A Serious Analysis of Enemy Promotion Item Budget

[riariadne]

Okay, not really. This has nothing to do with the gold values of promotion items for enemies, sorry for the big letdown.

Based on a conversation I had on Discord, I decided to look further into when enemies start promoting in Fire Emblem games. At first I was only looking at "when do unpromoted enemies stop showing up in maps?" which I found out was appallingly late for most games, but I decided to break things down further. Here are some bits of trivia for enemy promotions in each Fire Emblem game, with the exception of Fates, which I don't have an easy way of checking and could not be bothered to track down maps for. Also, I only counted main story maps for games where you can do chapters out of order. Also I ignored postgame content.

Some games have tricky exceptions, but one general rule I want to put in place first is in the case of what I counted for classes that don't promote. For the sake of argument, weak classes like Soldiers are clearly meant to be ranked with unpromoted enemies (and in some games Soldiers promoted), whereas Manaketes (and Laguz in Tellius) are obviously intended to be bigger threats, so I counted them with promoted enemies.

That out of the way, let's start:

Shadow Dragon: Emereus from Chapter 6 is the first promoted boss, and all bosses after are promoted too (or Manaketes), with the exception of Chapter 8's Kannival. The first generic promoted enemies are actually earlier- there's a pair of Horsemen in Chapter 4. In the original FE1 Hunters didn't promoted and instead Horsemen were an individual class, so if you ignore them, then the first promoted generic enemy is the non-Minerva Dracoknight in Chapter 7. After that, there's a Hero and Dracoknight in Chapter 10 and 4 Horsement reinforcements, Chapter 12 has a General and Sniper, Chapter 14 has a Sniper, Chapter 15 has a Bishop, before finally promoted enemies start showing up as mainstays in Chapter 16. There is only a single map in this game without an unpromoted unit! That map is 24x, not in the original FE1. Even Endgame has Fortify Curates. At least every combatant is promoted.

Gaiden/ Shadows of Valentia: Here's our first interesting case. Not only are their 3 tiers for some classes, there are also two routes going on simultaneously, so the order can be a bit shaky. What's more, some enemy classes don't really fall on a tier level (mainly Witches). I've decided not to count any of them as unpromoted, because they're generally all quite threatening.
For Alm's route, the first tier 2 enemy is Slayde as Chapter 1's last boss (okay Desaix is there too if you're a grinder) and a generic Knight is there too. From there on, there's a pretty consistent flow of tier 2 enemies, both generic and boss, on his route. The first tier 3 enemy is a Bow Knight, who was unnamed in Gaiden but named Lawson in Shadows of Valentia. From there almost all of the tier 3 enemies on Alm's route are generic in Gaiden, but named bosses in Echoes (the exception being Shizas the Gold Knight, who is replaced by Berkut in Echoes). This lasts up until Nuibaba's Manor, which has a whole bunch of tier 3 units. After that there are a good amount of tier 3 enemies and bosses for the rest of his route. Notably, Rudolf's map has only tier 3 enemies and Cantors.
For Celica's route, the first proper tier 2 enemy is Wolff (or Blake if you go north), all the way in Chapter 3. However this is a bit dubious because there is a Cantor enemy in Chapter 2, as well as a Dracozombie which is very obviously stronger than the monsters fought before it. Then, at Grieth's Citadel, there's Grieth himself, a Dread Fighter, and also the first generic tier 2 units of the route. Celica starts fighting Tier 3 generic enemies in the first map of Chapter 4.
After Chapter 4 starts on both routes, tier 1 enemies are almost completely done away with. However! The last unpromoted enemies, even with all the put away is... Chapter 5. Yep, in Alm's gauntlet, there are unpromoted Bonewalkers and Gargoyles. Probably just in case you didn't use Alm that much, for whatever unholy reason.

Mystery of the Emblem/ New Mystery: This is a lot more straightforward. The first boss is a promoted unit... though you don't have to fight Lorenz. But the second boss, Rumel, is also promoted! And there are generic promoted enemies in chapter 2 also. In fact, there are promoted generic enemies in every chapter except Chapter 4 and the dragon maps, and there are no unpromoted enemies at all after Chapter 16 (though there are Soldiers in Chapter 17). The only boss in the whole game that could promote further is Ellerean and he's recruitable, though Chapter 4 has Guile the Pirate and Chapter 7 has Dahl the Thief. This is the best showing for promotions so far, and arguably best or second place overall.

Genealogy: Genealogy has a weird class system. Promotion is... fairly arbitrary due to the level 30 system, so I won't bother going over the promoted status of bosses and such. But what I can say is that there are unpromoted enemies in Reptor's squad at Velthomer in Gen 1, and unpromoted Dark Mages also in front of Velthomer in Gen 2, respectively the final and penultimate castles to seize. That is very late. At least Julius in Belhalla only has the Dark Warlords!

Thracia 776: Thracia, on the other hand, has a much more normal class system. There is a generic Warrior in 2x, and every boss from Chapter 3 onwards is promoted (in the chapters that have bosses, anyway. Some don't... Thracia is weird too). And it therefore also has no excuse for the Final Chapter having generic Dark Mages and Armor Knights. Well, maybe the Dark Mages have an excuse, because they wouldn't want them to share a map sprite with Veld...
EDIT: It was brought up that Dark Mages are technically promoted from Loptyr Mages, even though I don't think there are any enemies of that class at all. But they give promoted EXP, so fair enough. In that case, 24x has only promoted enemies, and Chapters 23+24 also only have them with the exception of Thief reinforcements. Also, Thracia is one of the games that does throw promoted enemies at you earlier, which gives points in its favor, but, Final still has Armor Knights, which is disgraceful.

Binding Blade: Laygans from Chapter 8 is the first promoted boss, and then every boss from there is promoted (okay there's a random named Bandit in Elphin's version of Chapter 10 but he's not the chapter's main boss). Elphin's version of Chapter 11 also has the first promoted generic, a Berserker. Every chapter from 12 on mixes in generic promoted and unpromoted enemies, and I do mean every chapter, with the only exceptions being 24 and final which are all Manaketes. Chapter 22 has a higher percentage of promoted enemies than unpromoted, and maybe Chapter 23 (I got bored counting really fast), but other than that it is a poor showing. And let's be honest, Idoun is such a bad final boss she can probably be thrown in with unpromoted units...

Blazing Blade: This is the game that prompted me looking into all this in the first place. I'm ignoring Lyn Mode. Bernard of 16E/17H is the first promoted boss, and bosses stay promoted except for Zoldam the Shaman of 17E/18H, which is two chapters later if you don't skip the Port Badon gaiden map. But the first generic promoted enemies aren't until Genesis (22xE/23xH)! If you don't go to Genesis, you don't see any promoted enemies until a single Sage in 24E (Vaida's map) or a Warrior and Bishop in 25H (the three castles map). It does not get a lot better. Unpromoted enemies do not go away until the Final Chapter in Eliwood mode and 32xH! In 30E/32H, a majority of the enemies are still not promoted. That is insanity. For shame, FE7.

Sacred Stones: Tirado the General is our first promoted boss here (I am not counting Chapter 4's entombed), and every other boss after stays promoted too, even the monsters. Chapter 9 Eirika has a random Sniper, and both routes have some promoted monsters in Chapter 11. Other than that, it is unpromoted-fest until Chapter 13 Eirika (ft 3 Rangers) and Chapter 14 Ephraim (ft the two most bullshit Druids in the world and two almost as bad Bishops). Chapter 14 Eirika has none, but Chapter 15 and 16 have a good amount and then it's mostly promoted from there. It is only all promoted in the Final Chapter, which is disappointing. However, Chapter 19 starts about 50/50 and then has tons of promoted reinforcements, and Chapter 20 is almost entirely promoted monsters, so it isn't quite as bad as some other games.

Path of Radiance: The first promoted boss is Balmer, a sage in Chapter 7 of Path of Radiance. Weirdly, the next boss Kamura is a Knight, but they are promoted from there on out. Chapter 13 has a handful of promoted generic Halberdiers, Chapter 16 has a single Sniper, and then starts mixing in promoted enemies more generously as the game goes along. What I was surprised to learn is that after Chapter 24, there are actually only two unpromoted enemies in the entire game left- a pair of Knights near the start of Chapter 27. A pretty good showing for Path of Radiance.

Radiant Dawn: This is another tier 3 game. Starting with Radmin in 1-8, bosses hit tier 2, and never dip back down to tier 1. Then, tier 2 generics start in in 2-2, then pick up a lot in Part 3- almost every enemy is tier 2 there (except for some weird exceptions in 3-12 and 3-E, and also invariably all of the Dawn Brigade units that you didn't use when they're enemies, but they don't really count). Then part 4 rolls around, and enemies are nominally tier 2, but they are all secretly a buffed version of the class they are named after. Starting in 4-3 every boss except Numida is tier 3 (Izuka has a mastery skill so he counts), but generics never quite hit tier 3. Probably for the best, since Mastery skills on every enemy would be just awful. You could say that the majority of the game is promoted but that's a little cheap- still, the tier 2.5 enemies of part 4 are a marked increase, so there's definitely something to be said for that.

Awakening: Last but definitely not least. Validar is promoted in Chapter 6, then every boss starting in Chapter 9 with Campari is promoted. There's a Sage and Hero in the climactic Chapter 11, and from there promoted enemies start appearing quite frequently. Impressively, there are no unpromoted enemies after Chapter 16 at all, which I was surprised to find out. I would say Awakening has the best promoted enemy showcasing because of this, with Mystery being arguable. Say what you will, but Valm and the Grimleal don't skimp out on Master Seals.

Anyway, that's all I have to say. This post is pointless and I just spent 3 hours on it. I hope some people enjoy reading it.

Edited January 8, 2018 by Reinfleche
Thracia stuff

[Reality]

Shadow Dragon and New Mystery kick ass, just like I remember.

I know the Awakening things surprises people because of the game's memetic low difficulty, but I also remember DonDon or someone saying that it was the only game impossible t 0%.. It might be an easy game, but it does assume that the player takes advantage of every unit being a growth unit. 

The only thing that surprised me on the list was Path of Radiance - I knew the Elibe games were terriblely kid-gloved about promoted enemies, but I remembered PoR doing it too. Maybe it just feels that way due to  the first all promote-map being that multipart chapter.

[X-Naut]

First off, I think a better topic title would have been "Enemy Promotion Timeline" as opposed to "Enemy Promotion Item Budget". It's more clear on what the discussion is about.

Shadow Dragon and New Mystery's always felt weird to me with promoted enemies showing up so early. It may be me being accustomed to the level 10 restriction on player units, but seeing level 1 promoted enemies next to level 1 unpromoted enemies rubs me the wrong way. I feel as though the level curve should be advancing faster than it is, or in the case of New Mystery start at a higher baseline in Chapter 1. Maybe if I played the classic versions it would feel less out of place, as the remakes adopted GBA stat standards without changing the enemies. Thracia's older stat standards make the promoted enemies feel less out of place, and Gaiden/SoV's enemy composition is well-tuned to its different enemy progression.

Aside from that most of these are spot-on. I feel Binding Blade had a great showing early on, but then Chapter 12 rolled around and the level curve dropped to a snail's pace. Hard Mode bonuses scaling to difficulty somewhat helps but does not fully fix it. Still better than the other GBA games. Awakening's progression is great aside from the enemy level monotomy.

[Valkama]

3 hours ago, Reinfleche said:

Thracia 776: Thracia, on the other hand, has a much more normal class system. There is a generic Warrior in 2x, and every boss from Chapter 3 onwards is promoted (in the chapters that have bosses, anyway. Some don't... Thracia is weird too). And it therefore also has no excuse for the Final Chapter having generic Dark Mages and Armor Knights. Well, maybe the Dark Mages have an excuse, because they wouldn't want them to share a map sprite with Veld...

Dark Mages are promoted enemies in Thracia, they give promoted exp and even one of your units promotes into one.

[Jotari]

Shadow Dragon's prepromotes are a bit deceptive. The horseman and draco riders typically have bases on par with unpremoted enemies. And later, they keep using pegasus knights but give them the basis of promoted enemies. I think I would have referred if they did away with such nonsense and split the draco knights and pegasus knights into two seperate classes like most games. The playable horseman manage to be interesting though, being prepromotes with massive growth rates but tier 1 bases.

You didn't say much about Thracia. I remember it was pretty liberal about throwing promoted enemies at you in early game. Made for some tense atmosphere in the Manster escape, even if they don't pursue you (aside from Galzus). On the opposite side, unpromoted enemies stick around in mass for a very long time.

3 hours ago, Reality said:

Shadow Dragon and New Mystery kick ass, just like I remember.

I know the Awakening things surprises people because of the game's memetic low difficulty, but I also remember DonDon or someone saying that it was the only game impossible t 0%.. It might be an easy game, but it does assume that the player takes advantage of every unit being a growth unit. 

The only thing that surprised me on the list was Path of Radiance - I knew the Elibe games were terriblely kid-gloved about promoted enemies, but I remembered PoR doing it too. Maybe it just feels that way due to  the first all promote-map being that multipart chapter.

Huh, really? How far into the game can you get before you just hit a wall? I'd say it's more than possible if you're permitted to buy units from the logbook.

Edited January 8, 2018 by Jotari

[riariadne]

3 hours ago, X-Naut said:

First off, I think a better topic title would have been "Enemy Promotion Timeline" as opposed to "Enemy Promotion Item Budget". It's more clear on what the discussion is about.

This is true, but less funny.

3 hours ago, Valkama said:

Dark Mages are promoted enemies in Thracia, they give promoted exp and even one of your units promotes into one.

That's true too. I forgot about that when I wrote it because Dark Bishop exists, though there are also no enemy Loptyr Mages either. In that case, 24x has no unpromoted enemies, and Chapter 23+24 have none except for Thief reinforcements, but the Final Chapter still has no excuse with its Armor Knights.

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

You didn't say much about Thracia. I remember it was pretty liberal about throwing promoted enemies at you in early game. Made for some tense atmosphere in the Manster escape, even if they don't pursue you (aside from Galzus). On the opposite side, unpromoted enemies stick around in mass for a very long time.

I mentioned how early they show up (2x) but true, I did call it out more for unpromoteds than give it credit for promoted units. Maybe because of its reputation for being one of the hardest games but it still doesn't bother promoting all the lategame enemies.

I edited in comments about Dark Mages for Thracia.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Thanks for collecting all this tedious minutiae! I can feel for ya since I've done similar stuff in the past.

 

I could've sworn Kishuna in Imprisoner of Magic (his first appearance) had two Snipers- they don't move so they aren't a threat though despite the Silver Bows.

Also, PoR Maniac Mode promotes all the enemies sooner I think. I believe Chapter 18 is a major shift that brings nearly everyone to promoted status I heard once. One LP of Maniac Chapter 20 shows only a Priest and some Wyvern Riders unpromoted. The reduced EXP gain on Maniac is partly countered by this abundance of higher classes, but from what I saw, besides being rather strong, Maniac enemies are ridiculously durable. Whereas I heard Merciless SD enemies get ginormous offensive boosts, but hardly if any durability boosts outside of the Speed increase.

 

As for Awakening, I noticed it does promote pretty quickly on my own. The biggest jump being Fort Steiger, and smaller ones coming at the start of the Grimleal Arc, and then Priam's Paralogue. This doesn't compensate for all its gameplay faults, and if anything encourages low manning perhaps so you can get so strong as to steamroll over the bumps, and that works pretty much to the end I think.

 

I do like RD's layout of: Tier 1 Part 1. Mixed 1-2 Part 2, All 2 Part 3, and SP/Tier 3 Part 4. But that they had to invent the SP classes in the first place indicates how, despite the flashiness of them, the Mastery skills were lazily handled.

 

For Blazing Blade, I think the abundance of unpromoted enemies helps with a Ranked run. Since it makes meeting the EXP requirement a little more bearable because that rank forces you to bring along weaklings. Then again, if more enemies promoted sooner, then you wouldn't need to bring such weaklings since your promoted units would actually gain good EXP!

For the GBA, maybe the abundance of unpromoted enemies isn't totally bad still, since Def values rarely hit 20 on even Paladins (SD has a similar issue I think). Hence unpromoted units remain able scratch you units; taking advantage of their low Skill and blending some dodgetanking into your repertoire solves this though.