New to Fire Emblem please help need to know the basics

[CaptainGhost07]

So I played Fire Emblem Awakening but i went in completely blind and did not know what I was doing but got a general sense of what to do. Im planing to play all versions of Fates with Permadeath on. But i need to know a few things to understand. Im was being told to only use master seals when a character is level 20 is that true? What are the best units to pair up? How does class change work and is it best just to use masterseals and no other seals? Feel free to answer any anymore questions I might have to understand the game.

Edited February 18, 2016 by CaptainGhost07

[gayserbeam]

The first thing you should do if you want to understand the game is ignore everything people here are saying about "practicality" and "optimization" and go in doing whatever you want. Those things are valuable in a way and I love to talk about them, but they aren't vital to enjoying the game and you won't understand why anything is practical or optimal unless you try everything yourself.

So this is my recommendation. Play Birthright first, put it on Normal Classic. Use Heart Seals on your units whenever you want to try out units in a bunch of classes. Generally wait till level 20 to use Master Seals, because you want those extra 10 level ups, but don't be afraid to use one earlier if someone is REALLY falling behind the rest of your party.

Reclass whoever you want into whatever you want with Heart Seals, Partner Seals, and Friendship Seals. The only general rules are that most magic units won't do to well in a physical class or vice versa, because the relevant stats will be too low. If the unit you are reclassing is a high level, you also might want to try to reclass to class that uses the same weapon as the class you are in, because you don't want to be stuck using E-Rank weapons all game.

When you pairup units, try to match stats. When you pairup two units, you can see what stats the pair up will boost. If you have fast, fragile attacker who boosts speed and a strong, slightly slower attacker who boosts strength or defense, pair them up. A good example is Kaze and Rinkah.

Generally, magic units boost magic, so you'll want to pair them together as well.

Pair up is important for defense and sometimes offense, but it's useless for someone who isn't going to fight anyway, so don't bother pairing up healers or singers.

Edited February 17, 2016 by gayserbeam

[Thane]

I'd recommend starting with Hoshido without permadeath on, seeing as you might get a few things confused or get surprised by newer elements of the game. There's no shame in being eased into a game regardless of what some people would have you believe.

It is better to use a Master Seal once a character has a higher level, yes. The logic is that you're limited to a set amount of levels without a very expensive and rare seal to boost the limit, so you need to make sure every level counts.

Pair ups aren't necessarily that important, I'd say, unless you want to breed the perfect army for the endgame which is not mandatory by any means. Don't forget now that you've got two stances in the pair up system, as opposed to the one in Awakening: guard stance and attack stance; the former lets you block additional attacks from enemies in attack stance and guard against a main attack every five hit or so, while attack stance lets a nearby ally attack the same enemy.

As for characters, some are better than others. Needless to say, the royals are all incredibly good although Elise suffers from a very, very low defense, so be careful when using her. Make the most out of Ryouma and Takumi's insane attack power and Xander's physical defense - even on hard mode in Conquest, Xander can completely negate some physical hits from a lot of enemies. Recommendable non-royals would be Effie, Keaton and Oboro.

There are a few characters I would advise against using while getting used to the game: Hinata, Tsubaki, Rinkah and I believe Odin all have rather poor stats and have better counterparts.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Thane

[Leif]

I was going to say what Thane and Gayserbeam already explained, so I will add some extra info.

For pairing units up, that can mean two things: partnering two units in battle, or making two units marry. If you are concerned about the former, you want a unit's battle partner to cover their weakness. Take Orochi and her horrendous speed stat, for instance. She'd love to have the ninja, Kaze, as a Pair Up battle partner because he'll give her more speed. For more info, visit the Serenes front page and hit the Fates tab and look at the pair up bonuses each character and class gives. All the data is there. Pair-up bonuses aren't as broken as they were in Awakening, FYI, so be mindful of that.

If you are talking about marriage between units, you'd want to have pairings that compliment a father's strengths. Azama is an interesting case since his growths and maximum stats push him towards a physical unit, despite being a magic-based monk. In Birthright, you'd want to pick a wife with a high strength stat so that Mitama, their child, will have a ridiculous strength growth. Again, you can determine child growth rates and maximum stats by looking at the Fates page on the main site. So far, it's speculated that children growths are [(Child Base Growth + Variable Parent Base Growth) / 2], with base growths referring to the probabilities of characters' stat gains per level up minus the class bonuses.

As Thane said, Royals are obviously good. However, I've heard Elise does pull her own weight, despite a horrendous Defense growth, since she is incredibly fast and lucky. If you are on the easiest setting, you can make any unit, despite being average or terrible, good enough to be a powerful unit. This is more possible in Birthright since you have the option to grind for levels.

tl;dr: Take a gander at all of our suggestions and do some outside research. This way, you'll learn a ton before you play!

Edited February 17, 2016 by Leif

[Avalanche]

I can't add a ton of new info, but I guess I'll throw my opinions in;

- Definitely start with Birthright Normal/Classic, as it will help you adjust to how Fates changes the formula up from Awakening

- From what I've heard (I haven't actually played Fates yet, Friday can't come soon enough...), all Routes of Fates are harder than Awakening with respects to Normal and Hard mode. Lunatic is much better designed and nowhere near as "Avatar Emblem" as Awakenings became.

- With the exception of the Boo Camp DLC Map, you are unable to gain EXP in non Main Story/Paralogue Chapters in Conquest.

- Child units return in this game and are obtained in the same method as Awakening; get the associated Parent to an S Rank Support. With 1 (possibly 2) exceptions, Children are tied to their Fathers this time around. You can start recruiting Children as early as Chapter 10.

- For Pair Up, it is nowhere near as broken as it was in Awakening, but it is still quite useful. As mentioned by the others, you'll want to develop Supports with Units that complement each other with their bonuses. Some examples include Rinka x Kaze (Rinkah gives massive Str and Def Bonuses, 2 stats Kaze needs), Hayato and Orochi (Both give each other Magic, while Hayato also boosts Orochi's low Speed) and Hana x Subaki (Hana boosts Subaki's lacking Speed and Subaki gives Hana some more Defense).

- Master Seals work the same as they always have (Promotes a Unit to Tier 2 if they are Lv. 10 or higher). With some exceptions (Azama), your best waiting until the unit hits Lv. 20, because infinite leveling is much harder to do in this game over Awakening, so you want to make each level count.

- Reclassing has been expanded on even further. Second Seals have been replaced with Parallel Seals, which let you jump into a secondary class without resetting your level (different from Awakening). You can also use Marriage Seals to switch into your S Rank units base class. Finally, Buddy Seals let you do the same thing for a character you have achieved an A+ Support with (essentially a non Marriage S Rank)

That's all I've got for now, feel free to ask if you have anymore questions :)

Edited February 17, 2016 by Avalanche

[CaptainGhost07]

Thanks for all the replys. I got a few questions regarding Azura. Should let my Corrin marry Azura or is that a bad pair up because i like those 2 together. Should I change Azura's class from singer to a differnt one because I heard people say singer is bad

[Leif]

Well if you pair a male Corrin with Azura, you'll miss out on getting all the children due to an uneven amount of females. This is true for Birthright; not sure about Conquest.

You're better off pairing a Male Corrin with a second generation female i.e. Rhajat Caeldori, Mitama, Midori, Sophie, etc. This way you'll get all the children and their respective paralogues.

Azura as a variable parent gives amazing offensive stats, but her defensive stats are horrid. She's better off pairing with Silas for Birthright since Sophie's natural defenses won't get hit as hard.

Azura is amazing as a Songstress because of "sing". She is NOT really meant for combat (based on her poor defensive stats). She was built to pass down great offensive growths and support other units. If you want to unlock her full potential, give her the support skill, Sun God (localized name not yet known) from the Kinshi Knight class. She learns great skills like Voice of Peace in her base class. She can support other units this way instead of reclassing her and missing out on her singing. She can act as an attack stance partner, but she should never fight on the front lines.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Leif

[Avalanche]

One of the downsides to picking a Male Corrin is that (unless you marry a Corrinsexual or a Gen 2 Unit) you will be unable to Pair everybody without leaving 1 guy single. That being said, don't let that stop you from picking a pairing you like, you'll always be able to pair up the person you left single during a Revelation playthrough.

As for Azura, it's really best to leave her as a Songstress. Since she is the Dancer unit, she will always have a great amount of utility in refreshing units. While she does have great stats for an offensive glass canon, the Dancer utility is more than enough incentive to have her stay in her base class. If you really can't help it, her secondary class is Sky Knight, so you can switch her to that if you choose. However, if you want to make her an attacker, I'd suggest marrying her to Silas so she can Marriage Seal into Cavalier, if only for a little more bulk.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Avalanche

[CaptainGhost07]

Does any one have tips for combat like what are the best strategies to use during a battle?

[Avalanche]

Honestly, the best advice I can give is pretty universal across all of FE, but here goes;

Above all else, don't rush things. Always make sure you look at enemies stats and Weapons, lock in their ranges and make sure you don't throw units (particularly ones that will be doubled) into situations you don't think they can survive. Unit placement is more important than ever with Attack and Guard Stance, so make sure you have characters who can Support each other stay adjacent to make your life easier. If you ever have the "I can't keep my healer alive " problem, it's highly likely you are not taking the proper approach to the Chapter). Also, Guard Stance acts as a means of negating enemies Attack Stance, so make good use of it.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Avalanche

[Leif]

Does any one have tips for combat like what are the best strategies to use during a battle?

Avalanche gave a good summary.

My success in Fire Emblem has to be my attention to detail. Read, READ, READ. Battle conversations usually give hints regarding when reinforcements show up and whatnot. Don't separate your forces--stick together.

I believe luring out enemies in this game doesn't work as it did in previous entries in the series. If you lure one stationary enemy, prepare for the rest of the enemy gang to follow. Mind your placement and your enemy's.

I recommend Normal and Casual mode for you. I know you want to have permadeath on, however, I think you need to get your feet wet first. Do it as a kind of "test-run". Then, when you beat the game, either play the other routes on classic mode.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Leif

[Shadow Mir]

Does any one have tips for combat like what are the best strategies to use during a battle?

Avalanche said most of what I would've said, but I can say this: Be mindful of enemy crit chances - getting hit with a critical can easily spell death, or set up an otherwise survivable hit to be a fatal one instead. Also, lowmanning isn't anywhere near as viable as it was in previous FE titles thanks to the new exp formula being stricter on higher leveled units.

Edited February 18, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[CaptainGhost07]

Is there anything else you guys think I should know before going in.

[Leif]

Just play the game fresh your on first run, then learn from your mistakes, research stuff and presto! That's how I became a better FE player, at least.

Edited February 18, 2016 by Leif

[Thane]

Is there anything else you guys think I should know before going in.

Remember to enjoy yourself, and you shouldn't let the sadly large pretentious minority of the fanbase let you believe that you have to play with permadeath on, especially if you're nervous you won't get very far without it. If you need any help, know that you can always ask anyone here for help and we'll do our best to back you up, alright?

Oh, and Takumi and Xander are broken, Pieri is a horrible character, Ryouma is a lobster, Garon is secretly a perverted armor designer (and you can't prove otherwise) and the attack animations are ridiculous.

[Pitchkart]

Take it easy, man. Ya gotta be zen if ya wanna play this game. Keep a cool head, clear, calm mind, and you'll make good decisions that will lead you to victory. If you get stuck on a particular map/section, set the game down and take a break, and often the answers will come to you better that way. Either way, you keep playing, and you'll keep learning. Nobody here was born a tactical genius; it's only been through grinding gaining experience playing that we've gotten as good as we are.

[CaptainGhost07]

Also one quick question Which characters are best to keep at base class and not upgrade and Which characters should I class upgrade ASAP?

[Shadow Mir]

Also one quick question Which characters are best to keep at base class and not upgrade and Which characters should I class upgrade ASAP?

Erm, as to that, do you really mean "reclass"?

[Avalanche]

If you mean as a 1st tier class, none. You should always promote once you hit 20. If your referring to reclassing characters, it's honestly more so down to a case by case basis

[Kanethedragon]

Don't separate your forces--stick together.

I wouldn't necessarily call this bit universal. General rule of thumb IS to keep your forces relatively close to each other, but in my experiences and on some cases in chaptes, you DO want to separate your forces so that the chapter can be played through easier as well as getting every possible goodie out there where if you didn't even send one small vanguard of units to punch through enemy lines of what may be considered Dead Man's Land, you'll end up missing out on that stuff, and sometimes these items could be EXTREMELY helpful towards progressing. eg. boots, staves, seals, and in older titles stuff like the Delphi Shield which is basically a no weakness item for fliers (we now have a skill for that though in Awakening.)

Pretty much, if the map has chests or split paths, be on the lookout for possible thieves or enemy reinforcement locations. Older titles also had bandits that could savage villages and homes.

Edited February 18, 2016 by Kanethedragon

[Leif]

I wouldn't necessarily call this bit universal. General rule of thumb IS to keep your forces relatively close to each other, but in my experiences and on some cases in chaptes, you DO want to separate your forces so that the chapter can be played through easier as well as getting every possible goodie out there where if you didn't even send one small vanguard of units to punch through enemy lines of what may be considered Dead Man's Land, you'll end up missing out on that stuff, and sometimes these items could be EXTREMELY helpful towards progressing. eg. boots, staves, seals, and in older titles stuff like the Delphi Shield which is basically a no weakness item for fliers (we now have a skill for that though in Awakening.)

My implication for sticking together was to reap the benefits of using attack stance more often. Of course there are exceptions, but my impression from gameplay videos, other people's commentary, etc. was to be very mindful of your units' placements, especially since the enemy can pair up.

Edited February 18, 2016 by Leif

[Kanethedragon]

My implication for sticking together was to reap the benefits of using attack stance more often. Of course there are exceptions, but my impression from gameplay videos, other people's commentary, etc. was to be very mindful of your units' placements, especially since the enemy can pair up.

Yeah, being mindful of unit placements though has always been a major thing since at least Awakening as depending on the difficulty, the AI, combined with a bit of RNG, may act radically different for a 1 square play. (eg. In one run you move a unit to a square that ends up screwing your entire playthrough of the chapter, while in another you just change up that unit's position by exactly one square and the chapter will pan out much differently. This was particularly prevalent in Awakening's early chapters on harder difficulties.)

[Mango Giamatti]

I wouldn't limit yourself by forcing your avatar to marry a Corrinsexual or a child unit (unless you want to marry one of them, of course). Pair yourself up with whoever you want. Yes, marrying a first gen female will lock you out of one child unit, but realistically you won't recruit all of the children unless you go out of your way to grind up support ranks.

As for general advice, try not to finish your player phase without a general idea about how the enemy phase will play out. Be mindful about how enemies will respond to your moves before you make them.

[JasonsOrigin]

If the unit you are reclassing is a high level, you also might want to try to reclass to class that uses the same weapon as the class you are in, because you don't want to be stuck using E-Rank weapons all game.

I need some clarification on this. Are characters stuck with the weapon rankings they're assigned all game or can this be increased through training?

[Avalanche]

It's the same concept as in Awakening. You carry Weapon Ranks through all of your classes, it's just that switching, say, a Lv. 10 Great Lord Chrom into a Lv.1 Sniper, wouldn't work out great due to his resulting Weapon Rank; E Bows. However, if he switched into Bow Knight, he would keep the Bow Rank he built up from Sniper and retain the Sword Rank he had from Lord and Great Lord. As far as I know, this same concept applies to Fates