The Skill System and You: Maximizing Your Usage of FE8's Most Prolific Bundle of Wizardry

You want this link:
https://dw.ngmansion.xyz/doku.php?id=en:en:guide:febuildergba:skillsystems_custombuild

The febuilder patch of skill systems is a fork of it from february 2020 and is the best way to configure additional options for it if you wish to use febuilder as your primary method of rom hacking.

The contents of custom build is basically the skill systems buildfile from said date. Some things Sme mention are more recent than the feb 2020 fork, so you need some knowledge of buildfiles to use them.

Thank you!

Sorry for the year or so I neglected to update this guide, added some missing information such as level up skill options and some mechanics of passive boosts + added sections on Promote on Level Up and AoE Attacks to the appendix, which *should* have this guide up-to-date with the current state of the skill system now but please do let me know if anything else is missing so I can add it hopefully in a more timely manner than before!

3 Likes


Where do I set this?

1 Like

If the number at “Level of acquisition” can go up to 255 then you should be able to set it there.

How would you set it? If you’re replying to Raulster, can you provide a visual example?

Here I’m trying to set Supply such that Great Lords will learn the skill at lv20 if they’re player units.

Note that 20 is 0x14, and that when the third-highest bit (which indicates Player Only) in a byte is set you end up with 0x20. 0x14 | 0x20 = 0x34 = 52.

I haven’t tested it, but this is how I assume it’d work.

1 Like

Are there any resources for understanding that bit math? Sorry for the inane questions. I just started using FEbuilder and have NO idea what I just read LMAO

1 Like

Quick google. This seems to be relevant,

Simplifying matters (also makes up for my own lack of knowledge). We tend to use the decimal system to represent numbers. The decimal system gives us ten distinct digits, 0-9. However, computers internally use a binary system to represent numbers. This gives them access to only two distinct digits, 0 and 1. On the left some decimal numbers, and on the right, their binary representation:

0 = 0
1 = 1
2 = 10
3 = 11
.
.
.
20 = 1 0100 (I tend to put spacing between every four binary digits for readability.)

Now, value twenty here can be represented by two digits in decimal (2 followed by 0) but needs five digits (1 0100) in binary. These binary digits are called bits.

The value to determine at what level a skill is learned at is stored in eight bits. However, five bits is enough to capture the usual [0, 20] range that levels are in. This means we have three leftover bits, which have been given the purpose Sme outlined.

Starting off with a set of eight empty bits:

0000 0000

So for Player Only we’d need to set the least significant of the most significant three leftover bits. In other words, the rightmost of the three leftmost bits needs to be set (A bit is set if its value is 1, unset if its value is 0):

0010 0000

This is 32 in decimal. There are calculators you can use to convert decimal to binary or vice versa.

Then to indicate the level to be twenty, we set the five least significant bits as specified in the table above:

0011 0100

This is 52 in decimal (32 plus 20).

I didn’t go into hexadecimal representation, but hopefully this’ll clear enough up for now.

2 Likes

Oh okay. Thank you for the explanation! I feel like I get it, but I probably don’t, especially with promoted classes LOL. That’s definitely not what I expected it to be.

tl;dr on alleigance class skills for anyone reading:
If you want only Player to learn the Skills add 32 to the Learned Level
For Enemy add 64
For Normal&Hard add 96
For Hard only add 128

Understading how these calculation come to be means delving into computer science (which can be interesting but hard to understand if you’re new)

4 Likes

is this in hexadecimal

Thanks friend. I have a koala brain and this made it even easier to understand lmao.

I’m having trouble making the Gaiden Magic Patch work, could anyone help me?
I can set the spell lists fine, it even shows up on the 4th status screen. But the B.Magic/W.Magic command never appears.

Make sure the unit has the correct weapon rank so they can use the spell. (eg. Anima rank E for fire)

1 Like

Yeah, I also made sure of it. Does the class also need it?

No. Just having the right weapon rank at all should work. (Keep in mind the amount of weapon level is important too. You can’t use Excalibur with C rank anima for example. All the normal rules still apply)

If you’re using buildfiles, I recommend comparing to skillsys master to see if anything gaiden magic related is off in your installation.

If you’re using FEBuilder, try sending a report7z in the FEBuilder thread (or channel in the FEU discord) so someone can help look into the issue.

1 Like

You were right. It was the weapon level, I’m dumb.
Problem is, I changed the levels, but for some reason its not applying. When I add gaiden magic to natural mages it worlks fine. I just have to find out why other characters cant get different weapon levels. Its probably something simple I’m missing, I’ll figure it out eventually.
Thank you very much!

I wanted to ask. Is there a way to merge 2 or more skills into one? And how would I go about doing it?

Does anyone know how in (insert your favorite FE setting) the IER works?