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I assume you're excluding the 3H one, which is straightforwardly good. Camilla's is a strong choice for someone like Diamant, or another bulky unit using a killer weapon. The other three are basically improvements on Roy/Ike - I think the issue is that there are now too many of that type of engraving, and not enough units who want to pay those costs for extra Mt. If anything, this is more of a problem for the Roy/Ike engravings than for the DLC ones. Put another way though, it means that the units who mainly care about Mt (maybe a def-tank, or a magic cannon) can get multiple weapons engraved. I wouldn't have had so many engravings congregate around that one niche, but I don't think they're terrible per se. EDIT: There's also the consideration of smash weapons/engage attacks. I think the DLC engravings were balanced specifically for units bringing along smash weapons to use on engage attacks like Great Aether and Override.

Interesting comments on here - I've only recently tried out Eirika and Soren, so I'll play the game a bit more before I attempt to contribute a tier list. But some notes so far: I completely agree with @Myssdii about Lucina's utility. She can turn any unit with decent Spd into a backup unit and a dodge-tank, all her engage weapons have some kind of effective damage (in particular, Parthia for fliers), Bonded Shield is great if you can set it up, and she boosts Dex and Spd (which will be relevant for basically any unit that wants to equip her). I can't think of a better option for her than on a Wolf Knight, unless maybe if siege tomes are back in this game or you really need Bonded Shield - but she makes lots of units better. Everyone is rating Corrin/Byleth/Lyn/Micaiah for all the right reasons, they're great. Tiki is ridiculous. Like really ridiculous. About half of Maddening became doable by just leaving Tiki in front of the enemy. Her only real weakness is that she can't deal ranged damage. She makes Alear usable in the first half of the game and improves their growths with Starsphere, while Geosphere/Lifesphere are very powerful and available quite quickly, and she has an AoE attack. What's not to love. The 3H emblem is not far behind Tiki, although it's only relevant for physical units (there's a case for Tiki on hybrids). It boosts Str and Dex, as well as providing Weapon Sync for extra damage, Raging Storm is almost as good as it was in Three Houses (Aymr is a smash weapon, so you risk some counters, and you can't abuse it like in Three Houses), Fallen Star can buy you some extra survivability, and Houses Unite is still ending health bars of bosses for me. Hector occupies a similar position to Ike, I think. Quick Riposte and Heavy Build are good abilities that are probably too expensive to inherit. I think armoured units and backups make best use of engaged Hector (there's a niche argument for Hector on a flier if you're on a mage-heavy map) - stick a Killer Axe or Tomahawk on with Storm's Eye and watch enemies scatter. Ike probably has better overall damage reduction and better weaponry, but Hector is competitive I think. Can't really defend Leif's Adaptable, and Roy seems most like the Emblem that was better on paper than in practice.

Ohh that's interesting! Yeah this is the first time I've encountered normal enemies starting with Revival Stones, but I'll make sure to look out for them once I get cracking on the paralogues. I didn't know about all this, but I've actually been taking this approach anyway. When I first got Bond Rings, I save-scummed a bit and confirmed that the order of ring rarity doesn't change per Somniel visit. So for example, if you get a B-rank then two C-ranks, that order won't change no matter how many times you save-scum until you battle again and return to the Somniel, and it won't change even if you switch the emblems. So I could pull a B-C-C from Marth, or a B from Marth then C-C from Sigurd, and so on. At the time, I had yet to see an S-rank so I didn't know special abilities existed, and otherwise bond rings seemed irrelevant, so I left it there. When I started trying for the Claude ring, I figured I'd just spend all my fragments on hand to see how long it'd take to pull it from the gacha, or enough A-rings to meld up an S-ring, more out of curiosity than anything else, save-scumming away failures or any Pyrrhic successes. I tried for it every Somniel visit after a battle, and got Claude on my fifth attempt. For context, I had around 25,000 fragments when I first got Byleth, and on my fourth attempt had around 35,000 fragments, and I spent them all on the gacha before save-scumming it away. Until I actually picked it up, I hadn't seen a single Claude S-ring appear. Which leads me to believe that while the rarity order may be fixed, the actual characters that show up are not. After I beat the Soren map, I tried the bond rings again just to see if I could have pulled Claude sooner, but instead it took about 10,000 fragments for me to pull it again. So yeah, I'm not too sure what to make of the method. I don't have a lot riding on it though, so I'll be happy for more committed investigators to report the details.

I slowed down a bit this week because the DLC paralogues took time, but the log is finally here! Divine Paralogue 2 (Hector) Chapter 16 Divine Paralogue 3 (Camilla) Divine Paralogue 4 (Soren)

Yeah that would work - Canto on a flying class is best for this (when isn't it hehe), although you might find Rescue more useful than Warp depending on the situation (you aren't raising any unit that has Rescue, but you do get units for free who learn Rescue so up to you). What I would also be doing if I ran Vengeance (full disclosure I don't like/use it much) is using certain gambits where necessary, such as Blessing (target unit survives a lethal attack with 1HP) and Impregnable Wall (target unit can only deal or suffer 1 damage per attack) if my Vengeance user needed protection. Unless you get unlucky with ambush spawns, you should otherwise generally be able to keep your Vengeance user safe, it just requires a bit more thought and care. AM also has more enemies with long-range attacks than other routes, and they normally target things they can kill, so that's something to take into account. Longer-term, you could also be thinking about building your Vengeance Cyril so that he has some survivability on enemy phase, but it isn't a must and might detract from the Vengeance build. Just another option though. Pretty much, yeah. There are a couple of maps with 11 deployment slots (including Byleth/lord) and a paralogue or two with 12 slots, and then the last two maps of the game also have 12 slots. So mild rotation/adjutant-ing is how I make sure nobody falls behind assuming I'm fielding 12 at endgame. It's not essential to field 12 if you'd rather not think about it - but you do get a couple of items in Part 1 which help with experience gains, and you can still raise 12 units very effectively if you're so inclined.

Another heads up (I don't think this counts as a spoiler, but will bracket it just in case) On the adjutants question, what type you want is basically dependent on build. Even on Hard, you will definitely have enemies who can double your frontliners at various points in the game (although that won't be an issue if your units master War Master). Anyway, guard adjutants certainly aren't bad for a lot of the game. Healing adjutants will likely proc the most often, but running Bishop Mercedes and Gremory Lysithea will mean you're covered for healing for a lot of the game too. Attack adjutants are the least reliable proc, but there's every chance that the people you're running adjutants on don't take damage or even counters, depending on their build, so they might end up being the most useful. You don't have to think too hard about it though. It's pretty easy to get any unit to D+ in a particular rank, where they can certify for an intermediate class that provides the right kind of adjutant. Even if you change your mind, it won't come back to bite you. Since @Ncknck isn't fielding Dedue or Bernadetta long-term, Cyril is the only remaining source of Vengeance. Which might be too finicky for a beginner (and I personally far prefer Point-Blank Volley to it) but I can't deny how powerful it is. Perhaps worth considering raising Lances on Cyril?

Wow, that is a good Alcryst, even taking class boosts etc. into account. I'm more surprised about him than Seadall (assuming late-game Seadall still in dancer?). Assuming Seadall isn't doubled, then with that Def he's probably alright for surviving a round or two of combat? Odds are enemy knife/sword users are doubling at least, but yeah better than I first thought.

Hadn't thought of Tokyo Mirage Sessions - that's a fun callback! Would this then be a unit calling on Emblem Tsubasa calling on Caeda? The root of "kowashitai" is "kowasu" - to break, or destroy. This form of the word means " (I) want to destroy". Not sure whether that was what you wanted.

Really enjoying the creativity on here! Here's my take: Ring of Mimesis, Xane Invocation: Deceive and delight, Emblem of Mischief! Paralogue: The Battle for Altea Tiki's paralogue map is more fitting but oh well. Instead of the usual boss rush, he blends into the normal enemies and you have to find him first, through waves of reinforcements - a hint to finding him is that he will not act aggressively, and use healing items if his disguised form is hurt but not defeated. He only reveals himself if you're able to reduce his disguise's HP to 0, and will periodically switch location/stats to a different enemy if HP is at max. To compensate for the hassle, his stats and weaponry will be only a slightly better/tankier version of the enemy he most recently resembled, except he also possesses Revival Stones when undisguised. Stat Boosts: HP/Dex/Luck (+1/+2/+3) Sync Skill Lvl 1: Dissemble When unit uses this command, enemy red units ignore it, but can also pass through unit's space. Does not work on boss units and certain named units. Green units in range may attack unit. Sync Skill Lvl 3 (inheritable): Quick Study When unit ends turn next to an ally, receives +1 to all 7 basic stats (and Bld) in which ally is superior to unit. Bonus lasts for one turn and does not stack, but different adjacent allies may provide benefit for separate stats. Stat boost increases to +2 at Bond Lvl 12, and then +3 at Lvl 18. SP Cost 2500 > 5000 > 7500. Sync Skill Lvl 4 (inheritable): Omni-Precision Grants Hit/Avo+3 when using a weapon or staff, scales in +3 increments to Hit/Avo+15 (at Bond Levels 9/13/17/19 respectively). SP Cost 500 > 1000 > 2000 > 3000 > 4000 Proficiencies: All - Swords 2/Arts 4/Staves 6/Bows 7/Knives 8/Tomes 11/Lances 14/Axes 16. Engage Skill Lv 1: Freelance When Freelance is activated, unit may select one adjacent unit, and copy the engaged form (skills, engage weapons and engage attack) of its equipped Emblem. Skills and engage weapons may be used for the duration of this unit's engage, or until Freelance is activated again. Unit may still use their engage attack only once per engage. Target unit does not have to be engaged for Freelance to activate. Freelance may be used multiple times when unit is engaged, but costs one action each time. Engage Skill Lv 10: Jack-of-all-Trades When Freelance is activated, unit also acquires the class type, any class skills and any special class abilities of the target unit (Dance cannot be copied), including weapon types usable by target class at the same level of proficiency. Unit counts as its own and copied class types for the purposes of weaknesses/combat mechanics/emblem special effects. For example, if copied class type is Flying, unit may cross terrain as if flying, but also becomes vulnerable to bow damage. Engage Skill Lv 15: Perfect Trace When Freelance is activated, unit also acquires the personal skill, any inherited skills, and weapons/staves (only as many as unit has space for) from the inventory of the target unit. Unit may only use weapons/items that either it or the target unit is able to use. Copied weapons/staves cannot be traded, and staves are copied over with the same number of uses as the original. Copied weapons/staves only last until the first of: they run out of uses; the duration of unit's engage; Freelancer is reactivated. Engage Weapon: N/A (requires use of Freelance) Engage Attack: N/A (requires use of Freelance)

There are technically light gameplay spoilers - skills and classes that you won't have access to in the main game at Ch. 4/5 are available in the side story, and you'll see a map that gets reused later in the game. There are also a couple of pieces of dialogue between characters that point to events in the future, although I don't think you'll learn anything that would spoil the story. Without going into specifics, after the Ch. 4 story battle you learn about a particular mechanic (tied to the story) that reappears in Cindered Shadows, so as long as you do CS after that then you should be fine. EDIT: Now I think about it, there's a different mechanic that the game properly introduces to you in the Ch. 5 story battle, but you'd encounter it in CS as well. Story-wise, the DLC still takes place after Ch. 4, but the mechanic might take you by surprise if you haven't done Ch. 5. I don't know how much you know about the gameplay, so that's worth flagging.

That is interesting! Haha yeah I tried romanising the Japanese name for Alcryst (Starook?) but couldn't figure out how it might fit with the crystal/rock theme. Also agreed, it's very hard to see who this game is aimed at. A friend of mine who is a novice FE player (her first game was 3H which isn't that representative of the franchise) is playing Normal/Classic and finds that decently challenging. So I can't imagine that anyone unironically appreciating the plot is old enough to really tackle the gameplay. That said, I'd rather have a well-designed game with a bad story over the other way round. Canter definitely seems like a good idea. And with the DLC, I suppose there will certainly be an excess of emblems, so there's no trouble just giving him whatever's spare. But I'd like to give him something mildly useful if I can. Now that I have seen the DLC, Camilla actually looks really good for him and I'm not sure who else in my current party I'd put her on. Although it does mean giving up her offense when engaged. Interesting combo! Sigurd seems so useful that I doubt I'd let Seadall have him long-term - but a dancer with great range is nuts by itself, so maybe that's enough? I like the idea of Leif too, although my instinct is that Adaptable + Arms Guard (which should in theory activate Arms Guard against everything except arts/breath) still won't be a difference-maker. Seadall is basically a confirmed pick for the rest of the game at this point and is running Lineage/Mentorship atm so I can rush Special Dance - maybe he just gets Quality Time or something after that and is minorly helpful that way instead.

Haha yeah I saw this, and was also confused. Very very occasionally, archers don't want to move before attacking, but that's really not the vibe of a Bow Knight at all. I wonder if cavalry units had Canto/Canter at an early-ish point in development, and then it got taken off them - or maybe the devs assumed players would buy it off Sigurd if they planned to use a Bow Knight? Anyway, it's odd.

Early-game Maddening is quite punishing resource-wise on 3H. Worth mentioning that after Ch 6 I think, many of the recruits come with a Bullion or a stat booster, which might help a bit with your resource woes. Smithing doesn't come online for a couple of chapters, and increased money/smithing capacity are both locked behind professor level, which is a big reason (amongst others) to raise prof level. If it's any consolation, Ch. 1 and 2 on Maddening are some of the toughest chapters in the game without question, so getting through those is already a big deal. If you're the kind of player who's happy not to use things that are made available to you, then it won't matter when you do the DLC. Hard/Classic for the DLC side story is a good level of challenge, though not as hard as early-game Maddening. Considering story events, you should attempt it after Ch. 4 and before Ch. 5 - it's an alternate timeline but that's roughly where it fits with the main game. Although the goodies/characters you get from clearing side story chapters (as well as Abyss facilities) can all become available to you in Ch. 2-3 if you'd rather get them early. The DLC recruits are all good-quality units - it sounds like you're on Blue Lions, so the mage recruits in particular are helpful, and Hapi has some interesting supports lore-wise (with Dimitri in particular). As for the non-recruit items, the DLC stat boosters are stronger than normal ones and can make the difference (especially Mv+2), and the side story rewards are powerful but not game-breaking IMO. Actually, the Renown reward for clearing the DLC is quite good, and accumulating Renown in this game mostly involves doing chores anyway, so it's up to you whether getting the benefits from the saint statues (they unlock in Ch. 5 IIRC?) is game-breaking or time-saving. Not sure if you also meant paralogues as well, but they're a separate thing to the DLC, and you can just start them whenever you like once the game makes them available. Delaying them makes them easier for obvious reasons, but they also have time limits that will be flagged when you look at them. Absolutely, yeah. When I did runs that focused on raising everybody, early gifts was game-changing so I could attempt off-base builds on more units.

I hadn't considered this! Damage taken would explain quite a lot actually, I really like that. Yeah this could work - maybe Diamant gets Tiki long-term, and Seadall with Shielding Art + Ike is lots of free def. It's hard for me to imagine Tiki being worse than Ike on Diamant, although Diamant + Ike is lots and lots of synergy...

They can be save-scummed in Ch. 1 explore (not Ch. 2 as in my previous post, my mistake) - the direction of approach to the item drop influences the RNG, so it's not super hard to pick one of them up. It's the drop amongst some barrels etc. between the dining hall and the marquee where randoms are having tea. Gifts pre-Ch. 5 is a pretty big deal for recruitment as you say, although it's at least a toss-up which is the better approach. Angelica in particular is 500 prof exp per week, so a 200 exp difference between it and the 3-star seeds makes a difference with getting prof ranks as early as Ch. 2. Nothing you get from early ranks will equal the sheer power boost of early Catherine - but Catherine should still be recruitable by the Ch. 5 battle without gifts from gardening, so it's basically how determined are you to beat the Death Knight in Ch. 4? And, I suppose, how many units do you want to recruit early and before the Ch. 6 power boost? I think beyond a specific focus on early recruitment, raising prof level wins out.

Seconded - Diamant couldn't land a normal Tomahawk against enemies, but Lyn's engraving was enough to turn it into his go-to weapon. Engraving a decently light tome (Elfire/Elsurge etc.) with a high-Avo engraving is also cool. Given how many enemies have meh Res, a mage with an enemy phase is really solid. A Mystical unit engaged with Byleth gives an extra 2 range, and Elsurge in particular cannot miss (although Elfire also has good hit rates), so that's a great enemy phase if you're that way inclined.

My pleasure! And yeah I'm a pretty slow player tbh, so that's definitely a part of it, but it was still a marathon. And here's the next log! Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 It looks like the 2nd wave DLC is releasing as I type this, so I might get to that before the next paralogues if I can access it. That threw me tbh, I wasn't expecting it so quickly. Anyway, that's me for now!

Str and Spd respectively - both are great for early game Maddening. Angelica is also the premier seed for optimising prof rank acquisition, and both seeds have a chance to self-replicate at first/second yield level, so getting 1 seed should mean you're set for the rest of the game. And you can get one of them in Ch.2 Explore. There's no reason beyond favouritism to use Caspar if you aren't BE, so there's really no pressure on recruitment and arguably you should recruit at Ch 12 if you're on VW/AM. Ferdinand is admittedly a bit tougher to recruit, but very doable by Ch. 6 when he gets Cavalier and Axe ranks for free (and Weight-3 on Byleth is not the worst thing on the world, if you are training Armour).

Unlike Griffin Knight/Wolf Knight they don't have a second weapon - this is what I was referring to before. As for overpowered, I'd argue Griffin Knight/Wolf Knight are two of the strongest classes in the game even without S-ranks, so idk why they couldn't make it consistent.

Arts start bad, absolutely, and basically require refinement to be useful. And people who can use them early are limited (for lack of Second Seals/only Tiki gives arts proficiency at this point). But even though it's technically possible to pick up and refine brave weapons in the first half of the game, it's much easier to find and refine arts in this period. It's practically your only brave option for half the game, which explains why the game forces them to start bad - but the effects once you do refine are at least competent. Comparisons with Lvl 10 Warriors and beyond are cool, but they don't cover a significant portion of the game (even if we were to accept that Brave Axe Warrior is the only legitimate point of comparison, which I'm not sure we should). The complaint against Martial Master more generally (that despite being built around arts it can't make use of them well enough on Maddening) seems fair, if a little harsh. Brave axes are less accurate, arts users can only be broken in very specific circumstances, Martial Master's combined Def + Res seems competitive for a frontliner. And as mentioned, you sacrifice attack power for staff access. In the first place, Martial Master is probably only warranted if you plan on using A/S rank arts (since people with innate Arts proficiency can just go High Priest to use the silver arts, and then have tome access and better all-round offense/support). And those might change the calculations above.

Martial Master seems to be for units that have okay Str and lean towards Mag. Arts on a unit with decent Str and higher Mag should be better than a brave weapon on a unit with comparable Str, and better than some tomes that hit once for units with comparable Mag. This is the sell. As I understand it, Dire Thunder is RNG-dependent and may be unavailable for a large chunk of the game (pulling it multiple times seems even more unlikely). So for units that aren't lopsided towards Str and aren't that fast, Arts is good damage. There aren't many units that fit the bill, but for those that do Arts is likely their best damage output (unless they're able to double with tomes or for some reason are better able to use strong smash weapons well). Examples include Clanne, Jean (although I'm sure he can make a pure physical build work too), Celine or even Chloe - there may be others. Many will still want magic access because range + targeting Res over Def, which seems to scale faster in this game, and arts users still aren't good for at least half the game. But I think they will eventually get there.

This is really useful - thanks for doing the work! EDIT: Your table makes it clear that it's only Wolf Knight and Griffin Knight that allow you to raise a weapon rank from A to S, while also having another proficiency - I hadn't realised it was just them. So maybe there is something exceptional about those two classes, compared to Mage Knight/Wyvern Knight/Hero/Warrior and so on?

As I understand it, the blue proficiency for a character denotes their innate proficiency. Normally, innate proficiency will raise the weapon rank a unit can use in a class by one - but this does not hold true for certain classes which start with an A proficiency in the innate weapon, and also possess some other proficiency. For example, Celine does not improve tomes in Vidame, which starts A Tomes, B Swords, B Staves. But, she does improve tomes in High Priest, which starts B Tomes S Staves C Arts, and her innate raises tomes to A. Similarly, Boucheron is proficient in Axes, so if he went into Wolf Knight (which starts B Axes A Knives) would have A Axes A Knives, but in Warrior (which starts A Axes C Bows), remains A Axes C Bows. This rule doesn't hold equally. Wolf Knight and Griffin Knight, for example, allow innate proficiencies to raise an A-rank to an S-rank. I'm honestly not sure what the logic is for disallowing certain classes and not others - you just have to know that some classes do allow that effect and some don't.

Interesting! So those two actually obey conventions. Perhaps keeping the Japanese Kagetsu rather than westernising the name (Mondblum is German for moonflower and also sounds like a posh name, for example) is the game's nod to Kagetsu coming from a country "far to the east of this continent". I suppose Yunaka, like Jean, doesn't have any naming conventions, as she isn't a retainer/lord. A reading of her name in Japanese could be "in hot water" - which is kinda fitting, but not really that specific to her (and I don't believe it has the same connotations in Japanese as the English translation does). Not sure how to explain that, then. I guess I also have no opinions about the name Jean - maybe there is no meaning behind them. Yeah, I think the royals suffer most from this. In general, I'm wondering whether any of the second royals will be story-relevant after you leave their country - it's a bit of a shame to make them lords if not. I never played Fates or Echoes, so this is my first encounter with it - good to know. I think the devs noticed dodge-tanking was basically an exploit on 3H Maddening (not to mention some previous games), so reverting to this system, having enemy hit scale over time, and preventing Maddening enemies from attacking when they have 0 Hit is their attempt to keep dodge-tanking viable but not broken. And yeah, that sucks with Zelkov - that do be how it goes sometimes. True, Hold Out is expensive and not the kind of thing I normally build units around. I could see somebody making use of Rise Above. Anyone with good Spd and/or brave weapons would probably make best use of Rise Above's attack/speed boost. But I don't know how enemy speed scales over the game so that may not be viable, and high-Spd characters may not appreciate the Avo debuff if using swords. Perhaps I could put him on Jean? Rise Above should add at least 4 points of damage in Martial Master, maybe more with Lightsphere/depending on the basic stat value. Advance and Hold Out could improve his potential as a frontliner, and Roy's swords give him the opportunity while engaged to break everything except sword-wielders themselves, other arts users, and dragons, as well as an AoE for ranged damage. Obviously, I don't have Roy back yet to actually try this, and there may yet be better candidate emblems for Jean. But that's all I can think of.

Yeah I think it is preferable for recruits to actually be competitive with your army on Maddening, but I do have to get acclimatised to it. Okay, this is good news - I'm doing Ch 13 atm so Ike is coming soon, looking forward to seeing that. Ooh I know nothing about Corrin's abilities, and so far Alear hasn't made a strong case for any emblem long-term, so will be excited to see this. I think Merrin will get Lucina though - same reasoning (presumably) as Zelkov/Lucina, but Merrin has more Mv and the opportunity to break Axes without engaging. Although Zelkov might have the better enemy phase/Str stat... it's worth considering. I was briefly thinking about Diamant/Tiki for upcoming levels like Lyn's paralogue (which is looking brutal). But Kagetsu/Tiki makes a lot of sense. My thought process at the moment is Tiki goes on a unit who could have an enemy phase by stat spread, but their actual stat values aren't as high as required. But as more and more builds come online, it may just be better if Tiki goes on my best combat units instead.