Fire Emblem Cipher - Rules and Q&A

[eclipse]

If you want to delete a post, edit the post to say something like "mods please delete", report that post, and for the reason, put something like "accidentally double posted, please delete". The post will be deleted, and you won't be warned!

[aubergine]

In case anyone missed it from earlier on in, here's the translation for the Falcoknight Caeda card.

Caeda (Angelic Advocate of Affection) – Rarity: Super Rare / Series 1 Booster Card #004

Cost: 4 / Promotion Cost: 3

Insignia: Shadow Dragon

Affinities: Female / Lance / Flying / Mounted

Quote: “Can you truly fathom love? Is there someone that you care deeply about?”

Skill 1: “Persuasion” / & / Flip one Bond / If an enemy is destroyed by this unit’s attack and you pay the cost, then you may select any Shadow Dragon Insignia card except “Caeda” from your deck and place it in your hand. You must show it to your opponent and shuffle your deck afterwards.

Skill 2: “Angelic Flight” / α / Once per Turn / Move this unit to another spot on your Battlefield. This skill can only be used if this unit has not yet taken an action this turn.

Support Skill: N/A

Attack Power: 60

Support Attack Power: 30

Range: 1

Promoted

Class: Falcoknight

Title: Angelic Advocate of Affection

Card ID: B01-004SR

Illustrator: Mayo

Imo the Nono ability of returning bond card to your hand is mandatory. The card effect doesn't have "よい"

I am also pretty sure that Nono aka Nowi's bond return skill is mandatory, just for the reason Nanaka has here. My translation of the card will continue to reflect that until it is confirmed otherwise.

Edited June 17, 2015 by aubergine

[Phoenix_Kensai]

Regarding options for playing this online... I have used both OCTGN and VASSAL in the past, and they both work pretty well. OCTGN is much fancier, but VASSAL is easier to use, both for players and (from what I've heard) to implement games.

I... well, I hesitate to say I'd be willing to help put something together, since I have a terrible track record with actually getting things done. But I'm hoping we can set up a way to play this online, and I think I know someone who has worked with VASSAL before.

Edited June 17, 2015 by Phoenix_Kensai

[Touya]

Currently binging through the whole thread, but only on page 10 so far. I'm importing two starter decks and a booster box and trying to get my local play community into it, though none of the cards I've seen so far really grab me so I'll just collect and play until a specific deck catches my eye. This month I'm launching a site for aggregating things like tournament videos and reports from Japan to try and get the word out about the game. (I'm pretty familiar with sorting through the Japanese blogosphere.) If there's any need for another translator, I can occasionally throw my hat in to help out.

One thing that I noticed going through the official site is that this game seems to have really taken off even before its launch. There are more than 500 shop tournaments scheduled in advance for the month of July...

[FutureKnightX]

Regarding options for playing this online... I have used both OCTGN and VASSAL in the past, and they both work pretty well. OCTGN is much fancier, but VASSAL is easier to use, both for players and (from what I've heard) to implement games.

I... well, I hesitate to say I'd be willing to help put something together, since I have a terrible track record with actually getting things done. But I'm hoping we can set up a way to play this online, and I think I know someone who has worked with VASSAL before.

Well, I managed to convince a buddy of mine to join with me to make a sim for this game (I would especially need him as he knows far more code than I lol), but we won't even get started until the full set releases with good quality images available online, assuming this project doesn't fall through, of course lol. You do your thing and we'll do our thing and see what comes out of it, yes?

[Xem]

Skill 2: “Angelic Flight” / α / Once per Turn / Move this unit to another spot on your Battlefield. This skill can only be used if this unit has not yet taken an action this turn.

This mean she can't use this skill if she attacks? Or she can't attacks if this skill is used?

Or she can use her skill before any other action, but this doesn't deny other actions?

[Nanaka]

This mean she can't use this skill if she attacks? Or she can't attacks if this skill is used?

Or she can use her skill before any other action, but this doesn't deny other actions?

Simply put, this means that as long as she is untapped, you can use this skill to move her free of charge,without having to tap her. (Reminder that normally when u move a unit it will be tapped)

However, if some other skill has caused her to be tapped, you cannot use this skill to move her anymore.

[eclipse]

Simply put, this means that as long as she is untapped, you can use this skill to move her free of charge,without having to tap her. (Reminder that normally when u move a unit it will be tapped)

However, if some other skill has caused her to be tapped, you cannot use this skill to move her anymore.

Let's pretend I have a dual-colored deck, and the following happens:

1. I attack with Caeda.

2. I use Olivia to untap Caeda.

Would I be able to use Caeda's skill to move elsewhere?

[Nanaka]

Let's pretend I have a dual-colored deck, and the following happens:1. I attack with Caeda.2. I use Olivia to untap Caeda.Would I be able to use Caeda's skill to move elsewhere?

Hmmm I would say yes.未行動 in the rules means untapped

Edited June 18, 2015 by Nanaka

[DifferentFight]

Currently binging through the whole thread, but only on page 10 so far. I'm importing two starter decks and a booster box and trying to get my local play community into it, though none of the cards I've seen so far really grab me so I'll just collect and play until a specific deck catches my eye. This month I'm launching a site for aggregating things like tournament videos and reports from Japan to try and get the word out about the game. (I'm pretty familiar with sorting through the Japanese blogosphere.) If there's any need for another translator, I can occasionally throw my hat in to help out.

One thing that I noticed going through the official site is that this game seems to have really taken off even before its launch. There are more than 500 shop tournaments scheduled in advance for the month of July...

Welcome, Touya! :D

For those that don't know; Touya's basically a reporter for (mainly) Japanese tournaments in Vanguard, so if we get the same kind of treatment for Cipher, we'll be able to keep up with all the decks currently topping in tournaments and all that.

Edit: Looks like we got a class changed Sumia revealed as well!

I decided to dig around on Twitter some more, and I found the foilings of some cards, along with a card we haven't even seen yet!

FE: if/Fates card designs spoiled:

Foils from both starter decks:

And finally, there's this Marth promo that we haven't seen before.

Sorry that it's such a long post; I personally don't know how to do the "spoiler" thing yet so that I could compress it all into one thing.

Hope this is news to everyone!

Edited June 18, 2015 by DifferentFight

[aubergine]

Boo-yah Touya, welcome! Glad to have you here.

Here's the translation for the Sumia card from today's tweet. Her CCS skill is pretty interesting in that it directly affects the support character's attack power, this might change strategies up a bit. It's becoming more and more viable to build a deck completely made out of Pegasus Knights and class-changed units thereafter.

Sumia (Gentle Flower of the Shepherds) – Rarity: Rare / Series 1 Booster Card #068

Cost: 3 / Promotion Cost: 2

Insignia: Awakening

Affinities: Female / Lance / Flying / Mount

Quote: “I will be your shield whenever you need protection!”

Skill 1: CCS “Cry of the Pegasus” / ∞ / Whenever another ally has a flying affinity unit as their support unit, that support unit’s support power is increased by 10.

Skill 2: “Angelic Flight” / α / Once per Turn / Move this unit to another spot on your Battlefield. This skill can only be used if this unit has not yet taken an action this turn.

Support Skill: N/A

Attack Power: 50

Support Attack Power: 30

Range: 1

Promoted

Class: Falcoknight

Title: Gentle Flower of the Shepherds

Card ID: B01-068R

Illustrator: Dokkoi

Simply put, this means that as long as she is untapped, you can use this skill to move her free of charge,without having to tap her. (Reminder that normally when u move a unit it will be tapped)

However, if some other skill has caused her to be tapped, you cannot use this skill to move her anymore.

Yep, this is how I understand it as well. The other caveat the skill has is that it can only be used once per turn, which makes sense. In the case of Olivia, yes you could use her to "un-tap" Caeda and then you could use the Angelic Flight skill, provided you hadn't already used it already earlier that turn.

EDIT: Oh wow, thanks so much DifferentFight! That's a treasure trove of new material!

Edited June 18, 2015 by aubergine

[Phoenix_Kensai]

Well, I managed to convince a buddy of mine to join with me to make a sim for this game (I would especially need him as he knows far more code than I lol), but we won't even get started until the full set releases with good quality images available online, assuming this project doesn't fall through, of course lol. You do your thing and we'll do our thing and see what comes out of it, yes?

That'll be the best way. While I'm guessing it wouldn't be hard to throw together a VASSAL module for the game, there's no guarantee I'll actually get around to it, and any dedicated program you could make would probably be better.

It wouldn't hurt to have two ways to play Cipher online anyway, though, in case one version doesn't work for everyone or something.

[Touya]

Finally got through the whole thread. There's something that I want to bring up on the translation front.

Aubergine so far has been localizing the kanji for each skill as a symbol, but I think that this may not be the best way to go about it. In Japanse kanji are advantageous because they have an inherent meaning that's obvious just from looking at the character, but these symbols don't translate that nearly as effectively as abbreviated text would. There's been some comments about how Cipher's lifted mechanics from Vanguard, and they're pretty much true; several of the skill kanji are identical in the way that they're used and the only differences are the associated colors. (Stand and rest is also identical to untapped and tapped states, of course. I do wonder if we should really call it "tap" at all, since it's not called タップ and "acting" versus "acted" states would be more accurate to 行動.) Presuming that the game gets popular enough to merit an international release, Nintendo's likely going to follow Bushiroad's route and use abbreviated words rather than symbols--i.e. 起 becomes ACT and 自 becomes AUTO. (There's not really any danger of lawsuits because Bushiroad does not have any claim on those kanji, or their English translations, or their functions in the game.)

In the meantime, I think we should emphasize user-friendliness with these translations to make it as easy as possible to get people into the game. Looking at English text and seeing a series of symbols isn't going to help intuitively describe what a skill does to a new player. That's part of the value of kanji too, that you can look at them and instantly get an idea of how the skill behaves. So maybe try this convention:

起 = Activate

常 = Continuous

自 = Automatic

攻 = Support

特 = Special

And then color code it on the English wiki and in other spaces, so that people learn to associate Activate with red, Continuous with green, Special with purple, and so on. What does everyone think of this idea? I want to support the game as much as possible, and I think part of that is making it easy to get into.

[Flamy]

I can see how it'd be. So... the backgrounds of the skill textboxes are of whatever colour it needs to be? I can get behind that.

[eclipse]

First off, thanks for the ruling answers~!

I don't mind having stuff like Auto/Act/Cont/etc. color-coded, as long as the colors aren't something obnoxiously light. Worse comes to worse, the symbols can be replaced with (ACT)/(AUTO)/(CONT)/etc., much like Vanguard.

[audiotronica]

That'll be the best way. While I'm guessing it wouldn't be hard to throw together a VASSAL module for the game, there's no guarantee I'll actually get around to it, and any dedicated program you could make would probably be better.

It wouldn't hurt to have two ways to play Cipher online anyway, though, in case one version doesn't work for everyone or something.

How hard would it be to make a Dueling Network style site/program where the players manually select which cards to use? I'm not familiar with VASSAL or programming. It wouldn't require super high quality images either.

Is anyone planning on scanning the cards once they get them? I need to look into getting a scanner.. Too bad I can't use the one at work :)

[Touya]

I have a scanner and can scan whatever I get out of B01 and the starter decks. Maybe we should divide up the work, since there's quite a few of us ordering cards?

A correction on Gaius, we currently have him destroying the card that he reveals, but the card actually reads something like this:

暗殺 起 [行動する] 相手のデッキの1番上のカードを公開させる。そのカードの出撃コストが3以上の場合、あなたは［リバース2］してもよい。そうしたなら、敵を1体選び、撃破する。

Assassinate: Activate: [Tap this unit] Reveal 1 card from the top of your opponent's deck. If that card has a deployment cost of 3 or greater, you may [Reverse 2]. If you do, choose 1 enemy, destroy it by battle.

("Reverse" is a term that comes from the Japanese wiki, it seems to be the term for flipping a bond. I'm not sure if it's official or not, but in my experience Japanese wiki writers are very fastidious about their terminology so it probably is.)

Basically Gaius specifies destroying an enemy, and doesn't actually do anything to the revealed card, which makes sense given that it's an assassinate skill. This also means that if you use Assassinate and his CSS goes off, it's a net -1 to the opponent and +1 to yourself. And cost 3 units only have an average support value of 10~20, so you'll know what's coming up during the next attack you make...I'm curious if you can use Assassinate on their lord to instantly break an orb.

[audiotronica]

And finally, there's this Marth promo that we haven't seen before.

Sorry that it's such a long post; I personally don't know how to do the "spoiler" thing yet so that I could compress it all into one thing.

Hope this is news to everyone!

To put a spoiler tag, type [*Spoiler] [*/Spoiler] and take out the * in the tag.

This Marth card will come with the September Issue of V-Jump.

Info taken from here

http://kizunafe0.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-12.html

雌伏の王子 マルス

上級職 スターロード

出撃コスト：3 CCコスト：2

60/20/1

暗黒戦争/男/剣

スキル

【果敢なる王子】【起動】【リバース2(?)】敵を1体選び、移動させる

【レイピア】【常時】このユニットが獣馬かアーマーを攻撃している場合、このユニットの戦闘力は+10される

A correction on Gaius, we currently have him destroying the card that he reveals, but the card actually reads something like this:

暗殺 起 [行動する] 相手のデッキの1番上のカードを公開させる。そのカードの出撃コストが3以上の場合、あなたは［リバース2］してもよい。そうしたなら、敵を1体選び、撃破する。

Assassinate: Activate: [Tap this unit] Reveal 1 card from the top of your opponent's deck. If that card has a deployment cost of 3 or greater, you may [Reverse 2]. If you do, choose 1 enemy, destroy it by battle.

Basically Gaius specifies destroying an enemy, and doesn't actually do anything to the revealed card, which makes sense given that it's an assassinate skill. This also means that if you use Assassinate and his CSS goes off, it's a net -1 to the opponent and +1 to yourself. And cost 3 units only have an average support value of 10~20, so you'll know what's coming up during the next attack you make...I'm curious if you can use Assassinate on their lord to instantly break an orb.

Your translation is right. I don't look at the English translations much so I don't catch these things. So, you need to have your opponent reveal a card with 3 or higher deployment and reverse 2 of your own bonds in order to activate the skill. You should be able to use the ability on the Lord, the terminology is the same on the card and on the rules [撃破]

Reference (2 Orb Area)

Edited June 19, 2015 by audiotronica

[audiotronica]

Double post, but deserves one:

Another great resource, this site has images and descriptions of 60+ cards from the booster. Not sure which ones haven't been translated, but I know there are some new ones here, and many of the ones marked "Untranslatable" on the GoogDoc. With the cards from the deck, is this complete?

http://kizunafe0.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-4.html

Edited June 19, 2015 by audiotronica

[demonspartanx20]

I'm wondering if they're going to make male robin cards as well, like I was thinking the female would use tomes and the male his levin sword n such maybe

Edited June 20, 2015 by demonspartanx20

[Phoenix_Kensai]

How hard would it be to make a Dueling Network style site/program where the players manually select which cards to use? I'm not familiar with VASSAL or programming. It wouldn't require super high quality images either.

I'm not familiar with the Dueling Network site, so I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but VASSAL is pretty simple. You generally have the board in the main window, your hand in another, and maybe separate windows you can open that hold spare pieces or whatever else the game requires. The program would handle things like shuffling and dice rolls, but players would have to handle most things on their own, mostly dragging and dropping cards where they need to go. You would be able to make and save custom decks, though, and ideally the module would come with images of all the cards.

OCTGN can get a whole lot fancier - look up "Android Netrunner OCTGN" on Youtube for examples - but that's much harder to put together. I think that would be a little beyond me.

[aubergine]

The two Owain cards shown off on Twitter earlier are now translated. These cards are some of the most well written in Cipher in my opinion, lots of references that capture the essence of Owain's character. Swordmaster Owain is particularly terrifying with his devastating attack and the skills that increase his destructive power even further. Also complete is the request for the Cost 2 Lucina that can be found in the Awakening Starter Deck. Haven't found a good picture for her yet.

As always, please don't hesitate to let me know if anything needs to be edited/changed. I really do appreciate it!

[spoiler=Chosen Warrior of Hope, Owain]

Rarity: Super Rare / Series 1 Booster Card #091

Cost: 4 / Promotion Cost: 3

Insignia: Awakening

Affinities: Male / Sword

Quote: “Damn, this isn’t Mystletainn…I can’t land the killing blow without it!”

Skill 1: “Blessed Demon Sword” / α / [Discard one “Owain” card from your hand] Until the end of this turn, this unit’s attack is doubled.

Skill 2: CCS “Apocryphal Brand Mystletainn” / ∞ / This unit cannot use critical attacks, but the orbs it destroys as a result of battle is 2. (CCS: If this unit was placed without the promotion unit cost, this skill is inactive)

Support Skill: N/A

Attack Power: 70

Support Attack Power: 10

Range: 1

Promoted

Class: Swordmaster

Title: Chosen Warrior of Hope

Card ID: B01-093HN

Illustrator: Rika Suzuki

[spoiler=Judicious Swordsman, Owain]

Rarity: Uncommon / Series 1 Booster Card #093

Cost: 1 / Promotion Cost: N/A

Insignia: Awakening

Affinities: Male / Sword

Quote: “Ah, Mystletainn! I could feel it beckoning me!”

Skill 1: “Apocryphal Brand? Missiletainn” / α / [Flip 1 Bond] Until the end of this turn this unit’s attack is decreased by 10 and the orbs it destroys as a result of battle is now 2.

Skill 2: N/A

Support Skill: “Fighter’s Emblem” / Attack ♥ / Until the end of the attack phase, your attacking unit’s attack is increased by 20.

Attack Power: 40

Support Attack Power: 10

Range: 1

Unpromoted

Class: Myrmidon

Title: Judicious Swordsman

Card ID: B01-093HN

Illustrator: Rika Suzuki

[spoiler=Sacred Descendent, Lucina]

Rarity: Common / Series 1 Booster Card #055

Cost: 2 / Promotion Cost: N/A

Insignia: Awakening

Affinities: Female / Sword

Quote: “No longer am I alone. Surely darkness cannot overcome us this time…”

Skill 1: “Royal Bloodline” / α / [Once per turn] [Flip 1 Bond] Until the end of this turn, this unit and all ally Chrom unit’s attack is increased by 10. This skill cannot be used if there are no ally Chrom units on the battlefield.

Skill 2: N/A

Support Skill: N/A

Attack Power: 50

Support Attack Power: 20

Range: 1

Unpromoted

Class: Lord

Title: Sacred Descendent

Card ID: B01-055N

Illustrator: Maiponpon / Intelligent Systems

In the meantime, I think we should emphasize user-friendliness with these translations to make it as easy as possible to get people into the game. Looking at English text and seeing a series of symbols isn't going to help intuitively describe what a skill does to a new player. That's part of the value of kanji too, that you can look at them and instantly get an idea of how the skill behaves. So maybe try this convention:

起 = Activate

常 = Continuous

自 = Automatic

攻 = Support

特 = Special

And then color code it on the English wiki and in other spaces, so that people learn to associate Activate with red, Continuous with green, Special with purple, and so on. What does everyone think of this idea? I want to support the game as much as possible, and I think part of that is making it easy to get into.

I completely agree about emphasizing user-friendliness. You've given me a lot to think about in terms of how to best handle the translation for Cipher. I definitely need to go back through and overhaul the system at some point.

I think each of the correlative words you have for those Kanji work well, except "起 = activate" (that and I'm pretty sure you meant 支 instead of 攻 for "support"). Indeed, 起 has been the most difficult Kanji to find a succinct idea-translation for. I don't think 'activate' conveys quite enough context, since these skills must be declared and paid for only during the "movement phase". It's close and perhaps is the best fit coming from other TCG nomenclature; I just wish there was also a way to convey that these skills must be done before the attack phase. I feel like "起 = Action" would work better, since it would give these skills a separate distinction from movement and attacking, and would retain the ACT abbreviation. If I were to go with this term, I'd have to revise many of the skills that refer to tapping as "taking an action" in order to avoid confusion. It might work better on the whole and benefit the translation project in the long run though!

I have a scanner and can scan whatever I get out of B01 and the starter decks. Maybe we should divide up the work, since there's quite a few of us ordering cards?

A correction on Gaius, we currently have him destroying the card that he reveals, but the card actually reads something like this:

暗殺 起 [行動する] 相手のデッキの1番上のカードを公開させる。そのカードの出撃コストが3以上の場合、あなたは［リバース2］してもよい。そうしたなら、敵を1体選び、撃破する。

Assassinate: Activate: [Tap this unit] Reveal 1 card from the top of your opponent's deck. If that card has a deployment cost of 3 or greater, you may [Reverse 2]. If you do, choose 1 enemy, destroy it by battle.

("Reverse" is a term that comes from the Japanese wiki, it seems to be the term for flipping a bond. I'm not sure if it's official or not, but in my experience Japanese wiki writers are very fastidious about their terminology so it probably is.)

Basically Gaius specifies destroying an enemy, and doesn't actually do anything to the revealed card, which makes sense given that it's an assassinate skill. This also means that if you use Assassinate and his CSS goes off, it's a net -1 to the opponent and +1 to yourself. And cost 3 units only have an average support value of 10~20, so you'll know what's coming up during the next attack you make...I'm curious if you can use Assassinate on their lord to instantly break an orb.

Ah, many thanks for that spot. I definitely goofed up on the translation for that card. I'll have to fix that!

I also noticed the "Reverse" terminology. It's definitely something that is agreed upon among the already installed Cipher fanbase in Japan. I'm not sure how a true localization team would handle it, but it seemed like most people here were more familiar with the 'Flip' terminology and it conveys the idea well enough.

As audiotronica noted, Gaius should be able to use Assassinate on a Lord card due to the "destroyed as a result of battle" terminology.

Edited June 20, 2015 by aubergine

[Ayra]

Thanks for the translations as always! That Lucina image is definitively not the right one though :)

Reading the promoted Owain card, my first reaction was "What's the point of his first skill? You can just do a crit instead", but the second explained it.

Definitively going for a Flyer deck (... if I'm lucky enough to get the cards for it). That Gaius sure got a whole lot better suddenly though!

That Japanese blog is awesome! So many previously unseen cards! Anna's the weakest unit (fighting-wise) in the game by far for her cost (3/2 unit, 20 power, 10 support). And I see some units with only 2 cost having 70 attack power...?

[FutureKnightX]

MORGAN!!!

Sorry, he just looks so very super cute in his art! I just wanna hug him and never let go! I may just have to collect those lol. Would kill for sleeves of that art. Morgan was my fave in that game (gender doesn't matter, cute either way).

Anyways, that blog really is awesome! The images are of fantastic quality and everything looks nice, neat, and clean! I will have to try (and probably fail lol) to explore that site, despite me not speaking or writing Japanese in the slightest.

As for the revealed cards, I was getting worried that Chrom and Tharja wouldn't get SR cards. Would have been kinda bizarre if they didn't. That Anna card is weird. Does make me wonder what exactly her effect is to warrant such a thing. She has my attention. And all those promoted cards! Just so many! I wanna see what they all do! And it's so nice seeing all the great art in one location!

I recognize most of the cards, but I'm drawing a blank on the third one listed. Who is he again?

EDIT: I just looked at the Anna card and I think she has an effect where you can have infinite number of her in your deck and out on the field, because, remember folks, she is Anna, after all lol.

Edited June 20, 2015 by FutureKnightX

[n98]

I'm not all too familiar with TCGs, what exactly is the key to the SR, R, HN, and N? Is it just rarity levels? So many of those SRs look so good.