Sire

Remember that Fire Emblem: Heroes is a free-to-play title. Making games is not free, there are employees to pay (voice actors, artists, programmers, etc.) and various bills (office rent, electric bill, water bill, etc.) Thus, most F2P games offer additional monetization besides cosmetics to entice purchases. FE: Heroes relies on a gacha model (RNG progression) as well as a stamina system. The gacha model tends to favor those who enjoy games of chance and gambling (I'll hit the jackpot, I just know it!). The key with gacha models is to provide a fair enough rates so players can win, but keep them low enough so players can keep buying in. The stamina system is meant to entice players to pay money if they are impatient and really wish to play the game and cannot wait (see any F2P title that relies on timers, "Rush Construction for 'x' currency?"). Of course, I prefer more consumer friendly prices, but as I have no hands-on experience, maybe the higher prices are justified. Either way, here is my "personal monetization model" if I was running FE: Heroes, version 1. * * * * * Back to the topic at hand, at baseline, 20 Orbs is approximately $13 (3 Orbs = $2 || 18 Orbs = $12 || 21 Orbs = $14 //// 1 Orb = $0.67). So, $13 for 5 characters, that seems a bit excessive in my book... Using the current purchase system, 20 Orbs will vary due to "bonus orbs." Out of curiosity, I tried some math. (US Money / Total Orbs) $02 => 1 Orb = 0.667 (Most Expensive) $10 => 1 Orb = 0.600 $13 => 1 Orb = 0.565 $20 => 1 Orb = 0.571 (It's a Trap!) $27 => 1 Orb = 0.563 $40 => 1 Orb = 0.534 (Best Value) $75 => 1 Orb = 0.536 The system is screwed up. Sure, overall the the more money spent the more value one receives, but $20 (a common price point) is rigged to be a bit more expensive. Also, one would think $75 is the best value, but the truth is actually buying in $40 increments is better (granted, loss is 0.002 cents, but it can add up for some people) Personally, I would be fine if it was $2 a hero, but would prefer if bulk purchases reduced the price to $1 a hero. Players who desperately want a certain character can pay more up front instead of relying on the RNG, but I digress.

Hmm... I can already see a Summer Event that gives characters swimsuits if Awakening's Summer Scramble and Fate's Beach Brawl are anything to go by. Given that there are multiple worlds, there has to be a place where Alfonso and company can relax (and perhaps the Masked Man and Veronica as well). Please let there be music similar to Conquest of Pride (Burst), that guitar is godlike. I can also see a Shadows of Valentia themed event in Late April-Early May (Japanesse Release Celebration, American and European Hype Marketing). Maybe they will have monsters or a "dungeon-like" map for the event duration. I think there will be also be the classic Halloween and Christmas events, with Christmas more or less already confirmed by the dataminers. Halloween could introduce monsters as a gimmick while Christmas may spawn "breakable presents" for cool loot during battles. Otherwise, I don't know of any crazy events besides the classics. Maybe one day have the player play as the generics against a character team? I have no idea.

Oh boy... I want too many characters, and this is just what we currently have available! I'll put it in a spoiler to save space.

I thinking the Masked Man is Zacharias (either truly himself or some form of him) until stated otherwise. 1. The Masked Man is not really an enemy, but not a true ally either. He warns Alfonso and company of Veronica's plan in Chapter 9. 2. The Masked Man hears of Alfonso's attempt at looking for Zacharias. The Masked Man tells Alfonso to stop looking. 3. The Masked Man is the only other OC character available and is practically the perfect fit for Zacharias. He could actually be Zacharias (which begs the question why no one recognizes him due to voice and the mask, surely his body silhouette should trigger something) or could be some transformed version of Zacharias. Granted, there are some things not really working in his favor. 1. Zacharias is a lancer. Masked Man is a mage. Granted, Masked Man is a buff mage, but is still a mage. 2. Datamined information says the Masked Man is named Bruno. This is currently the most compelling evidence against the connection theory. 3. I have not confirmed this, but if the Masked Man showed up somewhere while Zacharias was still around, it is possible they are separate people. (Unless Zacharias is Batman and turns himself into Bruno, the Masked Man.) 4. If not Zacharias, Bruno (Masked Man) knows Zacharias in some fashion, making the two characters distinct from one another. Thing is, there is not much story to go on. Currently in-game evidence suggests that the Masked Man may be Zackarias, but datamined evidence contradicts it. We don't know for certain until the story is expanded upon.

Main Team: 4* Sakura , 5* Ryoma, 5* Marth, 5* Cain 5 Star Team: 5* Ryoma, 5* Camilla, 5* Marth, 5* Cain Planned Main: 5* Felicia, 5* Sakura, 5* Ryoma, 5* Cain Originally 4* Felicia was the leader of my main team before I got Ryoma. I am thinking about putting Felicia back in and removing Marth. Marth is good against manaketes, has a passive heal, balanced stats, and Pivot for maneuvering, but I find Felicia's debuff skills, off healing, and anti-mage capabilities more useful in the long run. The problem is that my Felicia (and Sakura) are just 4* heroes and I don't particularly want to continue using them as excess levels are mostly wasted when they eventually promote to 5* status. My current planned Main Team... Felicia - Handles debuffing and magic users. She can also provide burst damage with her special skill and off-heals with one of her passives. Sakura - Healbot, but also serves as my sole magic user on the team to deal with foes with high DEF. The extra DEF boost is nice. Ryoma - Main Tank. His ability to counter even ranged attacks is invaluable and when paired with a healer, is almost unstoppable. Cain - Main DPS & Flanker. His extra movement and Brave Sword can crush enemy units before they can retaliate. Those who survive will deal less damage due to his Threaten ATT passive.

@ Thany Rare quotes are an artistic liberty. I doubt they actually exist in the game itself. Also, thread bump.

Inspired by some previous topics (You in Fire Emblem Awakening and Create a Self-Insert Character [Fates]), I find it appropriate to have one for FE: Heroes as well. So, in this topic feel free to share your own heroes. They can be self-inserts, fan characters, or even interpretations of other personalities adapted to the FE: Heroes setting. You are only limited to your own creativity. * * * * * Here's a list of all the characters made in this thread. Originally I was just going to do my own (because I'm a one way street), but I figured I might as well showcase everyone's creativity! If I made any mistakes with the list, please let me know so I can fix it! Notice: This list stopped being updated in May of 2017. It is kept here for legacy reasons. Full Characters Mini Characters

Q: How does Physic actually work? I know it is a 2-Range Staff that can heal 8 HP, but it also says it restores HP to all allies within 2 spaces of the target. Thing is, I never see the second function actually activate despite having a wounded unit right next to the target. Physic: "Restores 8HP to target and all allies within 2 spaces of target." For Example... 1234 A XXOX B XXOX C XHXX D XXXX X = Empty O = Unit H = Healer Say I have the Healer in C2 "heal" the unit in B3. I also have a wounded unit in A3. I know B3 will be healed 8 HP, but should the unit in A3 be healed as well? Reading the description, I think it would, but I didn't see it happen.

1. A "Battle Preparations" screen (even if just for advanced users) that show the map layout, enemy positions (bonus if it includes weapon type, more so it it actually tells what is there) and player positions (that can be changed around instead of being predetermined). Sure, it is another button and may not be "casual friendly" but to us tacticians out there, more information is greatly appreciated. 2. A "Crystal Exchange" shop. I don't mind trading at a loss, but sometimes I would really like certain Shards, Crystals, or Badges while I have a surplus of something else. 3. Add a starting healer, say Wyrs. Since healing options are rather limited, having a healer on a team can help immensely (unless dealing with burst-heavy enemy teams, but then again it is Human vs AI - kiting tactics can work if the terrain allows it.) * * * * * Otherwise, I would like to see an expanded deployment roster (up to 8 characters) and expanded maps (it could be a "Monster Hunter" or "Valkyria Chronicles 2" style version, with certain tiles leading to different maps), but considering the current formula I doubt this is going to be added any time soon, if at all. Also, thanks for pointing out the Customer Support thing. I may end up sending them my suggestions directly.

Well, the tier list is nice, but I love the list more because it gives me a nice layout of all the current characters. Glad to see my "A" team is rated fairly well (Felicia "A", Sakura "B", Marth "A", Cain "A"). Man, they could've all been "A" rank too if it wasn't for Sakura. Also, now that I have Ryoma and Camilla, they should buff up my team comps a bit once they get leveled. I look forward to how the tier list develops and changes over time.

Round 4 - Deep Devotion: 3* Jegan || 3* Gwyndolyn || 3* Henry || 4* Sheena || 5* Ryoma Seems like my luck is running out. As I now make an effort to ignore 3* draws, I am left with Sheena, but I already have her as a 4* hero. I also already have Jegan as a 3* hero. So, I retired both of them and used the feathers to unlock Anna's potential and will likely do the same with Alfonso, Sharena, and my 3* Hana soon. This round I was really gunning for Lyn (and a bit of Takumi) and was getting discouraged with the draws. Luckily, Ryoma is here to save the day! However, I would still like to get my hands on Lyn, Takumi, and Lucina (Male Robin can wait) while they are in focus, but grinding for Orbs after completing the main story on Normal is going to be difficult... In other news, I now have four 5* heroes I can use for a party (Marth, Cain, Camilla, Ryoma). I can now level them past 20 without much worry of having their progress reset as they are already at max tier. Marth and Cain are already around Level 25, so Camilla and Ryoma got a lot of catching up to do...

I'll throw my name in. Sire || 7982464171

Response in spoilers.

With enough time and investment.. Alfonso - He is a bit in an odd spot. His "active skill" heals him, one of his passives has him deal damage while on the offensive, another passive increases Att of allies, and his weapon special deals more damage as he has lower health. In a sense, he is a character that likes to play with HP manipulation, staying low to deal damage but recovering before death with his heal (or the weapon special acting somewhat as an insurance policy). His weapon special may be made more difficult to use if the player likes to run a party with a healer, but at least he will remain a somewhat solid offensive swordsman. Sharena - Probably the most useful early on due to her Rally Attack skill and remains consistent throughout. Her extra Speed skill may not be as desirable as others, but giving adjacent allies DEF and her weapon special lowering the ATT of enemies makes her a solid "all-rounder." Anna - Anna may become the most solid unit overall. Besides dealing extra damage with her active, she has Vantage (which is crazy at Tier 3, 75% HP or less before activating). As a bonus, her weapon special allows her to warp to nearby allies when on low health (when Vantage is not enough) and can give adjacent allies Resistance after she does combat. The problem is, compared to existing characters (say Alfonso to Lyn, Sharena to Azura, and Anna to Hector // or even characters at 3* rank such as Hana, Oboro, and Arthur), almost everyone else will outclass them initially and continue to stay strong as they level up. The only real thing going for these three heroes is that FE: Heroes is "their title game" and their "balanced" gimmicks. I plan on using them for lore reasons, but my other characters definitely outclass these guys. Even if I end up maxing everyone out, I'll probably still use other characters because I like them more or find their traits more useful for my playstyle.

Finally got enough orbs for a third pull. Third ever pull here, and I got a 5* Marth and 5* Cain on my second. Results [Deep Devotion]: 3* Lissa || 3* Barte || 4* Roy || 4* Arthur || 5* Camilla Was personally hoping for a 5* Lyn or a 5* Takumi, ended up getting a 4* Roy (a bit disappointing, but bearable. I saw the cutscene and was hyped for a 5*, but nope, it was a 4*) but then Camilla showed up to take pity on me. While I like Lissa and Barte (and Lissa's skill set seems really solid), I am going to refrain from using 3* or lower characters unless absolutely necessary or if I really favor that unit. My mind may change due to possible surplus of 3* promotion mats, but otherwise it just makes more sense to focus on 4* or higher in terms of efficiency. Oh, and I almost forgot about Arthur (JUSTICE!). I love the guy and will use him, but I guess his unlucky streak even makes its way into real life if I almost forgot about him...

Edit: Pointed out information for my particular Roy. Posting screenshots. Do you also want duplicates (from different users or the same user) or just ones not found yet? (I probably should shrink the pictures down by 50%, they are like a MB each.) Arthur, Roy (Alt) == Roy has +1 Res but -1 Def compared to Vincent's Roy. All other parameters seem identical.

Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I'll put up screenshots. Camilla

Edit: Added some characters - Hana, Virion, Sophia. || In general, if min-maxing, it may be better to ignore 3* units and focus on 4* or 5* instead. Unless there are characters that are exclusively 3* or lower (such as the three "main lords"), it may be better to wait on "unlocking potentials" until drawing a higher star version of your favorite unit. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Well, this is not related to characters and skills, but I went ahead and (selfishly) compared star ratings to drop rates for some of my favorite characters. The main purpose of this is to see if it is worth training a favorite character or wait until one gets a 5* or a 4* version of them. Remember, this is not a comprehensive list, just the characters I am interested in. This information is taken from the main Serenes Forest Heroes section, but is simply displayed differently.

I would love to use it on my 4* Sakura, but the cost is a bit excessive to jump her to 5 stars... Realistically, I'm probably going to end up using them on the Heroes Trio (Alfonso, Sharena, and H!Anna). Eventually I want them to reach 5 stars and it seems upgrading them the "long way" is the only real method to get them there. Otherwise, I'll have to research more on heroes I want to 5* but don't start off as a one. Then there is the matter of getting said heroes in the first place...

Lots of nice character art in there. I now have my character wishlist! 39 Characters so far, with an additional 11 that are just "okay." Now just to research their drop rates and star rankings... Back to the topic on hand, I hope they use the same artist when Erika and Ike make their proper release (based off of their "4th" picture). I really like the art style used for Erika and Ike looks pretty cool too. However, if Chrom is anything to do by, I think those are just promotional artworks for those characters and the in-game versions will be different.

1. Matthew (2*) - Initially my best unit out of the starting cast, he quickly got outclassed when I started messing around with my other units. 2. Felicia (4*) - Is there a map heavy magic magic users? Felicia can solo it. Heck, Felicia soloed Ryoma during his duel chapter (since I have Felicia being the "leader" of my main team). She is an invaluable asset. 3. Cain (5*) - Brave Sword+, an extra movement space because he is a Cavalier, and with skills and growths that boost his surviability?! Cain is "The Bull" for a reason! (Also, he reminds me of Adol from the Ys series, but I guess I could say that with any red-haired swordsman.) 4. Marth (5*) - Marth is all right. He has some balanced growths, what sets him apart from the main cast is is Falcion's auto-heal ability and generally higher numbers. Otherwise, I probably would prefer a different unit. 5. Hana (4*) - Life and Death man, Hana is a straight up glass cannon. However, she is quite good at what she does and still has a solid spot on my roster. 6: Sakura (4*) - My primary healer. It helps that staff users can also attack now, so she can also serve dual purpose to deal magic damage in my primary physical team. Team Comps "A" Team - Felicia, Sakura, Marth, Cain "B" Team - Felicia, Sakura, Hana, Sheena

I try to use the Heroes Trio (and the starting Matthew) for lore and story purposes, but gameplay wise they just are not up to par with my other characters. I got the idea to try and level them up to 20 so I can raise their star level, but then I run into the problem of needing all of the special materials in order to advance. Even then, such resources are probably better allocated to "promoting" my other heroes. In short, I try to use them for their story significance. Otherwise, almost any summonable character will outclass them practically immediately.

I am loving FE: Heroes at the moment, but I am definitely starting to see the flaws after sleeping on it for a day. 1. Your starting heroes (The three main lords and the other three bonus units, all 2 stars) will begin to fall off rather quickly after Chapter 3. It will become extremely difficult for these units to play the later chapters unless they are overleveled, and if they are overleveled, they get no experience from it. 2. The game highly encourages players to use many characters (as an alt-a-holic, I am okay with this). However, if one is trying to go the "pure F2P" route, it can become difficult to find enough members to form various teams for various difficulties. [I am trying to use my basic character set for the main story, but they are lagging behind enemy progression despite being similar levels. I do have an alt team for story and another team that can do Hard mode, but I am currently limited in my options.) 3. The game highly encourages players to use higher star units. I have a 4-star Felicia who is serving up anyone who comes her way (especially mages) but 5-star Marth and Cain are outright ridiculous with their power level. Lower star units (especially the starters) fall off rather quickly. They are still usable, but don't expect a full team of low star heroes to make it through unscathed every chapter. 4. Prepare for the long haul if one is looking to promote units to the next star tier. Not only they have to be level 20, the unit will require a lot of special materials mostly obtained from the Training Tower. Even then, once upgraded, I believe the unit goes back to being level 1, so it may have to be leveled multiple times to get to a 5-star ranking. * * * * * The negative points aside, FE: Heroes, despite its simplicity, it definitely a Fire Emblem game. Some levels I have to sit back and even think a few moves ahead on how I want to proceed, and there is the classic "Do I attack now, or wait for the enemy to attack me and finish them off next turn?" scenario. The callbacks to classic maps (the Birthright world has two maps that will definitely trigger memories from Fates) is also fun and enjoyable to see. I would love expanded maps and an expanded roster (up to 6 or even 8 units), but considering FE:H is a mobile game, I doubt it will be added. Some of the character art is outstanding, and hearing the voices of classic characters is an easy trip down memory lane. So yeah, overall I still love playing FE: Heroes and look forward to how it develops. Now, if only I had more orbs for more characters...