Rank either.
All promotion items are replaced by Master Seals. Most people seem to prefer this (I certainly do), but I’ll probably make an alternate patch for vanilla promotion items once Ephraim Route is done for the people who like class-specific ones.
Vanilla skills only! No shade to anyone who prefers the game having more skills in play, but I for one appreciate the simplicity of (mostly) skill-less GBAFE.
After almost losing Colm due to him missing a near-guaranteed hit, and mentally cursing him out for a solid ten minutes, Neimi is now able to use Lockpicks.
Beautiful new portraits for each promoted variant of player characters created by Nuramon, plus various other artists that can be found in the credits list!
New character-specific animations!
New tilesets for almost every map.
Enemy levels have been raised across the board, so both their stats and the amount of experience they give upon defeat is much higher. Every character on your team minus low-level late recruits is likely to hit Level 20 unpromoted by Scorched Sand, and everyone will probably be at least Level 10-15 promoted by the end of the game.

Other Changes

Various quality of life patches have been installed, such as health bars, enemy range display, and speeding up battle animations.
Trading, Talking, and Support Convos are free actions.
Easy and Normal mode give promoted units the same level bonus as hard mode. Starting at Chapter 1, Difficult Mode simply gives all enemies +5 bonus levels, and Easy Mode gives all enemies besides bosses -10 bonus levels. Difficult Mode also adds some extra enemies to various maps, and contains some “kill you” reinforcements not present on Easy or Normal.
Chapter 5x has been removed from the game. Its cutscenes have been added into Chapters 4 and 5.
Range-based reinforcements and events have by-and-large been removed, happening based on turn count instead.
On-map shops, including secret shops, carry better items starting in the midgame.
Light Magic is 3x effective against monsters by default, so Bishops no longer have a use for Slayer.
Rogues can steal unequipped weapons and staves.
Staves give double their usual experience points when used.
Unpromoted units can reach 250 WEXP (1 below S Rank)
Seth starts out with poor stats but will level up for free over time as he heals from his wound, no EXP needed to be given to him.
Axe Cavaliers are in the game now, and Cavs can only use one weapon at base. Knights get to use the full weapon triangle, and Generals can use Bows. Generic enemy Wyvern Knights also exist.
Poison deals 8-10 damage per turn instead of 1-3.
Pierce activation rate is Skill% rather than Level%
Metis’ Tome increases all growths by 10% instead of 5%.
New Affinity Bonuses (per level, sum of user’s affinity bonuses & partner’s affinity bonuses, rounded down):
-Fire: +1 Damage
-Thunder: +0.5 Resist, +2.5 Crit
-Wind: +2.5 Hit, +2.5 Crit
-Ice: +0.5 Resist, +2.5 Avoid
-Dark: +5 Dodge
-Light: +0.5 Damage, +0.5 Resist, +2.5 Hit, +2.5 Avoid, +2.5 Crit, +2.5 Dodge
-Anima: +5 Hit

Credits

Status Screen Background by Jiege
Battle Frame by Fenriel
Field, Town, Plains, and Desert map palettes by TheAtlas
Castle map palettes by Dark, ZeN2002

Portraits
Great Lord Eirika by Plant_Academy, UltraFenix, and NICKT
Great Lord Ephraim by Plant_Academy and UltraFenix
Base Franz recolored by me, based on the work of Nuramon
Paladin Franz by Nuramon
Great Knight Franz by Nuramon and Garytop
General Gilliam by Nuramon
Great Knight Gilliam by Nuramon, Garytop
Bishop/Sage Moulder by Nuramon and Plant_Academy
Base Vanessa recolored by me, based on the work of FireEmblemier/Feier
Falcoknight Vanessa by Nuramon, FireEmblemier/Feier, and Garytop
Wyvern Knight Vanessa by Nuramon, FireEmblemier/Feier, and GenericPretsel
Fighter/Pirate/Hero Ross by Nuramon
Warrior Ross by Nuramon, Quotedotlass, and Electric_Serge
Berserker Ross by Nuramon and HusbandoEmblem
Warrior Garcia by Nuramon
Hero Garcia by Nuramon and Lenh
Sniper Neimi by Nuramon and Quotedotlass
Ranger Neimi by Nuramon and Levin64
Assassin Colm by Nuramon
Rogue Colm by Nuramon and Atey
Bishop/Sage Artur by Nuramon and Plant_Academy
Sage Lute by Nuramon and Garytop
Mage Knight Lute by Nuramon and Plant_Academy
Base Natasha by Nuramon
Bishop/Valkyrie Natasha by Nuramon and Plant_Academy
Swordmaster Joshua by Nuramon
Assassin Joshua by Nuramon and Garytop
Base Kyle and Forde by Plant_Academy
Paladin Kyle and Forde by Nuramon and Plant_Academy
Great Knight Kyle and Forde by Nuramon, Plant_Academy, and Garytop
Base/Falcoknight Tana by Nuramon and Plant_Academy
Wyvern Knight Tana Nuramon, Plant_Academy, and GenericPretsel
Base Amelia by Plant_Academy
Knight Amelia by Nuramon, Plant_Academy, and UltraFenix
Cavalier/General/Paladin Amelia by Nuramon and Plant_Academy
Great Knight Amelia by Nuramon, Plant_Academy, and Garytop
Hero Gerik by BuskHusker
Ranger Gerik by Nuramon, BuskHusker, and Levin64
Base Marisa recolored by me, based on the work of Jeorge_Reds
Swordmaster/Assassin Marisa by Nuramon and Jeorge_Reds
Base L’Arachel by Plant_Academy
Valkyrie/Mage Knight L’Arachel by Nuramon and Plant_Academy
Mage Ewan by Nuramon
Shaman/Sage/Druid/Summoner Ewan by Nuramon and Plant_Academy
Mage Knight Ewan by Nuramon and BatimaTheBat
Wyvern Lord Cormag by Nuramon
Wyvern Knight Cormag by Nuramon and GenericPretsel
Base Knoll recolored by me, based on the work of FireEmblemier/Feier
Druid/Summoner Knoll by Nuramon and FireEmblemier/Feier

Map Sprites
Sword Cavalier by Agro, ToGY
Axe Cavalier by Siuloir
Sword/Axe Paladin by RobertFPY
Lance Paladin by Pikmin1211

Class Cards
Sword Cavalier by FPzero
Axe Cavalier by Blademaster
Sword Paladin by Leif, Jj09
Axe Paladin by MeatOfJustice

Battle Animations
Sword/Axe Knight, Bow General, and Axe Wyvern Lord by TheBlindArcher
Axe Cavalier by Skitty
Seth by Seal, blood, Arkth, Aruka, and Kenpuhu
Sage Lute by Aruka, Kenpuhu
Myrmidon and Swordmaster Joshua by SD9k
Assassin Joshua by Seliost1
Pegasus Knight Tana by RedBean and SableMage
Wyvern Knight Tana by RedBean
Innes by Seal
Mercenary Gerik by Team SALVAGED, Nuramon, and UltraFenix
Hero Gerik by Nuramon
Swordmaster Marisa by RedBean, SableMage, and Seliost1
Assassin Marisa by RedBean and SableMage
Troubadour and Valkyrie L’Arachel by RedBean
Mage Knight L’Arachel by RedBean and UltraFenix
Dozla by Aruka, Kenpuhu, and blood

Item Icons
Epee, Fortify, Hammerne, and Restore by LordGlenn
Luna, Nosferatu, and Eclipse by BatimaTheBat
Door/Chest Key by Zelix
Master Seal by Lisandra_brave
Ballista and Metis’ Tome by Celice
All other icons by Ereshkigal

Patches
Null Move Display, Max Weapon Level for Unpromoted Classes, Fix Generate Best Movement Script Glitch, Use Hand Axe Motion as Generic Motion for Throwing Axes, AutoGenLeftOAM, Prevent Freeze For Unit State Event 0x34, Allow Fast Forwarding of Battle Animations with R Button, Expanded Setting of Ring Effects Used by Dancers, Character Custom Animations by EA ver 2, Add Event: Lose Item (Unit), Prevent Freeze For Camera Event 0x26, Change Weapon Effective Coefficient, Change Lv Bonus Given to be Given to Promoted Enemies on Normal Difficulty, Double the Support Points You Get on a Particular Map,Tutorial Disabler, and MapAddInRange Efficiency Fix by 7743
Anti-Huffman, 01command_hack, and 48command_hack by Hextator and 7743
Adjust Mode Coefficient Experience Gain and Gain Support At Various Ranges by Vennobennu and 7743
Map Danger Zone by circleseverywhere
Actions After Support and Actions After Talk by circleseverywhere and 7743
Show Heal Amount, Modify S-Rank Limits, and Rogue Robbery by Tequila
HP Bars with Warnings Cache by circleseverywhere and Tequila
Battle Stats with Animations Off by Vesly and Tequila
Demon King Summon Level Type by Shuusuke
Add Event: Autolevel Player Unit by Shuusuke and Vesly
Draw Attack Animation on Map when Battle Animations Off by Vesly; Animations by Viktor Hahn
FillAIDangerMap Efficiency Fix by HyperGammaSpaces and 7743
Casual Mode (Menu at Game Start) by HyperGammaSpaces, 7743, and Vesly
Narrow Font and Switch Portrait Images by Class, Flag by Scraiza
Modular Minimug Box (Vision Quest Style) by Pandan, Scraiza, and Zane Avernathy
Change Support Conversation to 5 People Instead of 5 Times, Limitless Trading, Toggle Gender-Neutral Cavalry Rescue, and Change Skill Activation Rate from LV to Skill by Aera
Add Blink to Portrait Image on Status Screen, Fix CAM1/CAMERA2 Going Out of Bounds, Unit Action Rework and Range Display Fix by StanH
Remove the Red Class Name from the Promotion Screen by Snek
Dancer Ring Refresh by Sme
Remove Pierce Glitch by Brendor
Fix Weak Promoted Enemies by Gryz
CritCap by Contro

Minor Visual Bugs

The tiles displayed when promoting and using Fortify or Latona are a garbled mess.
The top spark on the map sprite for Bishop when playing the cursor-over animation is incorrectly colored. This is basically unnoticeable for player units.

Special thanks to everyone involved in Seal’s Sacred War and blood’s Sacred Trilogy for inspiration for the project.

CaptainCringe · July 26, 2026, 4:52pm

Woah, this looks awesome. I love sacred stones and can always go for a good revamp. Promotions updating portraits is also a really cool touch that I’ve seen some hacks do and I really enjoy. it really makes you feel like the character has come a long way when you see them suited up in a new outfit and everything. I’ll definitely have to give this a try when I have the time.

Also on a sidenote, I like the idea of Neimi having lockpicking abilities. I honestly don’t like training Colm but I often feel like I have to because I need him to pick locks in many maps and he’s the only one who can until I get Rennac which happens pretty late. this change gives me more options while also giving me a backup unit if something happens to one of my lockpickers in an ironman. Good change idea IMO that I haven’t really seen anyone else do.

Shadow_the_halberdier · July 26, 2026, 5:28pm

by chance is there a bug in chp.1 that doesn’t let the reinforcements that spawn once Erika reaches half-way across the map not happen and causes the game to bug out?

Semicolin · July 26, 2026, 5:32pm

Yep. I made it so that the reinforcements only come on Hard Mode but didn’t set that for the event that highlights one of the reinforcements, so the game freezes on Easy and Normal. It should be fixed now.

Nokitrix · July 26, 2026, 7:41pm

I wish i can turn 1-RN mode on or off before playing with the restored overworld map patch in the rom.

Semicolin · July 26, 2026, 7:49pm

I added a 1RN version of the Overworld Shop patch to the folder. I don’t know why I didn’t have it there in the first place, it took a whole 15 seconds to make. In the next version I’ll just have 1RN be an in-game option, the only reason it isn’t currently is because I was too lazy to make the prompt for it.

Nokitrix · July 26, 2026, 7:50pm

Thank you very much!

Nokitrix · July 26, 2026, 8:04pm

It’s great that Seth can set up kills for others.

I feel like i have seen rapier name bugged before.

Semicolin · July 26, 2026, 8:21pm

Not a bug, I changed the name of Eirika’s rapier to “Epee” (Épée, but I don’t know how to put an accented e in the name, if I can). It’s the name that the icon I used for it had and I thought it would be neat if I changed the name to something more unique.

Nokitrix · July 26, 2026, 8:22pm

Yeah, her PRF sword named “rapier” sounds generic.

Starshadow_Melody · July 26, 2026, 9:13pm

I mean an Epée is another regular kind of sword anyway so it’s technically still generic.

PearlxWing · July 26, 2026, 9:27pm

This looks really cool! I love the UI and the new class based promotion portraits. I’m an Ephraim enjoyer so I’ll probably hold off until you’re done both routes but I’m excited!

Sir_Lancelot · July 26, 2026, 10:06pm

I see new portraits. I see cooler UI. I see lute finally get her yggdra lute animation used. Neuron activation. I am a sucker for FE8 revamps. Also I completely agree that chapter 9 Ephraim route genuinely makes me want to stop playing due to how much of an anticlimactic slog it is. Good luck with revamping ephraim route. Also Pt. 2 It’s very ballsy of you to make a FE8 Revamp without the extra skills from skill system and I respect it.

ATHATH · July 26, 2026, 11:57pm

does this include ivaldi? in vanilla fe8, the legendary weapons (including nidhogg vs. fliers) have an effectiveness multiplier of 2x instead of 3x, which is not overridden by slayer.

do enemy generals still have great shield?

Semicolin · July 27, 2026, 12:18am

Ivaldi is 3x effective, all other legendary weapons are 2x. Enemy Generals still have great shield.

ATHATH · July 27, 2026, 4:23am

Druids… don’t get staves? Huh? If anything, I’d assume summoners would be the promotion option that wouldn’t get them.

ATHATH · July 27, 2026, 4:40am

This is a vanilla thing. Experience gain for kills (as a promoted unit) is affected not just by your current class’s CRP, but also the CRP of the class set in the Menu Class field. To fix this issue, you can set the CRPs of priests, clerics, thieves, and troubadours to 3. This also applies to assassins, by the way, although setting the CRP of thieves to 3 would nerf Colm’s EXP gain unfairly. IMO, the better option would be to just set the Menu Class field of both assassin classes to point to myrmidons instead of thieves.

I would strongly, strongly removing great shield from the standard general class and moving it onto a player-only alternate version of the general class (there are febuilder patches that do this). Great shield was a design mistake.

EDIT:

sword cavaliers and axe cavaliers seem to be weak to swordslayers. I would recommend double-checking your effectiveness tables.

Semicolin · July 27, 2026, 4:53am

I wanted Druid to be the combat path, and Summoner to be the utility path, but thinking about it now, I might give Druid Staves back in the next version at E Rank, because you’re promoting Knoll or Ewan so late that getting D Rank Staves vs. E Rank Staves is actually a pretty big difference.

I personally like having to account for it. Enemy Generals have kinda trash statlines so Great Shield is the reason why they pose any sort of threat whatsoever. But I can see it being kinda annoying to play with, so I’ll consider removing it, or nerfing it to halving the damage instead of fully nullifying it (though I’d like to raise the activation rate for it if possible if I were to do that).

Sword Cavs and Axe Cavs taking effective damage from Swordslayer is because they take the female Merc/Hero class slots, and I guess I didn’t think about the unused classes being used in effectiveness tables.

Thanks for the info and suggestions on the Menu Class thing, I knew about that affecting EXP gain but I guess it just slipped my mind. It’s getting pretty late for me and neither of these are issues that direly need to be fixed, so I’ll put out a new version early tomorrow.

ATHATH · July 27, 2026, 5:01am

wdym “work”? gerik is 20 wexp away from having an infinite use, 1-3 range weapon as soon as he joins and instapromotes to hero

all of these S ranks are ludicrously busted if you’re allowed to spam them

Shadow_the_halberdier · July 27, 2026, 5:55am

if I can add something to this id give axe cavs more con as it stands they can only use base iron axes id say atleast hand axes so their more versatile in the axes they can use as the axes are still the same weight so some of are newer axe units and some that got con nerfs cant exactly wield many axes.

(this is coming from someone who seen the 11 weight hand axe and realized most T1 axe units cant even wield it with AS lost)