FE4 Weapon Tier List

[Renall]

Weapons rank based on how well they help us throughout both generations. Merely being the best weapon isn't critical versus versatility and availability, but if it has those and is broken it counts. All potential users of the weapon may be considered, and you can consider both how a weapon helps many characters or how one great weapon helps a single character. If it's a pain to inherit, you can consider that too. Remember, Mt isn't everything since your AS and Evade are always lowered in FE4.

(Italics = Recent Change)

{ Bracketed = Debated }

Sigurd's Silver Sword Tier

Sigurd's Silver Sword

LOL

Holsety

Rescue Staff

{ Balmung /?/ Mistoltin /?/ 1st Gen Hero Sword }

Top Tier

Killer Bow

Reblow Staff

2nd Gen Hero Sword

Hero Lance

Hero Bow

Elwind

High Tier

Light Sword

Relive Staff

That Other Silver Sword

Hero Axe

Return Staff

Live Staff

Ichival

Armor Cutter

Wind

Resire

Mid Tier

Warp Staff

Thunder Sword

Wing Clipper

Earth Sword

Silver Bow

Silence Staff

Sleep Sword

Thunder

Slim Sword

Flame Sword

Fire

Slim Lance

Tyrfing

Wind Sword

Thoron

Berserk Staff

Javelin

Reserve Staff

Knight Killer

Silver Lance

Lightning

Gae Bolg

Defender Sword

Silver Blade

Elfire

Prayer Sword

Low Tier

Steel Bow

Restore Staff

Aura

Silver Axe

Recover Staff

Hand Axe

Barrier Sword

Thief Sword

Tornado

Elthunder

Valkyrie Staff

Bottom Tier

Steel Lance

Steel Sword

Bolganone

Steel Blade

Iron Bow

Steel Axe

Iron Sword

Iron Blade

Iron Lance

Iron Axe

Julius Kills Ishtar Tier

Berserk Sword

Thanks For Nothing, Julia Tier

Narga

Some stuff's probably way off, especially the positions of the Silver Lance and some of the staves. Oh well.

Edited June 18, 2010 by Renall

[Dr. Tarrasque]

I think putting Sigurd's Silver Sword above Holsety is putting too much on availability. Like Silver Sword, Holsety boosts the wielder's power (plus 1-2 range as opposed to just 1) but in addition to this it also grants +30 AVO, adds on the skills and basically makes its wielder able to move more freely in the range of enemies as it'll be more likely to survive and obliterate whatever comes its way (something Silver Sword can't due to 1-2 range existence among enemies), effectively saving you some turns with minor effort and luck involved and it's pretty good for hard to kill bosses, like Arion for example.

I think the Light Sword could go up, WTA (+20 AVO and accuracy) to all magic, specifically against the Wind Mages of Chapter 4 is pretty sweet.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Speedwagon

[Aquilae]

Rescue should go above Balmung. Shanan is a foot unit and while he does great against bosses he doesn't get the opportunity to snag kills as often as mounted units (he only reached Level 26 in my last playthrough). Rescue Staff saves a lot more turns in Chapter 4 / 5 / 9 / 10 / Epilogue, as both Leaf and Lachesis should have access to it and they can instantly catapult Sigurd / Celice to seize, or grab a dancer to move around multiple units.

Rezire should move down a bit since Julia isn't around for 10 and comes very late in Epilogue, and she may not be able to see combat often due to her low Move.

[Thor Odinson]

Tyrfing is missing.

And I want to say Restore should be a bit higher, it doesn't have to be up a whole tier but just a bit higher than it is now, because despite it's expenses, Infinite-use Sleep is a pain in the butt until you get Fee to kill all those Dark Mages. And those don't attack, so Fee can't counter-kill them. There's only a handful of units who don't fall to Sleep, which is quite annoying.

[Renall]

I think putting Sigurd's Silver Sword above Holsety is putting too much on availability.

Holsety is amazing but SSS is around basically the entire game, will almost certainly gain Critical, and probably kills more grunts + bosses than Holsety can.

Rescue should go above Balmung. Shanan is a foot unit and while he does great against bosses he doesn't get the opportunity to snag kills as often as mounted units (he only reached Level 26 in my last playthrough). Rescue Staff saves a lot more turns in Chapter 4 / 5 / 9 / 10 / Epilogue, as both Leaf and Lachesis should have access to it and they can instantly catapult Sigurd / Celice to seize, or grab a dancer to move around multiple units.

Rezire should move down a bit since Julia isn't around for 10 and comes very late in Epilogue, and she may not be able to see combat often due to her low Move.

Fair enough. Where should Resire go?

Tyrfing is missing.

Oops.

And I want to say Restore should be a bit higher, it doesn't have to be up a whole tier but just a bit higher than it is now, because despite it's expenses, Infinite-use Sleep is a pain in the butt until you get Fee to kill all those Dark Mages. And those don't attack, so Fee can't counter-kill them. There's only a handful of units who don't fall to Sleep, which is quite annoying.

I can't remember how often I even needed Restore, but it does serve a unique function nothing else does, so it should probably go up for that alone.

[Thor Odinson]

We must have really different play styles, then. I don't remember how many times I needed to repair Restore and Leaf running dangerously low on money.

...Maybe it's because I spam/favor Lakche too much.

[Renall]

There's a lot of noise in the list because there are quite a lot of weapons that are probably better, but used less depending on playstyle. Plus a lot of weapons no one uses unless they have to.

[Sophius]

Mistholin should be lower. In addition to not recieving it until ch. 7, it actually makes generation 1 harder. Especially if Lachesis is unpromoted/dead.

Also, I say the hero sword should be higher up. Not only does it have excellent availability, it is overpowered(especially if it gets 50+ kills) and it only costs a small fortune to repair(to oppose the holy weapons large fortune.)

Reblow staff should be also be about one or two spots lower. This is because the units that are capable of using the staff have trouble with funds due to A.) no way to atack before promotion and B.) poor offense after promotion. Granted, you can use villages/your thief but that would siphon resources from other needy party members(holy weapon users).

How about having the hero sword and Mistholin trade spots?

Also, the rescue staff and balmung should trade spots. Obaining the rescue staff in gen. 1 would mean making a statistically poor pairing, causing rester to be screwed and Lana to lose durribility. in addittion, the rescue staff is of no use until you get your master knights. Meaning Leaf won't use it until ch.8 at least. Whereas' , assuming that you pair aideen with someone other than Azel, Blamung will be aournd much longer.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Sophius

[Narga_Rocks]

Reblow staff should be also be about one or two spots lower. This is because the units that are capable of using the staff have trouble with funds due to A.) no way to atack before promotion and B.) poor offense after promotion. Granted, you can use villages/your thief but that would siphon resources from other needy party members(holy weapon users).

Um, Rana can easily beat the arena with wind if her father is Midayle. I'd imagine it's a godstomp if her father is Azel (though still using wind rather than elfire, probably). she 2HKOs nearly everything and is faster (goes first) and will have near 100 hit while not being OHKOd back. That's automatic wins up to battle 6 in most arenas.

Also, the rescue staff and balmung should trade spots. Obaining the rescue staff in gen. 1 would mean making a statistically poor pairing, causing rester to be screwed and Lana to lose durribility. in addittion, the rescue staff is of no use until you get your master knights. Meaning Leaf won't use it until ch.8 at least. Whereas' , assuming that you pair aideen with someone other than Azel, Blamung will be aournd much longer.

but many people value turns more than numbers. Rescue is saving you more turns than a better Lester ever will. That's why they are accepting it. Lachesis in ch 4 and 5 then Leaf as soon as he promotes (and you can get it to him, anyway).

[SuperTroll Maxim Lapierre]

Mistholin should be lower. In addition to not recieving it until ch. 7, it actually makes generation 1 harder. Especially if Lachesis is unpromoted/dead.

Also, I say the hero sword should be higher up. Not only does it have excellent availability, it is overpowered(especially if it gets 50+ kills) and it only costs a small fortune to repair(to oppose the holy weapons large fortune.)

Reblow staff should be also be about one or two spots lower. This is because the units that are capable of using the staff have trouble with funds due to A.) no way to atack before promotion and B.) poor offense after promotion. Granted, you can use villages/your thief but that would siphon resources from other needy party members(holy weapon users).

Staff users gain EXP much more quickly than non-Elite combat units and are the easiest to get to level 30. Aideen can and should pass down most of the staves down to Rana to use or to sell for dough. Libro is one of the least expensive staves out there. Not only that, Sety can also use it.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Don Giovanni

[Salad Utensil]

Does anyone even use fire once thunder is available (and thunder once wind becomes available)? They need to go down, the only point for someone to inherit them is to sell

Wow there's going to be a tier list for everything now isn't there...fun stuff...

Edited June 16, 2010 by Brighton

[Icon of Sin]

First thing that comes to mind is to separate Thunder and Fire Swords. The former is available before the Wind Sword in chapter 3, the latter is in some shop in chapter 7. Moreover, the Fire Sword wins much less weapon triangles, as most enemy mages use either Dark or Thunder magic in 2nd generation. The spell weight is also taken in account, and needless to say that being weighed down by 7 is better than by 12.

I'm sure the Hero Axe can rise up a bit when you consider it makes Lex a very good offensive machine, especially under half HP in enemy phases. Johan does similar as well, just not as good. It's also more available than all other Hero Weapons, so clearly I can't see why it's this low.

I don't think Wind should be this high. Not available until chapter 4 is pretty meh, and when you get Arthur you typically have something better, like Elwind and Holsety.

The Silence Sword isn't available, so you can pretty much delete that one.

Bolganone can go with Tornado for all I care. Appears later, must have Azel as a dad or only Leaf can use it and 12 Weight dooms it for good.

The gap between Silence and Berserk could be higher. The latter is only in the 2nd generation after all.

Finally the Silver Blade deserves a nice raise. Available midway in chapter 3 and being a sword should at least be higher than the Silver Lance. It's easily giveable to one of the swordkids and the weight is still pretty decent, especially when you consider Swordfighters have a 15 Spd base and auto Pursuit at base anyway. Delmud uses it rather nicely too.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Dio

[Renall]

Valid points, Dio. My logic on Fire is Azel does well with it early, before he has Wind available. For certain inheritance patterns it's also one of the best things you have available early in Gen 2. However, looking at it Fire, Thunder, and Thoron are still probably too high.

Forgot about the availability gap in the elemental swords.

Not sure what I was thinking on Bolganone, perhaps I believed someone without an Azel dad could make any use of it. It's in Bottom now but not at the very bottom.

I moved the Silver Blade and Hero Axe up slightly but I'm not sold on them being quite as good as everybody seems to think. Being effectively the only way to jump-start the offense of two characters out of many is pretty bad, though I suppose Lachesis and Leaf can use it post-promo. It's also very heavy, even though it's lighter than any other axe. It makes Lex competent, but the Hero Sword makes good sword-users awesome, and the Hero Lance/Killer Bow are versatile, can be passed around, and used in many capacities. I'm not quite seeing the comparison.

The bottom three tiers are gimmick tiers, not meant to be read as "worse than Bottom." Berserk Sword is fine, it just has a funny glitch, Narga is good but too limited to fairly tier, and Tornado is awesome but nobody can use it except Levin!Sety (who doesn't need it) and Levin!Tinny. Plus it comes so late.

EDIT: Oh and it doesn't matter whether an item requires us to make a specific pairing. We just think about how awesome it is when we have it. If we decide not to pair Fury or Tiltyu for some asinine reason we don't demand Holsety down because you might not necessarily have a user for it, because that would be stupid. If you want the Rescue Staff, you don't mind gimping Lester. The point is more "when we have the Rescue Staff, holy crap we save so much time." You can consider who can use it, sure, but it's not as important as how awesome the thing itself is. We don't need to argue whether Lakche or Patty or Celice should take the Hero Sword in inheritance, as that's actually a point in its favor as to how awesome it is that no fewer than three kids want it.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Renall

[Narga_Rocks]

First thing that comes to mind is to separate Thunder and Fire Swords. The former is available before the Wind Sword in chapter 3, the latter is in some shop in chapter 7. Moreover, the Fire Sword wins much less weapon triangles, as most enemy mages use either Dark or Thunder magic in 2nd generation. The spell weight is also taken in account, and needless to say that being weighed down by 7 is better than by 12.

yep, thunder sword >> fire sword. At least a tier. 12 wt is a major pain since it is a lot harder to double, and thunder sword may one day hit 50 kills. Fire sword doesn't have a prayer.

I don't think Wind should be this high. Not available until chapter 4 is pretty meh, and when you get Arthur you typically have something better, like Elwind and Holsety.

Bolganone can go with Tornado for all I care. Appears later, must have Azel as a dad or only Leaf can use it and 12 Weight dooms it for good.

The gap between Silence and Berserk could be higher. The latter is only in the 2nd generation after all.

Finally the Silver Blade deserves a nice raise. Available midway in chapter 3 and being a sword should at least be higher than the Silver Lance. It's easily giveable to one of the swordkids and the weight is still pretty decent, especially when you consider Swordfighters have a 15 Spd base and auto Pursuit at base anyway. Delmud uses it rather nicely too.

Tornado should be way above Bolganone. It's a great item to give to promoted Leaf. 2 wt, 1-2 range, 20 mt. 70 hit is an oh well but at least he has really good skill. WTA on thunder, as well. It's certainly his best 1-2 range weapon and probably only the hero bow is better at 2 range (of what he can use). Tornado a tier above Bolganone, minimum. And I have a question: how can you (Renall) forget that Leaf can use this thing, too?

And I wonder how "that other silver sword" is > "silver blade". silver blade allows units to 2HKO many things so Delmud/skasaher don't need heros or other weapons like them. both are available in chapter 3, so there is no availability issues.

[Renall]

Tornado should be way above Bolganone. It's a great item to give to promoted Leaf. 2 wt, 1-2 range, 20 mt. 70 hit is an oh well but at least he has really good skill. WTA on thunder, as well. It's certainly his best 1-2 range weapon and probably only the hero bow is better at 2 range (of what he can use). Tornado a tier above Bolganone, minimum. And I have a question: how can you (Renall) forget that Leaf can use this thing, too?

To be honest, I forget a lot of things Leaf can use.

Also Tornado's not being seriously tiered because I like the joke. You just had to go and ruin it by pointing out Leaf's legitimate and generally exclusive claim to it. Sigh. Where should it go in the real list? Remember right now it's essentially "untiered."

And I wonder how "that other silver sword" is > "silver blade". silver blade allows units to 2HKO many things so Delmud/skasaher don't need heros or other weapons like them. both are available in chapter 3, so there is no availability issues.

I don't necessarily doubt you, but can you provide some statistical evidence of how useful the Silver Blade is for Del/Skas to one-round things, and demonstrate that it doesn't significantly impact their durability? 6 Evade isn't an insignificant amount, though for the sword kid it might be if his natural Evade is decent enough. If you can demonstrate that Delmud's durability is not harmed in any meaningful way and his ability to one-round jumps quite a bit in the Mt gap of a Silver Sword vs. Silver Blade, I'm all for kicking it up.

[Narga_Rocks]

To be honest, I forget a lot of things Leaf can use.

Also Tornado's not being seriously tiered because I like the joke. You just had to go and ruin it by pointing out Leaf's legitimate and generally exclusive claim to it. Sigh. Where should it go in the real list? Remember right now it's essentially "untiered."

Well, it does have availability issues. Get it off an enemy in chapter 9 and then you have 10 and Final to use it. It's not around much. Elfire is Azel!Arthur's most damaging weapon until promotion (for if he only needs one hit or is facing axes, I guess). Tornado > Aura, though.

I don't necessarily doubt you, but can you provide some statistical evidence of how useful the Silver Blade is for Del/Skas to one-round things, and demonstrate that it doesn't significantly impact their durability? 6 Evade isn't an insignificant amount, though for the sword kid it might be if his natural Evade is decent enough. If you can demonstrate that Delmud's durability is not harmed in any meaningful way and his ability to one-round jumps quite a bit in the Mt gap of a Silver Sword vs. Silver Blade, I'm all for kicking it up.

Even if it just lets him kill two more class types, that's better than a mere 6 avoid. At the very least, it's an even trade-off. Then consider that even if it isn't killing more, that's still 12 more damage over a silver sword (doubling either way). That's bound to let "His Royal Weakness" (unpromoted Leaf) OHKO something he couldn't otherwise, or maybe Patty or someone. Having a 1 tier gap is just utterly ridiculous when you are trading 12 damage for 6 avo. Okay, granted Delmud may have some hit issues with it, but a swordkid probably won't.

[Icon of Sin]

Even if it just lets him kill two more class types, that's better than a mere 6 avoid. At the very least, it's an even trade-off. Then consider that even if it isn't killing more, that's still 12 more damage over a silver sword (doubling either way). That's bound to let "His Royal Weakness" (unpromoted Leaf) OHKO something he couldn't otherwise, or maybe Patty or someone. Having a 1 tier gap is just utterly ridiculous when you are trading 12 damage for 6 avo. Okay, granted Delmud may have some hit issues with it, but a swordkid probably won't.

Don't forget however that Leaf and most Patties won't double due to the lack of Pursuit. If Holyn!Patty's still considered, she's better off with the Hero Sword. Once she's promoted, fine I guess, especially since now she can use it.

Do remember that Delmud has a bonus 9 Skill on promotion and a lot of Speed to spare. First chapter enemies are also mostly axe users, from Armors to Fighters to Knights to Bandits, so his hit issues are probably very low. Even early chapter 7 gives us Dark Mages who like to weigh themselves down.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Dio

[Narga_Rocks]

Don't forget however that Leaf and most Patties won't double due to the lack of Pursuit. If Holyn!Patty's still considered, she's better off with the Hero Sword. Once she's promoted, fine I guess, especially since now she can use it.

Is this for adding to the silver blade's importance?

Do remember that Delmud has a bonus 9 Skill on promotion and a lot of Speed to spare. First chapter enemies are also mostly axe users, from Armors to Fighters to Knights to Bandits, so his hit issues are probably very low. Even early chapter 7 gives us Dark Mages who like to weigh themselves down.

so his problems may be from mid-chapter 7 until he promotes, right?

[Icon of Sin]

Is this for adding to the silver blade's importance?

so his problems may be from mid-chapter 7 until he promotes, right?

Just saying you shouldn't consider those, at least early on. The swordkids and Delmud are fine, but not them as you pointed out in your other post as they don't double. It's 6 damage in this case, not 12.

By then I think Delmud should've gained decent stats enough to hit most enemies nicely, especially if Delmud is the father thanks to Duel adding more hits. Lance users (which you face a good amount in both chapters 7 and 8) still weigh themselves down a lot with whatever they have, so he really shouldn't have too much problems. I'm not sure exactly where you see him promoting though. Chapter 9 maybe?

Edited June 16, 2010 by Dio

[Life]

Iron Axe > Hero Axe.

I'm taking the old cop out argument of "you need x to get y so x is responsible for all of y's shit".

[Thor Odinson]

Also, I say the hero sword should be higher up. Not only does it have excellent availability, it is overpowered(especially if it gets 50+ kills) and it only costs a small fortune to repair(to oppose the holy weapons large fortune.)

I agree that Hero Sword should go up as well. Or at least Ayra's Hero sword. There should be no problem for it getting to 50 kills by the end of Gen 1 or early Gen 2 unless it was deliberately not used, and since it's relatively cheap and passable it can be passed around to pretty much all the sword users to clear the arena with ease. And assuming efficient play, Ayra's only viable suitors are Lex and Holyn, both gives the Hero Sword and some nice love points to boot.

Ishtar (multiple times), Yurius (CH10), and Swanchika dude with 47 DEF all fell to Ayra's Hero Sword (I like to keep it on Lakche). It's certainly more gold efficient than the Holy Weapons--and the people stated before who wants it as inheritance--Lakche ROFLstomps the arena with an Iron Blade so money's not an issue, Patty hits things and get money so that's not an issue either, and Celice has Sigurd's Silver Sword. Or he should anyway.

And since it should be at, or close to 50 kills by Gen 2, Hero Sword is just going to get more kills, and the more kills it gets, the more crit it gets, which makes it even easier to kill things. I've had no problem getting both that and Sigurd's Silver Sword to over 100 kills.

I guess Celice's Hero Sword can stay where Hero sword is, since it comes at CH7 and won't have a chance to reach 50 kills unless you decide to reinforcement abuse it. But it's an awesome weapon regardless.

[Renall]

I'd rather not separate the two Hero Swords, but there is precedent and only one of them is available in Gen 1, which is a significant and meaningful availability gap. Do you honestly think it's better than Mistoltin? Better than Balmung? I'm sure people would raise holy hell about it going over Rescue or Holsety... but hey, argue it.

[Thor Odinson]

It definitely should go over Mistoltin, due to the issues it gives in Gen 1 mentioned earlier by Sophius. Mistoltin's only advantage over Hero Sword is the +10 Res (which saves him from being sleep'd but doesn't do enough to negate flying rocks of doom Meteo), whereas Hero Sword is slightly lighter, thus slightly more dodge (and due to the 1RN system 2 points difference is still a difference) , goes up in Crit much faster and is a lot cheaper to fix.

It should be lower than Balmung, though. Balmung gives a massive bonus to dodge, and while it doen't have that crit, it's only viable user(s) (Lakche and Skasaher could get it through a glitch) all have Meteor Sword, so that's not an issue as much. 62 max attack (Capped STR+Power Ring) can do damage on anything (not counting finalboss!Yurius). So if Astra->Continue activates on the guy with the highest defense, that's still 15*10=150 damage, effectively killing him. With the 10 SKL bonus, that's very possible.

But the +20 SPD definitely puts Balmung over Ayra's Hero Sword.

Edit: Another point for Hero Sword's case is that it can help anyone who has B Swords or higher, whereas the holy weapons are kinda stuck to one person. I've sorta mentioned it in the part about clearing the arena, but despite the fact that Lakche becomes broken monster of doom with it she doesn't need it to kill things effectively (The Other Silver Sword and Silver Blade both are viable options with that 30 SPD cap of hers), and it's useful to give the less broken units a chance to get more kills, which helps with leveling everyone.

Edited June 17, 2010 by Luminescent Blade

[Sophius]

Ayra's hero sword be at the botom of the lol tier, Mistholin should be at the top of top tier, and the other hero sword should be right below that. If you're seperating Sigurds silver sword with the other silver sword, why not Ayra's and Celices?

I'd also like to argue that the warp staff should be a couple spots higher. Even though its expensive, it seriously helps in various chapters when you need to move around the map quickly(which is just about every chapter). Also, its' available in ch.1, giving it excellent availability, and presents the user with massive exp gains.

And another thing, humourous as it may be, the bottom three tiers should be merged for the sake of comparisons(you can always put the hilarious tier titles as taglines after the weapons).

I believe the bottom tier should look like this:

Berserk sword

Narga

Bolganone

Tornado

The reason Narga should be higher than bolganone or tornado is that, even though the two tomes have more availability than Narga, they are completely useless for the time you have them, whereas Narga is very useful for the short time you have it.

Edited June 17, 2010 by Sophius

[Aquilae]

Narga is close to useless. You can kill Julius with Celice in less time than it takes to recruit Julia and bring her over. Tornado can help Leaf, and Bolganon's high damage can also help out in a pinch, much more than what Narga would do.

Mistoltin >> Balmung. Aless has more Move than Shannan and can see much more combat than he can. Mistoltin also gives Aless 10 Res which allows him to take on Alvis and dodge Sleeps in the Final Chapter.

I also think that Hero Sword could rise to top tier since it fixes the combat of weaker units such as Beowulf, and can let units like Delmud consistently ORKO. The Hero Sword is also great in the Arena as well. However, I find 50 kills on the Hero Sword highly unlikely. In my experience I have only managed to get the Silver Sword up to 50 kills while playing efficiently, and that was near the end of Chapter 5. I doubt the Hero Sword can get 50 kills in a reasonable amount of time as it comes much later and the units using it are either foot units or can't ORKO consistently.

Edited June 17, 2010 by Aquilae