Fire Emblem Path of Radiance FAQ/Walkthrough Ver. 2.5(complete with new FAQ smell) By Jonny Humphries AKA ilikefood42 Table of contents -Introduction [intr] -Controls [cont] -Stat Explanations [stat] -FAQ [faq] -Walkthrough [walk] -Prologue: Mercenaries [merc] -Chapter 1: The Battle Begins [theb] -Chapter 2: Rescue [resc] -Chapter 3: Pirates Aground [pira] -Chapter 4: Roadside Battle [road] -Chapter 5: Flight! [flig] -Chapter 6: A Brief Diversion [abri] -Chapter 7: Shades of Evil [shad] -Chapter 8: Despair and Hope [desp] -Chapter 9: Gallia [gall] -Chapter 10: Prisoner Release [pris] -Chapter 11: Blood Runs Red [bloo] -Chapter 12: A Strange Land [astr] -Chapter 13: A Guiding Wind [agui] -Chapter 14: Training [trai] -Chapter 15: The Feral Frontier [thef] -Chapter 16: The Atonement [thea] -Chapter 17: Day Breaks [dayb] -Chapter 18: Crimea Marches [crim] -Chapter 19: Entrusted [entr] -Chapter 20: Defending Talrega [defe] -Chapter 21: Without a King [with] -Chapter 22: Solo [solo] -Chapter 23: The Great Bridge [theg] -Chapter 24: Battle Reunion [batt] -Chapter 25: Strange Lands [stra] -Chapter 26: Clash! [clas] -Chapter 27: Moment of Fate [mome] -Chapter 28: Twisted Tower [twis] -Endgame: Repatriation [repa] -Skill List [skil] -Weapon List [weap] -Item List [item] -Extras [extr] -Update History [upda] -Copyright Information [copy] -Contact Information [cont] -Special Thanks [spec] -About me [abou] ------------ Introduction [intr] ------------ Hello, everybody! Jonny Humphries is my name, and Fire Emblem Path of Radiance is my game. If you're reading this, then my walkthrough was posted. I've been a user of Gamefaqs for years, but this is my first FAQ, so please excuse the lack of style. I'm a big fan of the Fire Emblem series, and there weren't as many walkthroughs for POR as there were for the others. That's why I decided to do one myself. I tried to keep the spoilers to a minimum, but some probably got through. I don't refer to specific plot events, but I do make occasional comments as the story progresses. Also, I didn't put in a hand-holding guide for EVERYTHING in the game, because that would take up far too much time, energy, and space. If you don't know what to, the game has a very user- friendly interface. If all else fails, just use the Y button and a help window will pop up. So, without further ado, here's the guide! I hope you enjoy reading and using it as much as I enjoyed writing it. -------- Controls [cont] -------- *Note: I got this information from the game's instruction manual. Most of it is reworded. Control Stick -move cursor in menus -move cursor in battle -move units to specified spot on the map -press down + A button to scroll through messages quickly Control Pad -identical to control stick A button -confirm selections -scroll through dialogue and messages -select units in battle -bring up map menu when placed on an empty square B button -cancel selections -return to previous screens -skip scenes Y button -display unit information when a cursor is on a unit -open up help window in menu screens X button -in battle only, move cursor through units who have not received orders Z button -display map menu -display previous conversations during dialogue R button -hold to remove displays from map screen L button -zoom camera in and out of the map screen C stick -change camera angle Start button -begin battle during preparations screen -bring up status screen during battle -skip cutscenes entirely ----------------- Stat Explanations ----------------- Each of the characters has a whole multitude of stats, each of which determines something about that character. I'll be explaining each of them here. Hit Points- HP- This is the total amount of damage a character can take before dying(or, as the story permits, being critically wounded). It's the most important stat in the game, because without it, your characters are dead meat. But remember, just because a character has a lot of HP, doesn't mean they have a lot of staying power. Characters like Boyd and Largo may have a lot of HP, but with their low defenses, they may not be able to stay alive as easily as you think. Besides that, you have to make sure your characters stay alive! If their HP drops to 0, they are removed from the game for good! It's in your best interest, uh, not to let this happen. Strength- STR- This is the character's physical attack power. It determines how much damage they can do when equipped with any physical weapon, with some exceptions. This is important to any character who uses swords, axes, lances, or bows, plus all Laguz characters. The formula for calculating your characters attack power is STR + weapon MT = attack power. Also, it determines if a character's attack speed is reduced when using a weapon. If a weapon's WT(weight) is greater than your character's STR, then the difference will be deducted from your character's speed. Magic- MAG- This stat determines how much damage a character will do with Magic tomes and several specific weapons. This stat is usually meaningless for physical attackers, but for Mages and Bishops, it's crucial. Magic is the same as STR when dealing with magic tomes, and there are some physical weapons that deal damage based on the unit's MAG stat. Skill- SKL- This stat determines how often you hit with your weapons or magic tomes, as well as your ability to critical hit. I haven't figured out how to calculate exactly how it works, but the more SKL you have, the better chance you have to hit with your weapon or magic. Speed- SPD- Speed is more important than you might think. It determines the frequency of your attacks. And by that, I mean that if your speed is at least 4 points higher than your opponent's, you'll do what is known as a double attack. Meaning, of course, you attack twice in one round. Also, SPD is factored in when using a Thief to steal. His speed must be higher than the opponent's to steal. Also affects a unit's ability to avoid. Again, I'm not sure of the formula, but a higher SPD equals more dodge rate. Luck- LCK- According to Mr. Anthony Nguyen, LCK determines your hit rate, dodge rate, how much you can critical, and it even lowers how much your enemy can critical. Even more so, with some additional information from Zab Jade, apparently your number for LCK and dodging is the same. I have yet to confirm this, but it seems to make sense, anyway. Thanks for the help! Defense- DEF- Defense is usually more important than HP. It determines how much damage is taken when somebody attacks a unit. The calculation is: enemy's STR + weapon MT - your defense = damage taken. If your DEF is higher than your opponent's attack power, you won't take any damage. Characters like Gatrie may not have as much HP as others, but with their iron-clad DEF, most enemies will barely even nick their armor. Be aware that no amount of DEF will save a character from magic attacks, though. Resistance- RES- Resistance determines how much you take from magical attacks. The formula goes: Enemy's MAG + tome MT - your RES = damage dealt. It's the same principle as DEF, really. Just... you know... with magic. Yeah. Movement- MOV- This stat is basically how many spaces a unit can move in one turn. After performing an action, mounted units(any units riding a horse, pegasus, or wyvern) can move the remainder of their unit range in addition. Weapon Level This stat, while not presented with a number, rather takes the form of a letter grade. It corresponds to the type of weapons the character can use, and the higher a weapon level is, the better and stronger weapons they can use. The levels go, from worst to best: E < D < C < B < A < S. You can S rank only one weapon type, though. You increase your weapon level by using weapons of that particular type. There are some other, not as important stats such as weight and build. Honestly, the in-game tutorials can explain these WAY better than I can. --- FAQ [faq] --- For this section to mean anything, somebody needs to have asked me questions! Start the ball rolling, readers... ----------- Walkthrough [walk] ----------- Here it is, the meat of this guide. The game progresses Chapter by Chapter, as I have listed. I decided to do something rather different for this walkthrough. Rather than put a big character list at the end of the guide, I have included short entries on each of the characters as they join your party. I figured that would make it easier for the more indecisive players as they go along. Plus if you want info automatically as you get them, you don't have to scroll down to the character list or go back up. You know, that sort of thing. The advice for the Chapters is based upon my personal experience and character preference. You do not need to follow my advice to the letter, rather my advice is just opinion. That's the fun of this game, there are nearly unlimited ways to beat each Chapter, limited only by the player's imagination! And if you do find another strategy that works, by all means implement it. If you like, send it to me. If I think it's good enough(or if it works), I'll use it and give you full credit for it. However, people who are already experts at this game will find nothing new here. I admit I am not as into the game as some people out there. Thus, I will be making no references the Random Number Generator(except in this example), nor will I be listing the level, stats, or stat growth rates for each character. Sorry folks, I don't have that kind of time. DISCLAIMER: the strategies I outlined in this walkthrough are for easy and normal modes only so far. I have not played through hard mode yet, but once I do, I may list strategies then. Sorry about that. With all that out of the way, enjoy the walkthrough! And in case you wanted to find info on a specific character, here are the Chapters in which they join. Just go to the table of contents and hit ctrl +f. Then type in the corresponding chapter to see the character profile: Ike- Prologue Boyd- Chapter 1 Oscar- Chapter1 Titania- Chapter 1 Rhys- Chapter 2 Shinon- Chapter 3 Gatrie- Chapter 3 Soren- Chapter 4 Mia- Chapter 7 Ilyana- Chapter 8 Mist- Chapter 9 Rolf- Chapter 9 Lethe- Chapter 9 Mordecai- Chapter 9 Marcia- Chapter 9 Nephenee- Chapter 10 Brom- Chapter 10 Kieran- Chapter 10 Volke- Chapter 10 Zihark- Chapter 11 Jill- Chapter 12 Astrid- Chapter 13 Malakov- Chapter 14 Stefan- Chapter 15 Tormod- Chapter 15 Muarim- Chapter 15 Devdan- Chapter 16 Reyson- Chapter 18 Tanith- Chapter 18 Ulki- Chapter 18 Janaff- Chapter 18 Calill- Chapter 20 Tauroneo- Chapter 21 Ranulf- Chapter 23 Haar- Chapter 23 Lucia- Chapter 24 Bastian- Chapter 24 Geoffrey- Chapter 24 Largo- Chapter 25 Elincia- Chapter 26 Nasir- Chapter 27 Ena- Chapter 27 Tibarn- Endgame Naesala- Endgame Giffca- Endgame That was a lot of typing. Now, finally, enjoy Ike's grand adventure! --------------------- Prologue: Mercenaries [merc] --------------------- Victory: Defeat boss New Characters: Ike(Ranger)- automatic Items: Iron Sword x 3 At the beginning of the battle, you will be asked if you want to use the tutorials. It's up to you whether or not to accept, but if you say no, you'll have three extra Iron Swords in Ike's inventory for the next chapter. Besides, what do you need tutorials for if you're using my guide? :P In any case, move Ike as close as you like to Boyd, so you can attack next turn. Boyd won't initiate combat with you, so he'll go down in two turns. Fourth turn, move next to Greil and use your vulnerary. Attack as often as you can, and you'll win without having to heal again. ~Character Profile: Ike~ Ike is the main character in the game, so you pretty well HAVE to use him. Luckily, he's very strong. As is my experience, he has great HP, STR and SKL growths, and average to good in everything else. Be careful if he gets screwed for STR, as he'll need it later in the game(specifically Chapter 27 and up). One of the best sword users in the game, and one of your most versatile characters overall. Watch it, though! if he dies, GAME OVER! Use Him?: Yes, and put an Occult scroll on him when you get the chance. Aether is one of the best skills in the game! 10/10 ---------------------------- Chapter 1: The Battle Begins [theb] ---------------------------- Victory: Seize New Characters: Boyd(Fighter), Oscar(Lance Knight), Titania(Paladin)- all automatic Items: Iron Axe(boss drop), Steel Sword(southeast house), Seraph Robe(northwest house), Iron Sword(drop) At the beginning, your party members tell you the basics of the weapon triangle. Heed their advice, it will serve you well! As for the battle, start with Titania grabbing the Steel Sword from the house by your starting point, and have her stay out of combat. She's strong, but REALLY sucks up EXP, so use her only when necessary. Have Boyd attack the nearby southern fighter, Oscar attack the northern fighter, then have Ike finish him off. He needs all the EXP he can get. Turn two, don't bother trying to save the northeast house, it can't be done. Have Boyd finish off the fighter, Ike fight whoever he can, and Oscar visit the remaining red house. Clear off the remaining enemies and the boss as you so desire, but don't take unnecessary risks. And be sure that everybody has at least a few empty weapon inventory spaces for item drops. You need all the armament you can get. ~Character Profile: Oscar~ Oscar is the first knight(Cavalier style) you get, and one of the more useful. For me, he's always had good SKL and DEF, and average to good SPD. Upon promoting, he can choose another weapon, I pick bows so he can do the triangle attack with Boyd and Rolf, but that's not necessary. His STR tends to lag later in the game, though. But he's solid overall, and you'll likely find him useful for the vast majority of almost any playthrough. Use him?: Yes, but not in the last few Chapters. 8/10 ~Character Profile: Boyd Boyd is a hothead. I love his personality, but I don't like his stat growths. His HP and STR growths are GODLY, but the rest is just meh. Use him through the game, and you'll get a massive damage dealer, but not much else. His SPD tends to lag later in the game, too, so don't count on him to always double attack like most other characters. Use him at your own risk. A big plus is that he can also do the triangle attack with his brothers Oscar and Rolf. Use him?: If you wanna go crazy with the axe users, why the hell not? 7/10 ~Character Profile: Titania She's the mandatory early game prepromote, so she's naturally strong as an ox. But don't use her early on, or she'll steal EXP from the people who need it more early on. By all means use her if you want a strong axe user, but only later in the game when most of your main units are promoted too. And almost ALL of her stat growths are great, so she'll almost always turn out very powerful! Use her?: Yes, but wait until later in the game where the rest of your party has caught up to her. 7/10 ----------------- Chapter 2: Rescue [resc] ----------------- Victory: Rout New Characters: Rhys(Priest)-automatic Items: Speedwing(boss drop), Steel Axe(drop), Vulnerary(drop) Okay, here's your first experience with staffs! Rhys will be very valuable from here on out, so keep him alive! First turn, send Oscar north to attack the lone myrmidon, then immediately move him down to join the rest of the party. Get Ike and Boyd to attack the fighter to the east. Have Rhys follow them and heal however you need. You should have Rhys heal every turn if possible. On turn 3, Titania will arrive. For the rest of the fight, just advance up to the northeast quickly but carefully, and keep everyone healthy and Rhys safe. As for the boss, he'll move if you go into his range, so be sure to take him out in one round, lest Rhys get slightly chopped. ~Character Profile: Rhys~ Your only light magic user in the game, and your first staff user too. No matter what, Rhys is integral to survive the first few Chapters. He stays useful through the whole game, in my opinion, due to his overwhelming MAG and RES stats and great SKL and good SPD. The only problem with him is his low STR, which cuts into his attack speed with the heavier light tomes. Don't be afraid to use a spare Energy Drop to counteract that effect. Try it, you won't be disappointed. Use him?: you have to early on, but after he promotes, he's very useful for both healing and attacking. 8/10 Heh heh... Rolf is a wuss. Does he faint every time his life is threatened? :P I also like Shinon's comment about "feathering" enemies. It suppose it's a gentler way of saying "BOOM headshot!" -------------------------- Chapter 3: Pirates Aground [pira] -------------------------- Victory: Defeat Boss New Characters: Gatrie(Knight), Shinon(Sniper)- automatic Items: Elixir(house), Thief Band(Boss drop- only on second playthrough or later), Hand Axe(drop), Vulnerary x2(drop) This is the first Chapter where you have a preparations screen. You can't use Boyd, Oscar or Rhys for this one, so you're stuck with Titania, Gatrie and Shinon. Be sure to transfer any unnecessary items from Ike and Titania to make way for the item drops. In any case, whenever you're ready to start the fight, move Titania to the open house to the east and receive a valuable Elixir(take note of the guy who gives it to her... remember him for later). Ike should go on a killing spree here, which should be no problem seeing as many of the enemies here are Bandits. Gatrie can kill whatever he wants, but don't worry too much about him gaining lots of EXP. This is a good Chapter to let Ike get ahead of the game. As for Shinon, use him as bait. He too is a prepromote(Sniper), so only use him to weaken enemies and as a distraction to prevent Ike from getting too hurt. Just advance up the map, killing as many enemies as you can, heal Ike when necessary with the extra vulneraries you get along the way, and you'll be fine. Have Shinon weaken the enemies and let Ike get more kills(Gatrie can easily kill most of the Myrmidons in one hit with his Steel Lance). At the end of turn 2, a Pegasus Knight named Marcia will appear and confront the pirates. Naturally, they'll start attacking her. She can hold her own, but get to the ship quickly and have Ike talk to her. Once he does, she'll leave safely. Don't worry, you'll see her again later. Once she's gone, have Titania and Gatrie shield the stairs that go up the ship and let the pirates come to you. Finish them off, and have Ike finish the boss for the win. ~Character Profile: Gatrie~ He's the first Knight you get, and in my opinion, one of the strongest. I'm the first to admit that his SPD REALLY sucks, but that can be offset by the Knight Ward you can equip on him when he rejoins(Indeed, it DOES increase SPD growth.). But his STR is great, and so is his DEF, but then again, he's a Knight! Can you expect anything less? He won't double attack his opponents very much, but he's a solid defender anyway! Give him a Brave Lance or the Adept scroll, or better yet, both! Use him?: Yes, keeping the above suggestions in mind. 8/10 ~Character Profile: Shinon~ Another prepromote, Shinon starts out pretty early. His stats at the beginning are good but not great, and I never used him religiously in a playthrough before. When he leaves, he comes back way too late and underlevelled, plus Rolf is way better once you get him. Use him?: If you want another Sniper, be my guest. Otherwise, don't bother. 5/10 Hmm... I wonder what wyvern would taste like. Chicken? Or alligator? -------------------------- Chapter 4: Roadside Battle [road] -------------------------- Victory: Defeat Boss New Characters: Soren(Mage)- automatic Items: Regal Sword(before battle), Javelin(boss drop), Iron Lance(drop), Steel Lance(drop) Again, you are without Oscar and Boyd. As usual, free up some inventory space in your characters(I dump a bunch of my extra items on Rhys). Now, there is a lot of open space in this fight, so you NEED to keep Rhys and Soren safe. The best way to do this is to have Soren and Rhys retreat to the right edge of the map, and surround them with your remaining characters(I got the idea for this from Roni's walkthrough, though. Credits to him). So it should be like this: X XS XR X -with Soren and Rhys in the middle, and the others protecting them. Have Shinon go next to Rhys so Rhys can heal him easily, and just let the enemies come to you early on. Have Soren get as many kills as possible(he needs the levels), and when the enemies stop coming, advance some more (checking the enemies' range by moving the cursor on them and pressing A) and let them come to you again. Titania is actually pretty good here, as she can break formation, kill an enemy, and move back to formation again. The boss will move, so lure him in with Gatrie, weaken him with Ike and kill him with Soren. It's a fairly tricky Chapter early on, but as long as you don't take stupid risks, everyone will emerge intact easily. ~Character Profile: Soren~ The first offensive magic user you get, Soren is arguably the most valuable of them. He starts off at the lowest possible level, so he's got lots of room to grow, and grow he will! His MAG growth is insane, and just about everything else is great except for HP, STR and DEF. But magic users are not meant to be counterattacked, so as long as he stays shielded and attacks from long range, he's no problem to keep alive. His low STR will prevent him from using the heavier magic tomes, but his MAG is so high he doesn't need them. Or you could use an Energy Drop to augment his strength a bit so his SPD doesn't suffer. Your choice, hot shot. :P He also comes with Adept, which just adds to his awesomeness! Use him?: Hell yeah! Only his sub-par HP and DEF prevents him from being perfect, and that's characteristic of mages anyway. 9/10 ------------------ Chapter 5: Flight! [flig] ------------------ Victory: Defend for 6 turns New Characters: None Items: Ashera Icon(boss drop), Hammer(drop), Iron Blade(drop) This is our first defend map. You have to stop the enemies from stepping on the flashing square Ike starts out on. Luckily, it's not very hard. You have to defend from the west and south. There is a HUGE concentration of enemies to the south, so bring Ike and Gatrie south, with Soren behind them. Let Ike and Gatrie kill who they can, and let Soren get some more easy kills here. Send Boyd, Oscar, and Shinon to the west. As for Rhys, send him back and forth between the two groups, healing like crazy. Just hold your ground as the enemy reinforcements appear. You don't have to kill the boss to complete the chapter, but if you want that Ashera Icon he's carrying, it's safe to send Titania down to kill him... just this once. If you choose to do so, give her your Hand Axe so she can counterattack the boss's Javelin. Just sit tight, rely on Vulneraries if you have to, and you'll win without any major problems. ---------------------------- Chapter 6: A Brief Diversion [abri] ---------------------------- Victory: Escape New Characters: None Items: Short Spear(boss drop), Vulnerary(drop), Poleax(drop), Mend staff(after battle) This is the first escape mission. The goal is essentially the same as Seize, in that you have to move Ike onto the flashing square the boss is on, and have him escape the map. For every other character who escapes before Ike, you get 10 extra bonus EXP. For the battle itself, you only have Ike, Soren, Oscar, Boyd, Titania, and Rhys. Luckily, it's not that hard. You start out in a forest, and what you want to do is move out of it as soon as possible and clear out the enemies to your right. Once that's done, move south and blockade the bridge. It's better to stay out of the Mage's range, then have Oscar move in and take him out in one fell swoop. Take out the rest of the enemies south of the bridge, and move west to the boss. Take out his henchmen with whatever ranged attacks you have, then concentrate all fire on the boss himself. Once he goes down, have whoever you can escape before Ike does. ------------------------- Chapter 7: Shades of Evil [shad] ------------------------- Victory: Rout New characters: Mia(Myrmidon)- appears as NPC, will talk to Ike and join Items: Mage Band(boss drop), Chest Key x2(drop), Steel Lance(drop), Fire tome(drop), Armorslayer(east treasure chest), Miracle scroll(west treasure chest), Ward staff(middle treasure chest) First indoor map! I like these for some reason. Nonetheless, the enemies are fairly scattered, and it looks like they may overwhelm you, but it's not that bad if you're careful and patient. Send Ike directly north of the starting point, have Oscar and then Soren attack the Soldier to the west, and the rest of your army move west as well. At the end of turn 1, Mia will appear close to Ike. She'll move towards Ike and talk to him, which results in her joining the party! Yay! After she joins, move her southwest with the rest of the party, and keep Ike north, killing the enemies and eventually raiding the chest. The rest of the party should keep heading west, killing as you go, then north through the middle hallway. On turn 3, a Thief appears. KILL HIM as soon as possible! If he gets those chests before you do, there's no getting the items back. unless you kill him, in which case he'll drop the last item he stole. At the beginning of turn 5, a neat little scene will occur. Shinon and Gatrie will join you, the boss, Balmer, will show up, and so will a LOT of reinforcements from the various entrances. Kill them all(one Mage drops a fire tome too! Nice!), then regroup to the north next to the boss. Kill him with Gatrie or whoever can easily survive his Elfire attacks, and you're done! ~Character Profile: Mia~ She's the first Myrmidon you get, and joins at a low level and is rather frail. Her STR is not all that great, either, and she relies more on dodging then actual defense. She does have a saving grace, and that is VANTAGE! She gets the first attack in every engagement, and can usually get the drop on opponents that way. If you want to use her, give her some bonus EXP and let her catch up with the rest of your party. In my previous playthrough, she was my top killer, thanks to the deadly combination of a Killing Edge, Vantage, and Wrath! Try it out, you won't be disappointed. Use her?: Yes, if you're willing to baby her with bonus EXP for a bit. Either her or Zihark, who joins a bit later. I don't think Mia will end up being as strong as Zihark, but she has more time to develop. 7/10 After this Chapter, you'll see a very long cutscene. Interesting, though... Once it's over, Shinon and Gatrie will have left the group, but any items they had on them will be transferred to your new convoy! And speaking of convoy, you now have a base that you visit before every battle. You can store your items, buy new weapons and items, award Bonus EXP to characters and assign Skills, watch support conversations, gain new information, and save if you need to. For the info heading, each of the conversations will have one, two, or three stars next to it. One star means the dialogue is for character development, two stars is allegorical advice on how to complete the next Chapter, and three stars gets you a new item or party member. At the moment, I suggest feeding Rhys some bonus EXP, and Mia if you plan to use her. Always read the new Info before leaving, then whenever you're ready, select "end" to proceed to the next battle. --------------------------- Chapter 8: Despair and Hope [desp] --------------------------- Victory: Defend for 8 turns New Characters: Ilyana(Mage)- appears as enemy. Talk to her with Ike Items: Soldier Band(boss drop- second playthrough only), Pure Water(drop), Red Gem(drop), Longbow(drop) You ever notice how rainy days are some of the worst days you'll ever have? This is definitely the case for Ike and company, because they seem to have the worst luck lately. To defend easily, send Boyd and Mia to the left, Ike to the right with Soren and a few extra vulneraries to back him up, and Oscar to the bottom. Ike can REALLY give his Regal Sword a workout here, because it'll cut through the Knights like a blowtorch through an ice sculpture! Titania can do whatever, but I recommend you have her help out Ike. If he has to move out from the bottleneck to kill an Archer, Titania can cover Soren for him. Rhys, as usual, needs to stay in the middle and heal whoever he can. The battle is pretty standard from there on out, I don't have much else to say about it. Ilyana(the Mage to the north) will approach Ike but she won't attack. Talk to her with Ike and she'll join you. You're free to have her help defend the base, but I never used her in any of my playthroughs. If you want the Soldier Band on your second playthrough, I would have either Titania or Oscar charge the boss and do a little anatomy lesson with your weapon and his head! After 8 turns, you see another cool scene with two very interesting new allies... ~Character Profile: Ilyana~ I never used Ilyana myself, but I have received some information on her from Alex Ruiz. He says that she "comes at a low level, but can make a great Sage". No further information was given, but I do believe that she can be made usable and even very powerful with some work. Given her tendency towards Thunder magic, it seems like she can become very strong indeed. I may have to try her out next time... Use her?: I've heard good things. Why not? 8/10(Mr. Ruiz's rating) *Note: From now on, Soren will give you a report after every battle. He'll tell you how much money you earned and spent, how much combat and bonus EXP you got, your MVP, any new allies, and whoever died(if anyone). Pretty standard stuff, plus you get to make fun of Soren for playing the secretary. :P ----------------- Chapter 9: Gallia [gall] ----------------- Victory: Seize New Characters: Rolf(Archer), Mist(Cleric)-both automatic, Marcia(Pegasus Knight)-appears as NPC. Will talk to Ike, Lethe(Cat), Mordecai(Tiger)- allies. Will join party officially next Chapter Items: Arms Scroll(Boss drop), Talisman(north house), Restore staff(south house) As soon as you begin the battle, Mist and Rolf will join your party. Mist is next to useless now, but Rolf can come in handy. Let Rolf get some easy kills, and pump them both full of bonus EXP after this fight. Both of them are WAY underlevelled, so keep them out of harm's way. This is the first Chapter where you get allies(units surrounded by yellow circles). Lethe and Mordecai can be a fair help, but it's easier to just Direct them(only Ike can Direct) to avoid the enemy. That way, they won't waste EXP or get in your way. Marcia will appear on turn 4 and fly towards Ike. After a short conversation, she too will join you. It's best to split up your party for this battle. Send a small force(it doesn't matter who, just have three or four units) along the beach to the northwest and get the items from the houses. The pirates will destroy the houses otherwise. Have your main group plow southwest into the enemies and to the fort. Just keep Mist close to Ike for now. Have her heal if necessary, but don't depend on her for anything. Once you've gotten the items from the houses, send your north group through the gap in the trees to meet your main party. Once you reach the fort, some reinforcements will appear. Slaughter them with whatever methods are most fitting with the moral standards of your community, then attack the boss and his mage flunkies at your leisure. Neither the boss nor his mages will move, so it's easy to pick them off. Seize the entrance, and that's another notch in your belt. ~Character Profile: Marcia~ she's the first flying unit and indeed the first Pegasus Knight to join you. Too bad she's rather boring. I never used her in a playthrough, but the reviews of her are rather unremarkable. I hear she rarely gains HP, and that's a bad thing in this game. The enemies are stronger than in previous Fire Emblems, and she pretty much goes down in a couple of hits. Plus she arrives underlevelled, and by now, Rolf and Rhys should be getting all the bonus EXP. She just seems like a liability, plus I've never been a fan of Pegasus Knights. Sorry. Use her?: she can only realistically be useful if you decide to baby her with bonus EXP instead of Rolf or Rhys. And I don't want to give either of them up. 5/10 ~Character Profile: Rolf~ Now we're talking! You have to start from scratch, as opposed to Shinon, but Rolf has the most room to grow of any character in the game apart from Ike, Soren, Mist and Astrid. You'll have to feed him lots of bonus EXP to get him up to speed, but he can and will easily surpass any other bow user in the game. Every time I played through the game, Rolf maxed out STR, SKL, and SPD, and came close to maxing out everything else. He is your ultimate distance attacker, bar none. If you're able to get his bow level up to an S, the Double Bow is death from above in Rolf's hands. Use him?: He's the only reliable choice for an Archer, and he doesn't disappoint. 9/10 ~Character Profile: Mist~ I just do not get all these people saying that Mist completely sucks. Yes, she does. But only early on. If you're willing to use bonus EXP on her until she promotes, she can reliably defend herself with a sword. I mean, she could make great use of a custom sword, and even though her STR cap is only 20, that's more than enough to kill most enemies with a Steel Blade. And if you're persistent enough to get her sword level up to B, she can wreak absolute HAVOC with the Sonic Sword. Use her?: Yes, but only near the end of the game, and after promoting her. 7/10 ~Character Profile: Lethe~ Sorry, I never used Lethe much except to recruit Zihark and Stefan. She seems pretty fast, she transforms right at the beginning of the battle, and if you let her gain EXP steadily but not hog it all, she seems like she could be pretty useful. Use her?: There are better Laguz out there, but she can certainly hold her own. 6.5/10 ~Character Profile: Mordecai~ I tried using Mordecai on my first playthrough, and he was just too clunky to use effectively. His SPD is bad, he never gains any more of it, and he transforms far too late to get in any good hits on enemies. the thing is, if he DOES get some good SPD growth, he can be a total wrecking ball! if he does, don't be ashamed to let him loose on your foes. if you Do use him, give him the demi band so he doesn't have to wait to fight. Use him?: Possibly. He's not my cup of tea personally, but let him gain a few levels and see if he gets blessed for speed. If not, one word: Speedwing. 7/10 After Chapter 9, you get 20000 gold for practically nothing! Jackpot! As well as Lethe and Mordecai actually joining your party. King Caineghis just keeps on giving, doesn't he? ---------------------------- Chapter 10: Prisoner Release [pris] ---------------------------- Victory: Escape Units: 9 New Characters: Nephenee(Talk with Ike), Brom(talk with Ike), Kieran(automatic after chapter ends), Volke(hire him when he offers) Items: Door Keys x3(drop), Master Seal(boss drop), Statue Frag(lone east treasure chest), Counter scroll(lower single west treasure chest), Javelin(upper left west treasure chest), Short Axe(upper middle west treasure chest), Steel Lance(upper right west treasure chest) When you begin this Chapter, a Thief named Volke will appear and offer his services. Hire him! He's one of only two thieves in the game, plus the only useful one, and the only one that can promote. Plus he just screams badass. Ranulf opts not to join you, though. He's a coward. Bah. Finally, we get to do a good old-fashioned jailbreak! Woo hoo! There are two ways to go about freeing the prisoners. The first is through stealth, which means staying out of the ranges of the three guard soldiers patrolling the hallways. To be honest, I never bothered to do the stealth thing, so I couldn't offer advice on it. If anyone has a good stealth strategy, send it to me, and if it works, I'll use it. But for now, I'll be using the direct approach. You'll finally have some flexibility as to who to take on this mission. I'll leave it up to you as to who you like. To start, I want to point out how the guards' range of vision works. If any of your units are in the guards' movement ranges by the time the enemies' turn rolls around, they'll spot you, and reinforcements will arrive from above your starting point, the exit to the north, and to the east as well. They're nothing you can't handle. Be sure to blockade both north of your starting point, and the stairs just to the east as well. Form your defenses, and let the enemy reinforcements from the east and the starting point come to you(in a rare move for easy/normal mode, they'll rush you as soon as they appear). Once they're taken care of, move through the halls as a group. As you go, don't bother with Sephiran, he won't join you either way. Just head east, open the cell with Brom and Kieran in it, and talk to Brom with Ike as well. Talking to Kieran is optional(he'll join you whether you talk to him or not, but the conversation between him and Oscar is very amusing), and when you're done with him and Brom, move towards Nephenee's cell. Blockade the stairs near her cell, and let some of the enemies rush you again. Once you've wiped the floor with them, unlock the cell using a door key(have Volke move east and grab the lone treasure chest) and talk to Nephenee with Ike. Now that you've got everybody, you can go and fight the boss. He'll move if somebody gets in his attack range, and he has both a Steel Blade and a Steel Lance. Best to take him out Soren. Either that, or weapon triangle his ass before he has the chance to switch to the advantage(during the playthrough I used to write this walkthrough, my Oscar was using a steel lance. The boss moved to attack me, and I criticaled TWICE in a row! Awesome!). Once him and his myrmidons are gone, raid the remaining chests, take out the Halberdier and the two knights that are guarding the exit, then escape for the win. Oh, and after the Chapter is done, let Volke come with you. He can really come in handy. ~Character Profile: Brom~ I received some information on Brom from Mr. Ben Forrester. I still haven't used him, but according to Ben, he really DOES remain with lower stats compared to Gatrie. Honestly, I can't recommend him. Use him?: No. You have a perfectly good Knight already(or will again soon, anyway). 5.5/10(Average rating by Ben Forrester) ~Character Profile: Kieran~ He's the Red Knight companion to Oscar, and they share a heated rivalry. But Kieran is respectably strong, though! Axe users are few and far between in this game, so another one is always welcome. Gamble is a useless skill on Kieran, though. Axes have the lowest accuracy of any weapon, and Gamble only makes that twice as much of a problem. If you MUST use Gamble, either forge a high accuracy axe for him and make your life more exciting(not that it'll help much), or promote him and choose swords as a new weapon. Use him?: Definitely. His STR is great, and all his other stats are very good to mediocre except his RES which is horribly weak. Still pretty good! 8/10 ~Character Profile: Nephenee~ She's the first playable Soldier in the North American releases of the Fire Emblem series, and she doesn't disappoint. Her HP is comparatively lower than many of the other infantry style units(cavaliers, knights, etc.), but she more than makes up for it with her great SPD and dodging ability, plus Wrath. In my opinion, Wrath is one of the most useful abilities in the game, and actually makes Nephenee's low HP become an advantage! If you feel like taking a risk, she can demolish entire platoons of enemies without breaking a sweat. If the risk is too much for you, you can offset that a bit by assigning her the Miracle skill, or better yet, Vantage! And on a side note, her name sounds French. That automatically makes her cool. :P Use her?: Yes. One of the best lance users overall, and Wrath only sweetens the deal. 9/10 ~Character Profile: Volke~ Your first Thief, and the only worthwhile one in the game. If you want to steal your enemy's weapons or unlock doors and chests, he's your man. He's the only reliable character that you can use to make off with a ton of loot, and his fighting skills are respectable too. Granted, knives are the weakest weapons in the game, but Volke's unnaturally high(for a Thief) STR makes up for that. Once Daggers and Stilettos become available at the item shop, load him up and he can hold his own and then some. That, and he's a great candidate for an Occult scroll once he promotes into an Assassin. Use him?: Yes. He's the versatile Swiss Army Knife of your group, with combat skills, lock-picking, and stealing. 9/10 -------------------------- Chapter 11: Blood Runs Red [bloo] -------------------------- Victory: Arrive Units: 13 New Characters: Zihark(talk to him with either of your Laguz characters) Items: Laguzslayer(talk to "Man" at your Base), Master Seal(boss drop), Dracoshield(south house), Elwind(middle house), Killer Lance(top house) I can NOT believe Ranulf would let people do that to him. I'd claw their eyes out if I were a Laguz! Before you begin the battle, be sure to bring Volke and either Lethe or Mordecai(I chose Lethe). Reposition your party so that your Laguz is as far to the north as possible. When you begin, send someone immediately to the west to get the Dracoshield from the house and fend off the myrmidons close by. I used Nephenee, but any lance user will do. Send your Laguz plus one other strong unit north to recruit Zihark(if your Laguz is within his range, he will talk to them) and plow through the vigilantes and assorted baddies to the north. Be sure to visit the northeast house for a very useful Killer Lance, but be careful! Once you pass the red house in the middle of the map, the Black Knight will emerge. You can NOT defeat him, so don't even try. Just stay out of his range and he'll leave you alone. Send everyone else northwest up the street, and be sure to kill the soldiers behind you first. Just use two units to do that, they can catch up later. Have Volke swipe the Heal staffs off the priests and kill them after stealing from them. Fight your way up to the northwest(be sure to get the Elwind tome from the house along the way), you won't meet with terribly strong resistance. On turn 5, a Wyvern Rider named Jill will appear in the southeast corner of the level. Do NOT kill her, either. If she survives this Chapter, she will join you in the next one. The boss will move to meet you, though he's a pushover if you do things just right. Put someone juuust within his range, and he'll attack with his Iron Bow. Then bring Volke in, steal his Laguzslayer, and surround his sorry ass! He'll be completely at your mercy. Once he's out of the way, continue north towards the ship. Take out whoever's left at the top, then have anyone arrive at the designated spot to clear the map. ~Character Profile: Zihark~ He looks cool, His personality is cool, but opinions on him are divided, it seems. Some love his Adept skill and high(for a Myrmidon) STR and SPD, but others(Like Alex Ruiz) think he's nothing special. I guess, like all units, that it all depends on how his stats grow. Perhaps his growths are a bit unreliable? Nonetheless, He seems pretty popular... but once he becomes a swordmaster, according to Mr. Richard McLuckie, THEN he comes into himself, becoming the ultimate critical-hitting machine! He does get higher STR than Mia, so he might be worth a look... Use him?: At your own risk. But only stick to one Myrmidon, be it Mia or Zihark. 6/10(Alex's rating), 9/10(Richard McLuckie's rating) Okay, what is it with Ranulf and getting his ass kicked all the time? He doesn't deserve that... *sigh* -------------------------- Chapter 12: A Strange Land [astr] -------------------------- Victory: Rout Units: 10 New Characters: Jill(Wyvern Rider- will talk to Ike), Sothe(Thief- watch the conversation with "Boy" at your Base, and a scene will occur that gives you the option for him to join) Items: Blue Gem(boss drop), Laguz Stone(drop), Coin x2(drop), Secret Book(drop), Arms Scroll(drop) Be sure to bring both Rolf and Soren in this battle. All flying units are weak to bows, and Ravens are weak to Wind magic. This is a very unusual Chapter. It's a big wide level, but your party is confined to the ship. The only enemies are Ravens, and even though there aren't many, reinforcements keep arriving. It's best to form a perimeter close to the mast and hold your ground, concentrating on picking them off one at a time. Even though there aren't many of them, these Ravens are strong, and they'll usually double attack some of your slower units like Boyd or Rhys. Which reminds me, if you bring Rhys, keep him surrounded at ALL times, lest he get pecked to death. Many of the Ravens either drop items or have items you can steal, so keep an eye out for them. After turn 2, Jill will arrive from the southwest. She'll talk to Ike and join the party to help you fight off those Laguz she so detests. She comes with a Laguzguard too, so use her to her fullest potential here. On turn 5, the boss, Seeker, will move in on the ship. Keep your vulnerable units out of his way and take him down with Rolf, Soren, or any of your stronger units to win. He IS pretty tough, though. ~Character Profile: Jill~ Out of all your flying units, Jill tends to be the most durable. The bad thing is, her stat growths are rather unreliable. Depending on whether or not you get lucky, she can either be one of your best units, or one of the worst. Level her up at your own peril, but she's always ended up being pretty good for me. Plus she can use axes once she promotes. Whenever I use Jill, I go from using lances to using axes almost exclusively for her, and with her SKL, they work great with her. She always ends up being one of my top units in any playthrough. Use her?: I would say so, if you don't mind a bit of bonus EXP abuse to get her up to speed. 8/10 ~Character Profile: Sothe~ Sothe is a unique unit. He has a skill called Blossom that reduces the amount of EXP he gets down to about 1/3rd normal, but his stat growths are increased greatly. However, he also cannot promote. Now, I'm no genius, but I happen to know that most of the stat caps for unpromoted units are just 20. So even if Sothe's stats grow like wildfire, they'll be stuck at about 20 at the most, and he WILL lag behind, no matter how you look at it. The only reliable way to get him to level 20 is feed him bonus EXP, but that's still a lot. He's not worth the investment, plain and simple. However, he is useful to pick locks and treasure chests with Volke, but only on Chapter 13 really. Use him?: No, unless you want to loot a level faster. If you DO use him, don't bother with the bonus EXP, and protect him like you would your own groin. 2/10 Looks like not all the Laguz are as bad as people think... and I have a feeling that the prince and his silent aide will be back in the sequel, at least if there is one... *Note: during your stay at the base after Chapter 12, there will be a conversation at your base labeled "3 Brothers". Be sure to listen to it! Oscar, Boyd, and Rolf will be talking about a new attack they're developing... -------------------------- Chapter 13: A Guiding Wind [agui] -------------------------- Victory: Defend for 10 turns Units: 12 New Characters: Astrid(Bow Knight- speak to her with Ike), Gatrie(Knight- rejoins if you speak to him with Astrid) Items: Longbow(Boss drop), Killer Bow(middle ship- bottom left chest), Elfire(middle ship- bottom right chest), Laguz Axe(middle ship- top left chest), Longsword(middle ship- top right chest), Occult scroll(top ship- left chest), Energy Drop(top ship- middle chest), Speedwing(top ship- right chest) While picking units, I suggest you bring Volke, Mordecai, and Sothe if you feel like taking a minor risk. Mordecai is crucial to recruiting Astrid and Gatrie, and Sothe makes getting all the treasure chests quicker and easier. This is a really fun Chapter, one of my favorites, actually. However, Astrid is very weak and if you don't hurry to talk to her, she's liable to get killed. It's best to have Ike reach her in one turn, which is only possible through some hardcore shoving. You can even use Mordecai(a unit I don't recommend using often) to Smite Ike and get him into position before he moves. Once you talk to Astrid, have her talk to Gatrie and he'll rejoin your group. Bet you missed him, huh? If you're still planning on using him, give him the Knight Ward Astrid comes with to equip and he'll be like a wall to your enemies! As for the battle, once Gatrie rejoins the party(which should be on the first turn if you followed my advice), have him protect the stairs on the center ship. Then have Astrid retreat to southern ship, she's more a liability than anything else. However, if your Ike's level is already maxed out, have him guard the stairs and have Gatrie block one of the bridges. Hell, it's what he was made to do! Have your toughest defenders block the bridges to the center ship, and kill the enemies as they come. The pain-in-the-ass NPCs will likely get in your way, so either shove them out of the way with spare units(Mordecai again?) or let them die. It's your choice. Have Volke(and Sothe, if you feel like it) raid the chests on the top 2 ships, but step lively! When the Ravens appear, they'll raid the chests too and try to escape with the loot. If you kill them before they leave, they'll drop whatever they stole, so you have a small safety blanket there. I don't really have much else to say about this Chapter, except that the boss(who may or may not be related to Chuck Norris) doesn't move, at least not in my experience, and he's really easy to kill. You can even steal his Steel Bow before killing him(which I recommend). The enemies should be cleared out well before the ten turns are up, so just sit back and relax if that's the case. ~Character Profile: Astrid~ Astrid is quite possibly the most underlevelled character you get. Her only immediate use is to re-recruit Gatrie, and her low level and stats make her a liability on the battlefield. However, i've been told by Alex Ruiz that she was "really good" once levelled up properly. From this, I can only infer that she is well-rounded in terms of stats. I'm going to test this for myself next time around. Practically, when she promotes, I would suggest using lances or axes if you want more power to her, or swords if you want a throwback to the Nomad Troopers or Rangers from previous games. Even further, I got some advice from Mr. Eric Jeton about Astrid. The best way to get her to gain EXP is to let her get some easy 1 HP kills, but when she gets up to speed with the rest of your people, her SKL and SPD are quite good! So, apparently, she gets a high recommendation! You just have to be willing to work with her. Use her?: Not much else I can say, but if she's gotten good reviews... 8/10(Mr. Ruiz's rating) I like Naesala's jacket. Stylish... Heh, I could so picture Mist and Sanaki getting into a catfight over Rolf. :P -------------------- Chapter 14: Training [trai] -------------------- Victory: Defeat boss Units: 13 New Characters: Malakov(Sword Knight- talk to him with Marcia) Items: Killer Axe(boss drop), Laguz Lance(drop), Laguz Bow(drop), Red Gem(drop- comes with Malakov), Spirit Dust(south house), Secret Book(left top house), Vantage scroll(right top house) Before you begin this Chapter, be sure to bring Marcia with you if you want to recruit Malakov. It's one crappy character recruiting another, so you don't even have to bother if you don't want to. Perfectionist that I am, I still got him on every playthrough... >_< This is a pretty easy and unremarkable chapter. Split your party into two groups, one of about 4 units plus Marcia, and the rest in another group. Send the smaller group up to the northwest to recruit Malakov, and have the rest plow up through the middle of the level. If you feel like it, have Volke swipe an antitoxin or two, they can come in handy. Not much else to say until you get to the boss. When you get close to him, he'll summon a few Feral Ones, which are Laguz that are stuck in animal form. Normally, this would be pretty bad news, but, like the boss, the Feral Ones won't move. Take them and the boss out from a distance, the Feral ones because they're strong as hell, and the boss because you don't want him to use his Killer Axe. I think it's cheap how in this game, the weapons the enemies carry lose durability if they use them. The previous FE games were an improvement over that... >_< Nonetheless, heed my words and kill the boss from afar, as that axe is valuable, and you need all the Killer Axes you can get. Trust me. Character Profile: Malakov This guy looks like Ronald McDonald on drugs, I swear. I know jokes about Malakov are a dime a dozen, but he deserves them all. You have far too many sword users and mounted units as it is, but Malakov doesn't offer Kieran's killer strength, Oscar's versatility and triangle attack, or Astrid's Paragon ability. Everything about him is just average. No, wait, his RES sucks too. The sad thing is, the best thing about him is probably that Red Gem he comes with, at least you can sell it. Use him?: As if you would kick anyone good off your team for THAT! 3/10 After the Chapter is done, one of my favorite cutscenes occurs. And I'm not sure if that gray cat in the background is Ranulf or not, but I wouldn't put it past him to miss something as important as this. Damn slacker... :P *Note: Apparently, after this Chapter, Sanaki pays you 10000 Gold. The game doesn't alert you to this except when Soren reports your battle results. ------------------------------ Chapter 15: The Feral Frontier [thef] ------------------------------ Victory: Defeat Boss Units: 14 New Characters: Stefan(Swordmaster- see below paragraph), Tormod(Mage- joins after completing the Chapter), Muarim(Tiger- joins after completing the Chapter) Items: Boots, Coin x2, White Gem, Shine tome, Physic staff, Silver Blade, Statue Frag, Guard scroll(all hidden in sand), Vague Katti(varies- see below paragraph) *NOTE: bring all your strong magic users, Volke(and Sothe if you want) and at least one of your Laguz! Another one of my personal favorite Chapters, this is the mandatory desert level with a crapload of hidden treasure in the tradition of Living Legend from FE7 and Scorched Sands from FE8. I enjoy these levels, mainly because I like using Mages. I bring this up because Mages and staff users are immune to the slowing effects of the desert sands. In fact, Mages, staff users, any flying units, and thieves are all unaffected by the slowing sands. The rest of your units' movement will be substantially reduced(especially poor Gatrie- he can only move ONE space at a time!), except for the Laguz, who will only be slightly affected. The upshot to all this is the hidden treasure. I will list the following locations of said treasure in grid format, the X coordinates going left to right, and the Y coordinates going bottom to top: Boots: [X 12-14, Y 16-18] Coin(2 of them): [X 1, Y 9-11] and [X 13-15, Y 5-7) White Gem: [X 27-28, Y 15-16] Shine: [X 8-11, Y 10-12] Physic: [X 17-19, Y 9-11] Silver Blade: [X 3-6, Y 8-9] Statue Frag: [X 26-28, Y 3-7] Guard Scroll: [X 2-5, Y 1] Stefan or Vague Katti: [X 26, Y 17] This is why I said to bring Volke and/or Sothe. Once a unit waits on any of the designated co-ordinates, there's a chance they'll get the item hidden in that area. The higher a unit's LCK, the more likely he or she is to get the item. But thieves will almost definitely get the item on the first try. *HOW TO GET STEFAN: Stefan is likely the easiest character to miss in the game, so pay careful attention. The single grid space I pointed out for getting the Vague Katti is precisely 3 spaces left and 2 spaces down from the top right edge of the level. If a Beorc unit waits on that square, they will only find the sword. But if a Laguz unit stops on that square, Stefan will appear and join your party after a short conversation. He'll be equipped with that sword anyway, so you have nothing to lose. The actual battle in this level is pretty easy. Just send your magic users out to destroy as many of the enemies as possible before they transform into their beast forms. When they do, they're not nearly as tough as the Ravens were in Chapter 12, so you should have no problem dealing with them one on one. Be sure to use Jill's Laguzguard, and there is no better time to stay just within the enemies' range and let them come to you. Once they're mostly cleared out, send Volke throughout the level and grab the treasures unhindered, and be sure to send your Laguz of choice to the northeast to get Stefan as I pointed out earlier. Once that's all done, kill Muarim however you like. He's not as difficult as he seems, that Demi Band cuts into his stats something fierce. ~Character Profile: Stefan~ Stefan is strong. No other way to put it. His strength lies not in his STR stat(ironically), but that he comes with his class's Master Skill: Astra! I know some people say it's overrated, but the ability to that much damage has got to be worth something. His stats are solid otherwise Except for luck, and if you want another swordmaster, you can certainly do worse(hack, cough, Lucia). Plus after this Chapter, if you talk with him at your Base, you get another Occult Scroll! How cool is that? Use him?: If you want another Swordmaster, sure. But get him anyway for all the cool extras that come with him! 7/10 ~Character Profile: Tormod~ Oh boy... here we go. Tormod is the last unpromoted unit to join your party, and... wow. By the time he joins, at least one of your mages should be in use already, and it only makes sense to keep using the mage you were already using. Granted, he does have a good weapon level and comes with elfire, but, according to Alex Ruiz, he completely sucks. Celerity(a unique ability that lets him move two extra spaces) doesn't even come into the picture, he's just not reliable to use compared to Ilyana or Soren. Use him?: Waste of bonus EXP. 4/10(Alex Ruiz's rating) ~Character Profile: Muarim~ Muarim joins much later than Mordecai, but he is much stronger than him. For one thing, his SPD is better, and he comes with the Demi Band. This useful little trinket lets a Laguz stay in animal form at the cost of a slight stat reduction. Since the Laguz tend to be a bit overpowered, this kind of even things out. In terms of stats, Muarim is about average for a Laguz. You can take him or leave him. Use him?: Your choice. I usually hold off the Laguz until Ranulf joins(that weak cowardly bastard!!!), but he's certainly not bad. 6/10 ------------------------- Chapter 16: The Atonement [thea] ------------------------- Victory: Seize Units: 11 New Characters: Devdan(Halberdier- Talk with Soren, Rolf, Mist, or Tormod) Items: Occult scroll(talk to Stefan at Base), Spear(boss drop), Gamble scroll(drop), Chest Key x2(drop), Ashera Icon(East treasure room- left chest), Silver Lance(East treasure room- right chest), Physic staff(West treasure room- right chest), Bolting tome(West treasure room- left chest), Full Guard(Middle treasure room- right chest), Dracoshield(Middle treasure room- bottom chest) Whoo! Even though Reyson is a pretty boy, he still packs a punch! He could probably even knock Ranulf on his ass! *Note: Before you start the next battle, go to Info while at your Base and talk to Stefan. After an interesting dialogue, you'll be given a choice. Select "study" to have Stefan stay in your party, and you'll receive a very valuable Occult scroll. This is one of those standard indoor battles with lots of loot to gather. Don't bother bringing Sothe as backup, just Volke will do fine. Start by moving east, then north as a group, killing all who stand in your way. Once you reach the first treasure room on your way, stay there and use a few stronger units as bait for the Mages and Knights hanging around in the middle of the level. Once they move in to attack, kill them as you will. Also, leave a strong axe user behind(Kieran, Boyd, someone like that) to deal with the Soldier reinforcements that appear from the starting point. While Volke raids the east treasure room, move west and stay out of Devdan's attack range until you have no further distractions. Just send one of the child units mentioned above into Devdan's range(he won't attack them), and talk to him to get him to join you. In regards to the west treasure room, I personally like to visit it before the middle treasure room. Since a Thief will eventually appear and attempt to raid the west room before you do, it's best to get it out of the way as soon as possible. Once that's done, move to the south treasure room, raid everything in there too. After the chests are all empty, regroup your party in the central north area of the level, take out whatever enemies are remaining in the central north area, then kill the boss and seize to win. It's difficult to screw up royally in this chapter, so you don't have much to worry about. ~Character Profile: Devdan~ This guy's personality is quite amusing, from what I've seen. Too bad he isn't very useful. When I got him in the playthrough I used to write this walkthrough, all of his stats except LCK and RES were vastly inferior to Nephenee, and they were at the same level. He gets BIG points for being the first playable black guy in a Fire Emblem game, but alas, he's outclassed by Nephenee and most of your other lance users too. Use him?: If you've been using Nephenee, no need to. 5/10 ---------------------- Chapter 17: Day Breaks [dayb] ---------------------- This chapter is unique; it's the longest in the game. But the whole thing is composed of four separate battles all occurring withing the same general area. It sounds like a big job, but don't worry. You can still save in between battles, but once you start, you can't change formation or get items from your convoy. So before you begin, be SURE each character has enough weapons to last all four battles. PS: thanks to an anonymous tipster(Didn't leave a name, and I don't want to disclose their e-mail address) for pointing out I forgot the shortcut to this chapter. I gotta get my stuff straight nest time. :P There is some flexibility, though: you can choose reinforcements at the beginning of the second battle onward. You can choose up to two extra units for the second, third, and fourth fights. They won't arrive right away, though, they'll show up two turns or so later. I never bothered with the reinforcements. If your main party is strong enough, you shouldn't need them. Without further ado, on to the battles! Battle 1 Victory: Rout Units: 10 New Characters: None Items: Killer Lance(drop) this chapter starts out with an easy battle. The terrain looks all the same, but if you look carefully, parts of ground are labeled "swamp", and they reduce your movement much like the sand in the desert. It isn't much of a deterrent, though, and if you just advance as a group and kill whatever comes your way, you should be fine. But leave a lance user at the bottom of the level, to take care of reinforcements. All of your main units should be either promoted or about to promote by now, so you can out-muscle or -magic any of the soldiers that come your way. The only tricky thing about the chapter is that reinforcements arrive from the south on turn 2. Just exterminate them with your lance user, and you'll be fine. There is one more thing to be aware of, and that is the Halberdier at the top of the level. He has a Killer Lance, and with it, he IS a genuine threat! Just give Jill an axe or, failing that, send a high DEF unit to take him out, and you'll be okay. Better yet, use a bow to shoot him down and get his Killer Lance untarnished! Once every enemy is dead, you'll move on. Serves them right for working for that despicable Oliver. Battle 2 Victory: Arrive Units: 10 + 2 optional reinforcements New Characters: None Items: Poleax(drop) FAIR WARNING: If Ike isn't level 20 yet, this is the LAST battle you'll have to reliably train him! Make it count! This map is a little trickier, but only if you decide to go the hard way. The easy way is just rushing to the east and Arriving as quickly as possible, offering little resistance. The hard way is splitting your forces along the divide at the beginning, killing as many enemies as possible along the way. If you plan to go the easy way, you don't even need this walkthrough. Just run your ass off to the east and that's it. But for the hard way, just split your units into two groups and go up the separate paths. Have Volke swipe anything that isn't nailed down(there's a Physic staff ripe for the taking!), and kill as you so desire. Enemy reinforcements will arrive from the west and north at the end of turn 2, but they're nothing you can't handle. Wipe out whoever gets in your way, and it's clear sailing to the next level. Battle 3 Victory: Survive for 10 turns Units: 10(12 if you got reinforcements last chapter) + 2 more reinforcements(optional) New Characters: None Items: Mend staff(drop), Elfire(drop) After you complete battle 2, a scene will occur. Now, Ike will be permanently carrying a new friend, and his SKL and SPD will take a huge drop as he's rescued her. For this battle, you need to protect Ike for 10 turns, which isn't so bad. Just have Ike hide in a hedge, well out of the enemies' range. You start with a lot of enemies on all sides, but it's not as bad as it seems. Clear out the enemies behind and above you, then form a defensive wall with your units concentrated on the southeast. Slowly advance southeast and destroy whoever gets in your way, and you should do fine. Reinforcements will also appear from the northwest on turn 5 and many turns past that, so keep Ike going south with the rest of the group. Since Ike is rescuing Leanne, he won't be able to fight or dodge particularly well. So don't put him in harm's way, wait out the remainder of the 10 turn limit, and you'll be fine. Battle 4 Victory: Defeat boss Units: anywhere from 10-16(depends on when you brought in reinforcements) New Characters: None Items: Nosferatu(boss drop), Adept scroll(drop), Armorslayer(drop) After all those long battles, you finally get to fight that bastard(sorry, but I can't think of anything else to describe him) Oliver. Don't worry, we'll get to him in due time. The first thing I have to point out in the level is the Mage just a bit to the left of your starting point. He has a Meteor tome, which is a long range Fire magic- it can hit up to 10(!!!) spaces away. This is likely your first experience in this game with long range magic, so let me warn you. Even though it only has 5 uses, he can decimate your party in that time. Since Ike still has Leanne with him, he's likely vulnerable to a double attack(during the playthrough I used to write this guide, my Ike had 16 SPD, which was cut in half to 8 by the rescue- the Mage had 12 SPD, so he was able to double attack. Now what do we do about this? I hope you brought a flying unit, because they're the only ones who can reliably kill Mr. Meteor early on. I suggest you do so, or, failing that, keep everyone out of his range except for one high RES unit and let him waste his Meteor tome. Your call, but it's probably the biggest threat in this map. For most of this chapter, the going is pretty easy. As mentioned above, if you find a way to kill the Meteor Mage, it'll be even easier. Just advance south, then west, the loop around to the northwest where Oliver is. None of the enemies provide much of a challenge, but reinforcements do appear at your starting point on turn 5 onwards. Once you start looping north, Tibarn, Reyson, Janaff, and Ulki will appear. If you don't want any interference with the rest of the enemies, rescue them all if possible. You do NOT want them killing Oliver or the Halberdier to his left, because they both drop valuable items. Let me say: you want that Adept scroll! So keep them out of the way, and kill the rest of the enemies to the north unhindered. Kill Oliver(be sure to make it a most painful death- I used Rolf- BOOM headshot!), and you're finally done this tiring gauntlet. After the battle, several interesting cutscenes occur. Is it just me, or does Mist look different in the cutscenes than her character portrait? Plus, after these scenes are over, Ike finally gets promoted! Sweet! *MAJOR TIP: Now that Ike's promoted, use an Occult scroll on him. He'll gain Aether, which is quite possibly the strongest skill in the game. You won't regret it. -------------------------- Chapter 18: Crimea Marches [crim] -------------------------- Victory: Rout Units: 13 New Characters: Tanith(Falco Knight)- joins automatically, Janaff(Hawk), Ulki(Hawk), Reyson(Heron)- all join at the beginning if you accept Reyson's offer, Shinon(rejoins- see below) Items: Renewal scroll(if you refuse Reyson's offer) Tornado(boss drop), Brave Bow(drop), Knight Killer(drop), Recover staff(far left treasure chest), Wrath scroll(far right treasure chest), Silence staff(next-to-far-right treasure chest) Another major tip: Bring Rolf in this chapter if you want to Get Shinon back! I'll explain how in a couple of paragraphs. This is a perfect Chapter for Ike to gain some levels and catch up to everyone else. Be sure to let him get a lot of kills in this battle. He teams up very well with Reyson, and with a little planning and his help, Ike can decimate almost all the enemies at the beginning. Start by sending everyone up the stairs and east along the wall. Let Ike lead the charge and have Volke raid all of the chests along the way. Leave an axe user or two behind to deal with wyvern rider reinforcements, though. And be prepared for a bunch of assorted Cavaliers to appear at your starting point as you near the end of the wall. It's okay to spread your troops thin in this battle. If any of your main units weren't promoted when you started chapter 17, they likely are now. Make them all count, and you'll clear the baddies out with no problems. But be warned: Ravens will appear from the north, as well, but they're not nearly the threat they used to be in chapter 12. Now, I'll tell you how to get Shinon. Send someone tough into his range to lure him towards you, then talk to him with Rolf. After the conversation, defeat him with Ike. Shinon will not actually die, but simply retreat. After the chapter is done, he will rejoin as before. The boss is probably the strongest magic user you've seen so far, but he's no threat if you use a physical attacker. Most anybody can down him in two hits or so. After he's gone, spread your units thin and eliminate whoever's left to win. ~Character Profile: Tanith~ I never used Tanith much, but I know how her Reinforce ability works. You can use it twice a battle to summon two Pegasus Knights and one Falco Knight. Ike can then direct them as he would yellow units. Any kills they make are converted into Bonus EXP at the end of the battle. It's a useful ability, I gather, but I never used it- or Tanith herself- too much. But if you use her religiously, she can become pretty good, and even use the Sonic Sword with great efficiency. Another flying unit would be welcome, yes? Use her?: Why not, if you want another flier? 8/10(Alex Ruiz's rating) ~Character Profile: Janaff~ Only two Hawks join you for the bulk of the game, and the differences between them are subtle. Janaff is one level higher than Ulki, but his STR is lower. His SPD is WAY higher than Ulki, though, and he has a built-in skill called Insight that increases his hit %. He's fast, he's decently strong, but I only recommend using one Hawk at a time. Use him?: No reason not to, but don't use both at once. 7/10 ~Character Profile: Ulki~ Ulki is more of the strong, silent type as opposed to Janaff. He has more room to grow(precisely one more level's worth), and he is actually stronger than Janaff, but slower too. Not much else I can say, I haven't used him too much, although with his free built-in skill, Vigilance, few people can touch him. Use him?: He'll have no problem staying alive and dealing damage. He's a serious candidate for the Demi Band. 8/10 Character Profile: Reyson The only unit in the game who is not designed for combat at ALL, pretty boy Reyson can still come in handy almost all the time. Fair warning, though: his defense is HORRIBLY weak. Unless you want to urinate away all of your Dracoshields on him, you'll be protecting him all the time. However, with his Chant ability, Reyson can make a single unit move again, much like the Dancers from previous games. Even better, his TRUE usefulness shows when he transforms. When he does, he can make units on all sides of him move when he Chants, and in either form, he can restore a good amount of HP to any adjacent unit. He's a great way to augment your army with a free healer, and using your best units twice in one turn is never a bad thing. Use him?: definitely, but be prepared to keep him out of harm's way. 9/10 --------------------- Chapter 19: Entrusted [entr] --------------------- Victory: Defeat Boss Units: 13 New Characters: None Items: Knight Ring(see below), Killer Axe(drop), Laguz Bow(drop), Longsword(drop) *Note: While you're at your Base, watch another "3 Brothers" conversation. Once you do, you'll be able to do a Triangle Attack with Boyd, Rolf, and Oscar. I'll explain how to do it in the Secrets section. Before you start the battle, be sure to bring both Reyson and either Janaff or Ulki! They'll both be a HUGE help in removing a major threat from the battlefield. Also, take note of the ballistas on the battlefield. Archers and Snipers can use them to launch a powerful arrow a long distance. So it's in your best interest to take them out as quickly as possible. The enemies here pose little threat, but since Naesala's here, he will! There is one easy way to get rid of the treacherous Raven king, however. If you have Reyson and either of your Hawks on the field, which you should, send any unit with strong RES right into the outer edge of Naesala's range, with your Hawk of choice next to them(but completely out of Naesala's range). Naesala should zero in on them and use Vortex on the unit. Then talk to him with your Hawk, and Naesala should lighten up a bit. He will then move towards Reyson, talk to him, and give him a Knight Ring. after the conversation, he and his Raven henchmen will leave. You get a hefty amount of Bonus EXP from not killing any of the Ravens, so it's in your best interest to avoid it. As for the rest of the Chapter, send a flying unit(equipped with the Full Guard) to handle the ballistas. For the love of Ashera, KEEP REYSON OUT OF THEIR RANGE. He will likely die in one hit if he gets shot by a ballista. Just move up to the north as a group, keep your fragile units out of the ballistas' range, and you'll be just fine. The boss has a Sonic Sword, too. Interesting... and he kinda looks like he could be Stefan's long lost brother or something. Nonetheless, he must die. I know it's tempting to put a high RES unit next to the boss so he'll de-equip the Sonic Sword, thus allowing you to steal it, but don't bother. Volke is still unpromoted, and his SPD maxes out at 20 before promotion. The boss's SPD is exactly 20, and since you need higher SPD to steal from somebody, you can't. Too bad. But the boss will go down without putting up a major fight anyway. He's a fairly easy kill, so don't worry. After this Chapter is done, Volke will reveal his purpose for following you, along with a few other shocking truths. He will then offer his services further. Accept, and he'll promote- to an Assassin, a character class unique to Volke in this game. He can still steal and pick locks, but now he can learn Lethality(the Assassin's signature one-hit kill move) if you give him an Occult scroll. I suggest you do so. ----------------------------- Chapter 20: Defending Talrega [defe] ----------------------------- Victory: Arrive in 15 turns Units: 11 New Characters: Calill(Sage), talk to "Woman" at your Base and accept her offer Items: Tomahawk(boss drop), Shine tome(drop), Provoke scroll(drop), Smite scroll(north house), Rescue staff(south house) Okay, Petrine really needs to calm down. This Chapter is sort of like a Seize Chapter, but you only have 15 turns to Arrive at the goal. It's okay, though, 15 turns is way more than what you'll need. This is one of the few chapters where I suggest NOT bringing Jill. If she has any contact with the boss, that is, if she attacks him, she'll switch sides and go back to the enemy. The only way to bring her back is if she has an A support with somebody, but that's not likely. Just don't bring her this time, it'll be easier. It's safe to send the bulk of your units east then north to take on most of the enemy forces. There are a few Sages with long range magic, so be on the ball when it comes to healing people who need it. You should also send two or three extra units to the northern house and get the Smite scroll and to take out the enemies up there. Make sure the units who go to the house have high DEF and ideally use axes, because they'll eventually be attacked by Wyvern Riders. Actually, I like to use Volke to do that, since he's freshly promoted, he could use some EXP. Another good idea is to use Rhys or Mist and keep them in the middle of the level with a Physic staff(you should have several by now). Volke could likely use the healing, too. Just advance as quickly and carefully as you can, visit the southern house along the way, and kill the boss with Ike(or any strong sword user- the boss has a Tomahawk). You should easily be able to complete this mission in 6 turns or so with little difficulty. ~Character Profile: Calill~ The first of two prepromoted sages who join you, Calill can come in handy more than once. It's not her stats that are her main strength(which aren't too bad for her level), but her weapon levels. She has a B in all weapon levels and decent STR, which means she can use ALL the long range magic tomes(except Light)with no difficulty whatsoever. Feel free to use her on a regular basis in your party, but her best use is as a "Sniper Sage", as I call her, firing off the long range tomes. She's pretty competent, but her biggest problem is that she uses knives instead of staffs. Oh well, you can't have everything. Use her?: Yes, as either a Sniper Sage or regularly. She performs equally well. 7/10 -------------------------- Chapter 21: Without a King [with] -------------------------- Victory: Seize Units: 13 New Characters: Tauroneo(General)- Talk with Ike Items: Killing Edge(drop), Occult scroll(comes with Tauroneo) Treasure rooms(counter clockwise from the closest room to starting point): Stiletto and Parity scroll(first), Energy Drop(second), Talisman(third), Corrosion scroll and Thoron tome(fourth), Master Seal and Brave Sword(fifth) *Note: Volke will have a LOT or treasure hunting to do in this level. It's all optional, but you'd be a fool to pass it up. I suggest giving him the Knight Ring if you have it. Not only will he be able to move from room to room more efficiently with it, but he'll play an integral role in helping with battling Ena. Pair Volke with Reyson to make a super fast burglar team! Although it's not necessary, having a Restore staff will be pretty handy. There are two Bishops with Sleep staffs. One is in the northwest, one is in the throne room. If they send your units to dream land, then the Sages lurking outside the throne room will send them to death land. That's much worse. During a previous playthrough, my Gatrie was killed while he slept and that angered the hell out of me. I hope it doesn't happen to you. This is your biggest battle yet, but as usual, careful planning will get you out alive. Split your party into two groups and send your main group northwest over the indoor moat. Keep heading northwest with that group until you can circle down south to the throne room where Ena lays. Have your second smaller group(with Volke in it) head directly north, with Volke raiding the treasure room along the way. Send them directly west as well and have Volke loot every treasure room he can. The group heading north then west will also fight Kasatai along the way, and he's sort of like a mini-boss. He's not difficult to defeat, but be warned! He has both a Brave Lance(which lets him attack twice in a row), and the Wrath skill! If you get his health low without killing him, he could put some serious hurt on your units. Just use long range attacks and magic to put him out of his misery, and he won't even get a single hit in on you. Your two parties should meet just above the throne room. Head southeast from there, killing along the way, but stop before you get into the white armored general's range. That's Tauroneo, and you can recruit him. Ike can easily stop just outside of his range, then run right up to him and talk to him. Easy, yes. Once you get Tauroneo, have everyone charge the throne room and gang up on Ena. Do not attack her at melee range if you can avoid it, she's the strongest boss up to this point. She also recovers 10 HP per turn(partially due to the Seize square, partially because of her Renewal skill), so you'll want to take her down quickly. If you want to make things easier, wait until you've raided all the treasures, then steal Ena's Elixir with Volke. Then get him the hell out of the way either with Reyson, or just move again if Volke has the Knight Ring equipped. Once Ena finally falls, seize the spot she's standing on and you've won! Congrats! ~Character Profile: Tauroneo~ You know what, I've received some new info. At least, Tauroneo comes at a good level and has okay stats for where he is. He comes with good weapons and the Resolve skill, which works to his advantage. If you didn't use Gatrie or Brom and want a Knight or General, he's your man. Use him?: if you really want to have a General late in the game. 7/10(Alex Ruiz's rating) ---------------- Chapter 22: Solo ---------------- Victory: Defeat boss Units: 11 New Characters: None Items: Killer Bow(Boss drop), Chest Key x2(drop), Bolting tome(drop), Sleep staff(Left room, bottom chest), Nosferatu tome(left room, middle chest), Spirit Dust(left room, top chest), Silver Bow(right room, bottom chest), Tomahawk(right room, middle chest), Bolganone tome(right room, top chest) You have never faced this many enemies at once so far! At first, this battle looks like it's hopeless, but trust me, it's not. Most of the Priests are unarmed and at a low level. True to what the boss says, they are the shields of the real enemies here. Try not to kill any of the priests, or your Bonus EXP will suffer, and you won't get the really cool S rank staff at the end. The best thing to do to avoid killing the priests is shove them out of your way. I know your parents told you not to push people out of the way, but we have to be a bit impolite here. If you're anything like me, you don't shove people around too much in this game, but now's your chance. Shove them out of your way to get into the treasure rooms east and west of your starting point, then kill the enemies in the rooms. Once you've cleared everybody out of the way save for the priests and grabbed the items in the chests, regroup in the center and move north, several people at a time. It can get pretty crowded as you move north, so I recommend sending only 4 units or so to the top. Reinforcements will appear from the entrances east and west of your starting point, so keep a few people behind to deal with them. You will likely need Volke to get all of the treasure chests in this level, but if you have any spare chest keys from previous Chapters, now is one of the best times to use them. If you have one extra, it's better to just let Volke take one side, then give another party member an extra chest key and take the other side. While you move up the central hallway, shove as many of the priests to the side as you can. Some of them, like Tomenami, are Bishops equipped with Light tomes. Keep a careful eye on your units' ranges and the enemies' ranges. You don't want to kill any of the priests by accident, so don't place any melee units directly next to the Bishops, or long range units one space away from the bishops. If your units counterattack, they will likely kill the priests by mistake. You don't want that. The boss himself is extremely easy if you have some free inventory space for Volke. Position a high defense unit(I used Gatrie) two spaces away from the boss, and he'll use his Killer Bow to attack. Even if he does critical, a unit with high defense should easily be able to survive it. Then sneak in, steal his Killer Axe, then hit him at melee range over and over. He should go down without a fight, and he'll drop his Killer Bow to boot! By the way, one of the priests next to the boss has a Physic staff. You might want to steal that off of him if you have the room to carry it. Victory is yours, and if all of the priest survived, not only will you get a very generous amount of Bonus EXP, but you'll also receive the Ashera staff, which is the S rank staff. Congratulations! Not that the staff is useful, just think of getting it as an added challenge. ---------------------------- Chapter 23: The Great Bridge [theg] ---------------------------- Victory: Seize Units: 13 New Characters: Ranulf(Cat)- joins automatically), Haar(Wyvern Lord)- talk with Jill Items: Flame Lance(Boss drop), Heavy Spear(drop), Blizzard tome(drop), Longbow(drop), Killer Bow(drop), Hammerne staff(speak with "Woman" at your Base) Ranulf returns! He WOULD interrupt a nice moment like that, go figure. Before you go into battle, speak with "Woman" at your Base. Aimee, the item vendor, will give you a Hammerne staff, quite possibly the most valuable item in the game. The bridge itself has a series of sinkhole traps in it. If a unit moves over any of the traps, he or she will stop in it and be stunned until the enemies' turn comes around. I'm going to do you a favor and list where all the traps are, in the usual X(horizontal) and Y(vertical) coordinates format, going from left to right and bottom to top: [X 15, Y 4], [X 17, Y 2], [X 17, Y7], [X 17, Y8], [X 20, Y 3], [X 20, Y 4], [X 20, Y 5], [X 23, Y 4], [X 24, Y 7], [X 26, Y 2], [X 31, Y 1], [X 33, Y 7] Now that that's out of the way, you can enjoy the battle! Just advance all of your units across the bridge except for Jill. Leave her behind, you'll find out why later. If you're using Rolf or Shinon, give them a Longbow and they can easily reach the archers in the ballistas before moving in behind them. It just removes the threat that much quicker. It goes without saying that you need to be careful of the ballistas' ranges. Keep your fragile units back until you disarm the ballistas by killing the archers manning them. If you're using Reyson, take even more caution. One arrow from any of them is still enough to kill him instantly. As you advance, be careful of the trap holes. Your units won't take damage, but they'll be immobilized. That can leave them in a precarious position. Later in the map, Haar and a small squad of Wyvern Riders will appear at your starting point. Talk to Haar with Jill and he'll join up with you. Then just have Jill clear out the reinforcements that linger at the far east portion of the map. Eventually, you'll get your first glimpse of Lucia and Bastian, several Crimean soldiers. They'll send in some Paladins as reinforcements. Don't even regard them, they'll usually just kill a Wyvern Rider or two before getting killed. They won't attack Petrine(and wisely so, she'd roast them!), so you can fight her unhindered. As for Petrine, she'll put up a good fight with her spiky bangs of doom and her Flame Lance. The thing is, her lance actually does magical damage like the Sonic Sword(using her MAG and your units' RES to calculate damage). So just send any unit with decent RES to take her down. Attack her with Soren and you'll see an interesting exchange. Once Petrine finally bites the dust, seize the spot she was standing on and you win. ~Character Profile: Ranulf~ After getting beaten up by random villagers, almost killed by the Black Knight, and disappearing for practically half the game, Ranulf's back in full force. Luckily, he's strong enough to justify joining late. All of his stats are great except for RES, and the only reason I made fun of him through this walkthrough is because he's my single favorite character in the game. He's well-rounded(read: exceeds in all areas but RES) enough to serve you well, and he's likely the best candidate for the Demi Band. Use him?: Best Laguz in the game except for the three kings. You tell me. 9/10 ~Character Profile: Haar~ His eyepatch reminds of when Kramer had one on Seinfeld. :P nonetheless, his stats look pretty solid. I never used him, but I hear he can make a fair alternative to Jill if she gets screwed for stats. I suppose he's all right, but I have yet to form a definitive rating for him as a result of not using him. But in comes Mr. Ruiz again with more information! He gives Haar a 7, because he has serious potantial to end up better than Jill. He can even use the Bolt Axe to deliver nice finishing blows on the Dragons in Chapter 28. Use him?: He can be better than Jill. Once you get him, compare the stats and use whoever is stronger. Wyvern Lords are always useful. 7/10(Alex Ruiz's rating) -------------------------- Chapter 24: Battle Reunion [batt] -------------------------- Victory: Arrive in 15 turns Units: 11 New Characters: Lucia(Swordmaster) and Bastian(Sage)- both will arrive on turn 2, Geoffrey(Paladin)- joins automatically after battle Items: Savior scroll(north house), Nihil scroll(southwest house) This Chapter is a bit unusual. The boss is not guarding the spot you have to Arrive on. The goal is in the northwest, and the boss is actually to the south, across the river from your troops. Geoffrey is to the north, guarding the castle instead. Don't worry about him, he'll be fine. Split your party up into two groups and take a larger group west across the river to meet Rikard(the boss) and the troops over there. By now, you should have no problem slicing, stabbing, hacking, feathering, and magicing through them. Be sure to visit the house to the west before finishing the Chapter. As usual, take out the ballistas as soon as possible to avoid a major hassle later on. Send a smaller group north to the house, also killing enemies along the way. This group will have to deal with some Wyvern Riders and Wyvern Lords, as well as a Berserker who could be a real threat if he criticals. Just do a sort of pincer attack between the two groups, ending at the castle itself. It'll be no problem. On turn 2, Bastian and Lucia will show up on the field at your starting point. Get them away from the starting point, because once you get into Rikard's range, guess who appears again... The Black Knight! Yup, he's back again! Same as before, you still can't kill him, so just keep away. If you fight him with Ike anyway, they'll have a short exchange and the Black Knight will disappear. Rikard himself is decently strong. He has both a Short Axe and a Silver Blade, plus the Parity skill. That means you can't use any of your skills when fighting him, but he'll still go down pretty quickly. Not much else to say about this Chapter, you shouldn't need the whole 15 turn limit. Also, take note of Geoffrey's units. He has on his side the only Valkyrie in the game other than Mist. Another cool scene will take place with Ike. This totally lays the foundation for a battle of epic proportions! ~Character Profile: Bastian~ The last magic user to join you, Bastian is probably the worst. His stats are unremarkable, he can't use staffs, and he has the useless Corrosion skill. Soren can use Wind magic WAY better than this guy can. On the plus side, his Shakespearean English style of speaking put a smile on my face more than once. Use him?: No. All the other Mages can do what he can, only better. 4/10 ~Character Profile: Lucia~ Again, her personality is cool, but Lucia can't hold a candle to Mia, Stefan, or Zihark(my order of preference for the other Swordmasters). Her STR kind of lags, which is a liability at this stage of the game, and she could have a way better skill built in than Parity. The rest of her stats are okay, and if you haven't trained a Swordmaster but REALLY want one, I suppose she's passable. Use her?: Only if you're desperate to have at least one lean, mean, critical hit-scoring machine on your team. 6/10 ~Character Profile: Geoffrey~ The last paladin to join you in the game, Geoffrey is one of the best! He can use both lances and bows, and he comes with the Paragon skill. He's at a good level(11), and combined with that and Paragon, he's immediately usable. When he reaches level 20, dump Paragon for something else. Paladins are commonplace in this game, but he's probably the best of them all. And look at that DEF! That is some nice DEF. But DEF aside, the rest of his stats are rather well- rounded too. Plus he comes with a useful Brave Lance. Use him?: If you can spare a unit slot, go for it! 9/10 ------------------------- Chapter 25: Strange Lands [stra] ------------------------- Victory: Rout Units: 12 New Characters: Largo(Berserker)- talk with "Man" at your Base Items: Bolt Axe(boss drop), Purge tome(drop), Laguzslayer(drop) First things first. Talk to the "Man" waiting at your base, and you'll get the chance to hire Largo, a "world-class berserker". I recommend you do, because he can really come in handy for the last few Chapters. The first thing I have to point out are the boulders. The enemies will push them down the hill, and whoever gets caught in their path(friend or foe) will take 10 damage. Don't group your units together if you can help it, and remember that the boulders won't travel straight. If you can rush up with a flying unit and exterminate the enemies manning the boulders before they push them, so much the better. It would be best if a staff user had a Physic or two to cover everyone just in case. The Chapter is all uphill from here. Literally. Mounted units have their movement reduced on this map, so you may want to leave them out. The boss carries a Bolt Axe, and he's not afraid to use it. I actually suggest having Jill or any other flier charge straight up the middle of the level, and taking the boss head on. The Bolt Axe won't do enough damage to make him a serious threat. Split your party in two, and move up the sides of the hill. Kill as you go, and don't take any stupid risks. This chapter is only as difficult as you make it for yourself. There are a few Physic-using enemy Bishops here too, so have whatever characters you can use long-range magic. Soren can likely use Blizzard at the time, and Calill(if you feel like using some Bonus EXP on her) will perform easily with any long range magic. Have them assist in taking out the boss if possible. Ranulf's right. This is just one big mess... ~Character Profile: Largo~ FINALLY, we get a Berserker! They're my favorite non-magic class in this whole series, it's just too bad we only get Largo now. Personally, I think he's underrated. Yes, I know his DEF and RES are horrible, but he is ALL offense! If you want to Bonus EXP abuse him for a few levels, his defense will merely be adequate, but that's all he needs to wreak some havoc. His STR is some of the best in the game, and everything else is decent except for DEF and RES. If you REALLY want to kick some ass with him, give him Wrath or Resolve as skills. I personally think he's a great asset overall. Too bad he comes so late in the game. Use him?: Absolutely! With the right skills, he can be the most offensively strong unit in the game! 7/10 ------------------ Chapter 26: Clash! [clas] ------------------ Victory: Seize Units: 19(!) New Characters: Elincia(Princess Crimea)- joins automatically Items: Runesword(boss drop), Silver Sword(drop), Laguz Bow(drop), Laguz Lance(drop), Laguz Axe(drop) As soon as you leave your Base, you'll see a scene with Elincia. She'll join your army- 21 Chapters too late(and she's also mandatory to take into battle)! She claims the pegasus belonged to her great-grandmother. Those things must be long-lived. You can take 19 units with you, and I think that's rather excessive. You likely don't have 19 strong units, so anywhere from 12-15 will do just fine. Just focus on taking your main team, whoever they may be. As for this battle... I'm not going to list too much advice. This is a big, easy Chapter, and a lot of fun. There are next to no obstacles on the field, and there are so many different ways of tackling the enemies that I can't list them all. Just use whatever methods come to mind, and don't take unnecessary risks. Keep your fragile units away from the heavy-hitting enemies, and you'll do just fine. As for Bertram, steal his Spear then beat him to death with a magic unit. You want that Runesword. He's not difficult at all. Seize the entrance to the fort after killing Bertram, and you're done! ~Character Profile: Elincia~ Elincia also has a unique character class. Think of her as a Falco Knight who uses staffs instead of lances. She's great for healing, although not so hot for attacking. She does, however, come with her own sword, Amiti. It has unlimited uses, strikes consecutively like a Brave Sword, and increases her DEF and RES by 3. If you want to level her up fairly easily, you might want to let her get some easy 1 HP kills, but other than that, you should stick to healing. If you have some Bonus EXP to spare, you may as well throw at least some her way. Elincia also holds the honor of being the last Beorc to join your party. Use her?: Yes, but more as a healer. 7/10 -------------------------- Chapter 27: Moment of Fate [mome] -------------------------- Victory: Arrive Units: 11 New Characters: Ena(Red Dragon) or Nasir(White Dragon)- depends on the fight with the Black Knight Items: Occult scroll(boss drop), Double Bow(drop), Chest Key x3(drop), Silver Lance(drop), Door Key x2(drop), Spear(east treasure room, right chest), Fortify staff(east treasure room, left chest), Resolve scroll(west treasure room, top chest), Bolganone tome(west treasure room, left chest), Laguz Axe(west treasure room, right chest), Physic staff(middle room, right chest), Silver Lance(middle room, left chest), Ragnell(see below) Big tip: Stilettos are now available at the weapon shop! Buy two or three for Volke, and he can slice through Knights and Generals like a flamethrower through Frosty the Snowman. Before you begin this battle, I HIGHLY recommend you have Ike at level 20. Use Bonus EXP to max out his level if you have to, and make sure his STR and SKL are both maxed out(at 26 and 27, respectively). Also, give Mist a Physic staff if you've been using her a lot(which I have). She can be a lifesaver in the coming battle. If you haven't used her a lot(or at all), load Ike up with Elixirs. He'll need them. This chapter is only slightly tricky. Send someone to kill the Thief to the west as soon as possible. He has the valuable Double Bow, which is the best bow in the game! Split your party into three groups to go left, right, and up. Keep a healer to each group as well. Bring Volke too, he'll have a lot of stealing and treasure raiding to do. This is your last chance to use Volke's five finger discount, so have fun with it! There's not much else I can say until you get to the Black Knight after Arriving. Fight well, fight smart, and stay alive. Oh, and steal everything that isn't nailed down from your enemies. You need all the Physic staffs you can get. Once you open the previously hidden north area and the east and west treasure rooms, a great many more enemies will be revealed to you. Stay in the doorways and kill them as they come to you. Then raid the chests and loop a few units into the room in the middle of the map. Once you've gotten all the treasure chests on the map, move up to take out the boss. The boss has a Knight Ward equipped, so you might have difficulty killing him quickly. The good news is you have a choice of weapons to steal off of him. Either place a unit two spaces away from him, let him use his Spear and steal his Brave Lance, or just go up to him and swipe his Spear. Your choice, but I prefer to go for the Brave Lance. Kill him, take the Occult scroll he drops, then seize the spot he was on to proceed to one of the coolest battles in the game... -------------------------------------- Chapter 27 Part 2: Black Knight battle -------------------------------------- Victory: ??? Units: Ike and Mist Items: Ragnell This is it. The climax of the game. Ike vs. the Black Knight. One on one. Plus Mist. Yeah, even if you didn't use Mist in the Chapter, she'll still appear in the room with them. If you have been using her, she can come in handy to heal Ike as he battles the Black Knight. If you haven't been using her throughout the game, just have her Escape. Oh, and pray that you gave Ike an Elixir or two. Once you arrive in the room, Ike will have the blessed sword, Ragnell, in his inventory. This is the ONLY weapon that can damage the Black Knight. As for the fight, it's not nearly as hard as it's made out to be. Not if you took note of two things I mentioned earlier: 1) Make sure Ike's STR and SKL are maxed out, and 2) he has the Aether skill. Those are BOTH crucial! Basically, this battle is all about luck. If Aether activates maybe two or three times, you're good to defeat him. Be sure Ike is standing RIGHT next to the black Knight, because Aether won't activate if you attack at long range with Ragnell. Be warned that the Black Knight also has the Luna skill on him, and if it activates, you will take VERY heavy damage. Just be thankful his critical % is 0(I think). Remember that the chance for Aether to activate is equal to Ike's SKL as a percentage. If it's maxed out, you have a 27% chance to activate it, which is just over a 1 in 4 chance. If it doesn't activate, you'll do 9 damage at the most. There's not much else to say about the battle. If you're fully prepared like I outlined above, just park yourself in front of the Black Knight, attack like mad, heal when necessary, and get a good luck charm. As a note of caution, several enemy reinforcements will appear on turn 3(I think... correct me if I'm wrong). One of them will be a Bishop. He has Physic. I think it goes without saying that you need to end the battle quickly, if only because of that! Otherwise, combined with Renewal and the Bishop, that Black Knight will not go down easily if he appears. For good or ill, the battle will end either once you've defeated the Black Knight, the battle took more than 5 turns, or you Escape. If you kill the Black Knight, you get the good scene and Nasir will(FINALLY!!!) join your team in the next Chapter. If either of the latter two outcomes occur, you get the bad scene and Ena joins your party instead. Either way, the BK is toast. ~Character Profile: Nasir~ One of two Dragons who can potentially join you, Nasir is the stronger of the two. He comes at level 18(!) and to be honest, most of his stats are just average. His movement isn't good enough to keep up with the rest of your group, and most of his stats, although pretty good, are usually just enough to get by with him... not what you'd expect from an ancient, powerful Dragon. Use him?: you have no choice in the last Chapter, but for Chapter 28 I say yes. Just be prepared to let him get a few kills and get him to level 20. 6/10 ~Character Profile: Ena~ If you get the bad ending to the Black Knight fight, you get Ena instead of Nasir. This is a mixed blessing. You see, she comes at a lower level and has predictably inferior stats to Nasir as a result. The good news is that she has more room to grow because of that lower level. She just might end up being stronger than Nasir overall, but you'll have a hell of a lot of training to do if you want that result. Use her?: you have no choice in the last Chapter, but if you want to level her up, then by all means do so. 6/10 ------------------------- Chapter 28: Twisted Tower [twis] ------------------------- Victory: Seize Units: 12 New Characters: Tibarn(ally only) Items: Rexbolt(boss drop) Before you begin this Chapter, I strongly suggest you get at least one Laguz weapon for each of the characters you're bringing into this battle. You are about to fight a LOT of Laguz. Here we go. The second-to-last Chapter in the game. We're almost there. The vast majority of the enemies in this Chapter are assorted Laguz, including... *gulp* Dragons! How the Daein army got a hold of THEM is anyone's guess, but the fact remains: they are the hardest normal enemies to kill in the game, and I'm going to devote a whole paragraph just to killing them in a moment. Apart from the Dragons, this is a fairly easy Chapter. Tibarn joins your group as an ally, so you get to Direct him with Ike. I personally like to have him Avoid all the enemies so you can get all the EXP, but that's just me. Just advance as a group, kill whatever comes your way, and STAY OUT OF THE DRAGONS' RANGE until you're absolutely ready to take them down. Now, as I promised, here's how I deal with the Dragons. They are weak to Thunder magic, but their resistance is so blasted high that it doesn't make much of a difference. I prefer to forget about Thunder and just use Ike to weaken them. With Ragnell, he can attack from long range, and he'll deal respectable damage with it. Laguz Bows are a huge help, as well as Killer Axes. In fact, if you use Boyd or Largo, and they get a critical hit, they can kill them or come close to killing them in one attack! Basically, you want to keep out of their ranges until you're ready, then rush them and deal with them in a single turn. If the Dragons get the chance to attack anyone, the damage could potentially be irreparable. The rest of the Chapter is standard stuff. It's a wide open expanse, so you can fight freely without having to worry about moving around. The boss has a Bolting tome and Rexbolt, the S rank Thunder tome. He won't move, so stay at least 10 spaces away at all times. When you're ready, move your units into his range and let him use Bolting on somebody. When he does, he won't be able to attack at short range, so just rush him and beat him into submission before he can fight back with Rexbolt. Once he falls, Seize the spot that was behind him, and you win! --------------------- Endgame: Repatriation [repa] --------------------- Victory: Defeat Ashnard Units: 14 New Characters: Tibarn(Hawk King), Giffca(Lion), or Naesala(Raven King)- see below Items: Physic staff(drop), Speedwing(drop) Before you go into battle, I suggest you use all your Bonus EXP on your units who have not yet gotten to level 20. Use all your stat up items as well if you haven't already. It's also a good idea to buy fresh weapons for everybody, and make sure they're the strongest weapons that they can use(Killer, Brave, Silver, and so forth). Physic is available at the item shop, so buy new Physic staffs for everybody who can use them. Oh, and give everybody an Elixir or two afterwards if you can afford it. Once you arrive at the palace, a scene will occur. Now it's up to you to move up to Ashnard and take him out! If you look at the map, the amount of enemies will seem overwhelming. Don't worry... it is! At least, if you decide to split up your party this time. This is the hardest mission in the game, but it's not impossible. *Note: Whichever Dragon joined your party has to go with you on this mission. Once one turn has passed, you'll get the option to bring one of the Laguz Kings on the field! DO IT! It doesn't matter which one, they're all godly in terms of power! I like Giffca the most, but Naesala is my favorite in terms of personality... actually, Giffca has the highest STR, Naesala is the fastest and comes with Vantage and Vortex(his Wind attack), and Tibarn strikes more of a balance between SPD and STR. Any one of them will be a huge help. What you want to do is move everyone straight up the middle of the level. Only let Ike into Bryce's range, and the two of them will fight it out. Ike can easily defeat Bryce, who will die a true warrior's death(based on the dialogue between him and Ike). Then come the Dragons... When dealing with these monstrous reptiles again, do what you did before. Just wait things out, heal your characters, and take them on one at a time. Once the Dragons are killed, barricade the entrances to the fountain. Wait for the enemies to come to you, and kill them as they approach. Just send flying units(I used Jill and Elincia) or mounted units out to kill the enemy Bishops before they can heal anybody, then have them retreat back to the fountain immediately. Once you have a clear path to the north, move up towards Ashnard as a group. Don't bother with the rest of the enemies to the sides, and only kill those who get in your way. Once you get to Ashnard, it's a whole other game... Ashnard does not mess around. His sword is a long range weapon like Ike's, and he packs a MAJOR punch! The only characters who can damage him are Ike(with Ragnell), your Laguz King, and Nasir(I never got Ena, so the jury's out as to whether she can damage him. Can anyone confirm this?). Just whittle him down, and heal your attackers with Physic. Ashnard is the most powerful enemy in the game, as one would expect. He's big, he's strong, he's tough, and he's fast. But he's not unstoppable. With a bit of planning and luck, he will fall. I think I should note some tips for hard mode. I got some info from James Honaker on Ashnard. He'll come after you on turn 9, and once you deplete his HP for the first time, he revives himself, gains 20 more HP and 10 more STR. In this case... pray for Aether to activate. For the LOVE OF GOD, pray for it!!! Once you defeat Ashnard, the Epilogue will begin. Some more secrets are revealed, but I won't say anything else about it except for two things: 1) the ending TOTALLY leaves the door open for a sequel, which I hope they will have, and 2) during Ike and Elincia's cut scene, listen carefully. You can hear the classic Fire Emblem theme playing in the background. Listen closely... ~Character Profile: Giffca~ You don't see much of him for most of the game, so Giffca comes as a surprise. He's slow, but has the highest STR of the Laguz Kings. He comes with the Roar skill, which is 100% pure unfiltered useless, but like that matters! Plus he's a lion, which automatically makes him badass. Use him?: Why not? You need all the help you can get! 10/10 ~Character Profile: Tibarn~ Tibarn actually is level 18, so he has SOME room to grow. He comes with the Cancel skill, and Savior if you're desparate. His flight abilities will be helpful in getting around, kicking ass, and taking names. Plus he looks cool too. Use him?: Hawks rule! Literally, in this case! 10/10 ~Character Profile: Naesala~ He's here to sell Herons, and kick ass. And he's all out of Herons. Naesala has to be my favorite of the Laguz Kings, because of his cool personality and fashion sense. But his skills are great, too. He comes with Vantage(YES!) and Vortex(which works like an Elwind spell), and the highest SPD of any character in the game. His STR is a bit lacking, but he's more than enough to take out almost all enemies in at least a double attack. To ask a legitimate question, why the HELL does he come with a Coin at this time in the game?!?!? Use him?: Pure unfiltered cool! 10/10 ---------- Skill List [skil] ---------- I can't believe I forgot this for so long! Here is a complete list of the Skills your characters can acquire in the game, along with my comments on each of them. Any skill with 20 capacity is a master skill, and I'll point out which character classes can learn them along with all the other information. -Adept Effect: Grants an extra attack once it activates Capacity: 10 Chance to activate: SKL = % Scroll?: Yes, chapter 17 My comments: a very nice skill, don't depend on it to kill your enemy, but it can activate before your enemy gets to attack and prevent some damage. Also works great for units with low speed, so they can double attack from time to time. Excellent with Gatrie. -Aether Effect: 2-hit combo of Sol and Luna Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: SKL = % Scroll?: Occult Learned by: Ike My comments: This one of the best master skills in the game! Ike essentially deals a TON of damage and gains a TON of HP back! It'll keep him alive if he get's seriously hurt, and he'll need it to defeat the Black Knight later in the game. -Astra Effect: Deals 5 hits, each hit doing half damage and having a chance to critical Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: SKL/2 = % Scroll?: Occult Learned by: Swordmaster My comments: A lot of people dislike this skill, but I say go out and have fun with it. It'll activate often enough to be worthwhile(Swordmasters DO have high SLK, after all), and it just looks cool! It's not the best skill, but keep it on Stefan and watch him destroy stuff! -Blessing Effect: Restores HP equal to unit's MAG stat to adjacent units at beginning of turn Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: When adjacent units have low HP Scroll?: Occult Learned by: Heron Laguz My comments: Makes Reyson a great utility unit. Then you don't have to go all over healing people if you don't want to. Besides, Reyson comes with it already, so you don't need to use an Occult scroll to get it. -Blossom Effect: Reduces EXP gained to 1/3 normal, but greatly increases stat growth upon level up Capacity: 15 Chance to activate: Always on Scroll?: No My comments: An interesting skill, but not useful on Sothe. If it was on a unit that could promote, maybe it would be worth something more, but as it stands... useless. -Boon Effect: heals adjacent units from status effects Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: when adjacent units have stat effects Scroll?: Occult Learned by: Dragon Laguz My comments: Useless, since when you get your Dragons, almost NO enemies use status effects. -Cancel Effect: Nullifies all enemy attacks Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: SLK = % Scroll?: Occult Learned by: Hawk Laguz My comments: Don't bother using an Occult scroll for this. The Hawks are far too strong to put canceling enemy attacks to good use. -Canto Effect: Allows Reyson to use the Chant ability Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: Use the Chant command Scroll?: No My comments: Without it, Reyson is just another frail piece of cannon fodder. If you delete it from Reyson, what the hell were you thinking?!?! :P -Celerity Effect: Gives 2 extra spaces for movement Capacity: 15 Chance to activate: Always on Scroll?: No My comments: A good(if costly) ability- just not on Tormod. Too bad you can't get a scroll for this. Mages have low movement anyway, so that's ONE plus if you really wanna use Tormod. -Colossus Effect: When your Weight is higher than your opponent's weight, your unit deals extra damage Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: SKL = %, plus Weight must be higher Scroll?: Occult Learned by: Warrior, Berserker My comments: Boyd and Largo are far too strong already, they don't need this. Use an Occult scroll on someone else. -Corrosion Effect: Reduces enemy's equipped weapon durability by 5 Capacity: 10 Chance to activate: SKL = % Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 21 My comments: Possibly the worst skill in the game. You'll kill most enemies well before the durability on their weapons runs out, and most of the time, Their weapons aren't even a threat to you. What the hell? -Counter Effect: When attacked, enemy takes half the damage they deal to your unit Capacity: 10 Chance to activate: SKL/2 = % Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 10 My comments: Doesn't activate enough to make it really reliable, but if you put it on a unit with low DEF and high HP, they can deal the most damage with it. It's an okay skill when it does activate, just unreliable. -Daunt Effect: reduces hit and critical % of enemy units within 3 spaces Capacity: 10 Chance to activate: always on Scroll?: no My comments: Only some of the bosses(Petrine, Bertram, Ashanrd) have it. Too bad you can't use it. -Deadeye Effect: increases hit %, and puts enemy to sleep Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: SKL = % for hit increase, SKL/2 = % to put enemy to sleep Scroll?: Occult Learned by: Sniper My comments: the attack animation looks cool, but Snipers are more likely to kill enemies with their high critical % than put enemies to sleep. Spend your Occult scroll elsewhere. -Flare Effect: reduces enemy RES by half Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: SKL = % Scroll?: Occult Learned by: Sage, Bishop My comments: Most of your Mages have great skills already. Soren has Adept, Tormod had Celerity, Calill has Nihil, and Bastian sucks. If Ilyana has the capacity to learn it, then go for it! Also works great with Rhys. -Gamble Effect: Halves unit's chance to hit, but doubles critical % Capacity: 10 Chance to activate: Use with Gamble command Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 16 My comments: You should never need to use it. Kieran can't make good use of it with his low SKL, and most other units who COULD use it usually can use other great skills instead. It's safe to completely forget about this unspectacular skill. -Guard Effect: Upon activating, stops enemy from attacking. Capacity: 10 Chance to activate: SKL = % Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 15 My comments: A good skill, be sure to give it to someone with high SKL and they'll stop a ton of attacks and stay alive for a good, long time to come. I never use it, but experiment with it and see what you can do. -Insight Effect: Increases hit % Capacity: 0 Chance to activate: Always on Scroll?: No My comments: Only Janaff has it. A nice addition to a solid character. -Lethality Effect: Kills enemy instantly. Ineffective against some bosses. Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: SKL = % Scroll?: Occult Learned by: Volke My comments: DUDE!!! one of my favorite skills too! Killing enemies is the end all be all of this game, so you have no reason NOT to put it on him! It's Volke's most reliable way of killing enemies in one round, at least until Stilettos become available. -Luna Effect: Reduces enemy's DEF by half Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: SKL = % Scroll?: Occult Learned by: General, Halberdier My comments: A fun skill to use. If you gave Adept to someone else, Gatrie can make great use of it. Other than that, Devdan and Brom suck, and Nephenee and Tauroneo can make great use of the skills they already have. -Mantle Effect: Greatly reduces damage from most attacks Capacity: 0(!!!) Chance to activate: Always on(?) Scroll?: No My comments: Only sephiran has it, in Chapter 10. Damn shame you can't get it. -Miracle Effect: Reduces killing blow to half damage Capacity: 5 Chance to activate: When The damage an enemy deals is greater than your HP Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 7 My comments: I suppose it can save you once, twice if you're lucky. But if you let your units get this low on HP, you're in trouble if you keep going. -Nihil Effect: Negates an enemy's combat-related skills Capacity: 15 Chance to activate: Always on Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 25 My comments: Despite the high cost, this is a great skill! Calill comes with it, which is great, and if you give it to another unit, they can be great for killing bosses with Daunt, etc. have fun with this one! -Paragon Effect: doubles EXP gained, halves bonus EXP needed to level up Capacity: 15 Chance to activate: Always on Scroll?: No My comments: Great for quick levels! Makes an initially weak unit like Astrid become strong quickly, and makes an already strong unit, Geoffrey, get stronger faster! Once the unit with Paragon gets to level 20, dump it for something else. -Parity Effect: eliminates support and terrain bonuses in both units Capacity: 5 Chance to activate: Always on(whenever opponent has skills or support bonuses) Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 21 My comments: An inferior version of Nihil. Enemy units don't have supports, so this ability will hurt you more than it helps you. Don't bother. -Provoke Effect: Enemies will more likely attack a unit with Provoke Capacity: 5 Chance to activate: Always on Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 20 My comments: A fun skill to play with. Give it Ike or a unit with high DEF. -Reinforce Effect: Summons two Pegasus Knights and one Falco Knight as allies. Ike can Direct them, and any kills they make go into the pool of Bonus EXP at the end of the battle. Can only be used twice per battle. Capacity: 15 Chance to activate: Use with Reinforce command Scroll?: No My comments: Only Tanith has it. The Pegasus Knights summoned aren't really very strong, so they make better bait than anything else. I never needed to use it, especially seeing as the extra Knights lose their effectiveness later in the game. -Renewal Effect: restores a small amount of HP at the beginning of the turn Capacity: 15 Chance to activate: Always on Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 18. Only if you refuse Reyson's offer to join. My comments: Fine on Elincia, and okay on Ena, but the thing is, to use it on anyone else, you'd have to refuse getting Reyson, Janaff, and Ulki in your party. Having the ability to restore like 5 HP each turn is not as useful as having three kick-ass units on your side. Plain and simple. -Resolve Effect: Increases STR, SKL, and SPD by 50% each(!!!) once HP drops below half Capacity: 10 Chance to activate: Active when HP is below 50% Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 27 My comments: You run a risk using it, but a unit with this becomes a total killing machine! Combine with Vantage for best results. -Roar Effect: Stuns opponent Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: Use with Roar command Scroll?: Occult Learned by: Tiger, Cat Laguz My comments: Useless. Plain and simple. -Savior Effect: Allows unit with skill to rescue other units without SKL and SPD penalty Capacity: 10 Chance to activate: Whenever the unit Rescues someone else. Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 24 My comments: Not useful unless you do a lot of rescuing. Works best with mounted units, even more so with flying units, especially Jill! In Chapter 25, She can take someone right to the top of the hill and lay waste to the units on the top. -Serenity Effect: Halves biorhythm effects Capacity: 5 Chance to activate: Always on Scroll?: No My comments: I don't even cover biorhythm in this walkthrough. That should give you an idea of how effective it is on this game. Waste of 5 perfectly good capacity. -Shade Effect: Enemies pass up units with this skill and attack others. Effect wears off once unit has taken damage Capacity: 5 Chance to activate: Always on Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 18. Hard mode only. My comments: The opposite of Provoke, this can allow Volke to do what he needs to without interference. Also great for Ilyana, since she has very weak DEF and can otherwise run around and kill whoever she dares without staring a Bandit in the face every other turn. Keep in mind that if the unit with Shade is the only unit in the enemy's range, they will attack you anyway. -Smite Effect: Like Shove, only two spaces in a direction rather than one Capacity: 10 Chance to activate: Use with Shove command Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 20 My comments: Not normally useful, but is great in Chapter 13. Use Mordecai's help in recruiting Astrid quickly. See the walkthrough for details. -Sol Effect: Recovers HP equal to damage dealt Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: SKL = % Scroll?: Occult Learned by: Paladin, Valkyrie My comments: Great on Mist, because she needs all the HP she can get. The Paladins can easily survive without it. -Stun Effect: Stuns enemy after activation, preventing attack Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: SKL/2 = % Scroll?: Occult Learned by: Falco Knight, Wyvern Lord My comments: About as useful as Roar, which is useless. Go figure. -Tempest Effect: Doubles biorhythm effects Capacity: 5 Chance to activate: Always on Scroll?: No My comments: See Serenity for my opinion on this. Dump it. -Vantage Effect: Unit gets the first attack in any battle Capacity: 10 Chance to activate: always on(does not work if unit can't fight back) Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 14 My comments: This is one of THE coolest skills in the game! Mia comes with it free, and if she gets a critical hit, she can end most battles before they begin! Combine it with Wrath or Resolve and you'll crush literally ANYONE who comes your way! -Vigilance Effect: Increases dodge % Capacity: 0 Chance to activate: Always on Scroll?: No My comments: Only available on Ulki. Again, nice bonus, especially since Ulki isn't as fast as his buddy Janaff. -Vortex Effect: Uses Elwind spell Capacity: 20 Chance to activate: Use with Vortex command Scroll?: Occult Learned by: Naesala My comments: Naesala comes with Vortex, but luckily, it's quite useful. His MAG stat is average, but he can still make good use of the attack. -Wrath Effect: Increases critical % by 50% when HP is at half or less Capacity: 10 Chance to activate: Always active at 50% HP or less Scroll?: Yes, Chapter 18 My comments: another one of the best skills in the game, Nephenee becomes a killing machine once she loses half her HP. Works great when combined with Vantage, and Mia can make great use of this! Picture it: Mia, attacking first all the time, with 100% chance to critical! It can be done! Try it! ----------- Weapon List [weap] ----------- Naturally, i'm listing all the weapons here. i'll have all the legitimate info on them, plus a few comments of my own along the way. -Swords- Iron Sword -Durability: 46 -Weapon Level: E -MT: 5 -Hit: 90 -Crit: 0 -WT: 7 -Range: 1 -Cost: 460 -My comments: Your standard sword. It's safe to forget all about these once your character's weapon level goes up to D. Iron Blade -Durability: 35 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 9 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 15 -Range: 1 -Cost: 980 -My comments: A pretty good sword that has always served me well. as long as you don't lose SPD from it, use it as much as you can. also increases your weapon level quickly due to its high WT. Steel Sword -Durability: 35 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 8 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 0 -WT: 12 -Range: 1 -Cost: 700 -My comments: stronger than the Iron Sword, and decent all around. I still prefer the Steel Blade more. Steel Blade -Durability: 35 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 11 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 0 -WT: 12 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1400 -My comments: Excels in most areas. My optimum sword of choice for most of the game. Silver Sword -Durability: 25 -Weapon Level: A -MT: 13 -Hit: 80 -Crit: 0 -WT: 11 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1875 -My comments: Quite costly, but pretty good. use it if your weapon level is that high, but otherwise sell it for funds. Silver Blade -Durability: 15 -Weapon Level: A -MT: 15 -Hit: 60 -Crit: 0 -WT: 14 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1800 -My comments: One of the most powerful swords. i recommend selling it for funds, Silver Swords are more cost effective. Slim Sword -Durability: 35 -Weapon Level: E -MT: 3 -Hit: 100 -Crit: 5 -WT: 5 -Range: 1 -Cost: 560 -My comments: I hate this sword. it's the weakest in the game, and the slight crit % is not nearly enough to justify its low MT. Sell them and use Iron Swords instead. Armorslayer -Durability: 18 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 8 -Hit: 80 -Crit: 0 -WT: 11 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1260 -Effect: Effective vs. armored units(Knights) -My comments: I suppose it could be useful, but what the hell are you doing using a sword against lance-wielding Knights?! Brave Sword -Durability: 30 -Weapon Level: B -MT: 9 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 0 -WT: 16 -Range: 1 -Cost: 5400 -Effect: Strikes twice for every one attack you would normally do -My comments: I like this sword. it's better with some of the slower sword users, and imagine if a Swordmaster uses Astra with THAT!!! Killing Edge -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 9 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 30 -WT: 9 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1300 -My comments: You don't get many of these, but they can come in handy. They work best in the hands of a Swordmaster, but anyone can kick some ass with them. Laguzslayer -Durability: 15 -Weapon Level: c -MT: 9 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 0 -WT: 12 -Range: 1 -Cost: 900 -Effect: Effective vs. Laguz -My comments: Not terribly useful normally, but can easily shred the Laguz in Chapter 28. Longsword -Durability: 18 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 8 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 0 -WT: 15 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1260 -Effect: Effective vs. mounted units -My comments: Way too heavy to reliably use early in the game. and too weak to use later on. Regal Sword -Durability: 40 -Weapon Level: N/A -MT: 7 -Hit: 95 -Crit: 10 -WT: 6 -Range: 1 -Cost: N/A -Effect: Effective vs. Mounted Units and Knights. Usable only by Ike -My comments: Great sword for most of the game, but only use it against the prescribed weak enemies. Runesword -Durability: 15 -Weapon Level: A -MT: 15 -Hit: 65 -Crit: 19 -WT: 19 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 7200 -Effect: Does non-elemental magical damage, heals half of damage done to user -My comments: Most of the magic swords are next to useless because most sword users have incredibly low magic, but in Mist's case, she is a killer with it! Sonic Sword -Durability: 25 -Weapon Level: B -MT: 10 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 9 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 2750 -Effect: Does Wind elemental magical damage -My comments: useless except in the hands of Tanith or Mist. Mist can kill just about ANYTHING with it, however! Vague Katti -Durability: 25 -Weapon Level: S -MT: 12 -Hit: 80 -Crit: 35 -WT: 8 -Range: 1 -Cost: N/A -My comments: Most useful in the hands of a swordmaster as well. it's fun to see Mia's Crit rate go to around 60-70. Venin Edge -Durability: 40 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 3 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 8 -Range: 1 -Cost: 520 -Effect: Poisons opponent if it hits -My comments: Useless. Why poison your opponents if you can just kill them instead? Deaths from poison damage don't give EXP. :P Alondite -Durability: Unlimited -Weapon Level: None -MT: 18 -Hit: 80 -Crit: 5 -WT: 20 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: N/A -Effect: Only usable by the Black Knight -My comments: A blessed sword. You can't use it, so why are you reading this? Go kick the Black Knight's ass already! Amiti -Durability: Unlimited -Weapon Level: None -MT: 9 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 0 -WT: 12 -Range: 1 -Cost: N/A -Effects: Usable only by Elincia. Strikes twice like a Brave Sword. -My comments: This is pretty well the only weapon I have Elincia use. It's more effective than most of the other swords anyway. Gurugant -Durability: Unlimited -Weapon Level: None -MT: 20 -Hit: 80 -Crit: 0 -WT: 25 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: N/A -Effect: Only usable by Ashnard -My comments: Face Ashnard with courage and pride. Make sure you're healed, then strike, hero, STRIKE! Ragnell -Durability: Unlimited -Weapon Level: None -MT: 18 -Hit: 85 -Crit: 20 -WT: 20 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: N/A -Effect: Only usable by Ike -My comments: Now you're cooking! Once you get it, this'll likely be the only weapon Ike uses. -Axes- Iron Axe -Durability: 45 -Weapon Level: E -MT: 8 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 0 -WT: 10 -Range: 1 -Cost: 270 -My comments: Inexpensive and reliable. Not bad at all! Steel Axe -Durability: 35 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 11 -Hit: 65 -Crit: 0 -WT: 15 -Range: 1 -Cost: 420 -My comments: These axes are quite cost effective. Better to abandon the Iron Axes for these as soon as you can. Silver Axe -Durability: 25 -Weapon Level: A -MT: 16 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 14 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1250 -My comments: Not the best of the Silver weapons. I like the Killer Axes more. Hand Axe -Durability: 25 -Weapon Level: E -MT: 7 -Hit: 55 -Crit: 0 -WT: 13 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 375 -My comments: your standard throwing axe. Horrible hit %. Use only when necessary. Short Axe -Durability: 15 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 10 -Hit: 65 -Crit: 0 -WT: 13 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 1500 -My comments: Pretty good! Just make sure you have a good supply of them. Bolt Axe -Durability: 25 -Weapon Level: B -MT: 10 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 13 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 3750 -Effect: Does Thunder elemental magical damage -My comments: Next to useless. Almost none of the axe users you get have high enough MAG to make this worthwhile. Unless you want to use a bunch of Spirit Dusts on someone, and even then, it's just not that strong. I just sell it. Brave Axe -Durability: 30 -Weapon Level: B -MT: 10 -Hit: 65 -Crit: 0 -WT: 20 -Range: 1 -Cost: 5050 -Effect: Strikes twice for every one attack you would normally do -My comments: Since some of the Axe users tend to have low speed, this can easily compensate. Hammer -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 10 -Hit: 55 -Crit: 0 -WT: 13 -Range: 1 -Cost: 800 -Effect: Effective vs. armored units(Knights) -My comments: only really useful early in the game. too inaccurate to use against anything other than Knights and Generals. Killer Axe -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 12 -Hit: 65 -Crit: 30 -WT: 12 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1000 -My comments: Perfect for Largo and Jill, but merely average for everyone else. Laguz Axe -Durability: 15 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 13 -Hit: 65 -Crit: 0 -WT: 16 -Range: 1 -Cost: 5250 -Effect: Effective vs. Laguz -My comments: Largely useless until chapter 28. You don't fight enough Laguz to make it worthwhile. Poleaxe -Durability: 18 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 10 -Hit: 60 -Crit: 0 -WT: 18 -Range: 1 -Cost: 810 -Effect: Effective vs. mounted units -My comments: Unremarkable. I don't think I ever used this in the game. Tomahawk -Durability: 15 -Weapon Level: B -MT: 13 -Hit: 65 -Crit: 0 -WT: 17 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 5550 -My comments: Great long range axe. You get more than one of them, but use them sparingly. Venin Axe -Durability: 40 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 5 -Hit: 60 -Crit: 0 -WT: 11 -Range: 1 -Cost: N/A -Effect: Poisons opponent on contact -My comments: Don't bother. Just... don't. -Lances- Iron Lance -Durability: 45 -Weapon Level: E -MT: 7 -Hit: 80 -Crit: 0 -WT: 8 -Range: 1 -Cost: 360 -My comments: Standard lance, really. Just use it until you get access to Steel Lances. Steel Lance -Durability: 35 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 10 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 13 -Range: 1 -Cost: 560 -My comments: Even better! Good balance of stats. Silver Lance -Durability: 25 -Weapon Level: A -MT: 15 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 0 -WT: 12 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1500 -My comments: One of the best lances, offset only by price. Slim Lance -Durability: 35 -Weapon Level: E -MT: 4 -Hit: 85 -Crit: 5 -WT: 6 -Range: 1 -Cost: 525 -My comments: Useless, much like the Slim Sword. Javelin -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: E -MT: 6 -Hit: 60 -Crit: 0 -WT: 11 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 500 -My comments: Not very strong. Don't use it unless you have to attack a dangerous opponent from long range. Brave Lance -Durability: 30 -Weapon Level: B -MT: 11 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 17 -Range: 1 -Cost: 5700 -Effect: Strikes twice for every one attack you would normally do -My comments: Very heavy, but perfect for units with high STR and low SPD. Did someone say... Gatrie? Flame Lance -Durability: 25 -Weapon Level: B -MT: 10 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 12 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 7500 -Effect: Does Fire elemental magical damage -My comments: Useless unless you want to piss away a bunch of Spirit Dusts on someone else. good against Beast Laguz, though. My Nephenee rocked them with it, actually! Heavy Spear -Durability: 18 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 8 -Hit: 80 -Crit: 0 -WT: 18 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1260 -Effect: Effective vs. armored units(Knights) -My comments: I'm not a fan of these Knight killing weapons. They're far too heavy and weak otherwise. good against Knight/ General bosses, though. Killer Lance -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 10 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 30 -WT: 10 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1200 -My comments: I'm a big fan of the Killer weapons, especially in the hands of Nephenee where she can make them much stronger with Wrath. Remember folks, she's a killing machine! Knight Killer -Durability: 18 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 7 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 16 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1170 -Effect: Effective vs. mounted units -My comments: shouldn't it be called "Cavalry Killer" or something? it's not effective against Knights or Generals. Oh well, weak lance. Laguz Lance -Durability: 15 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 12 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 0 -WT: 17 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1620 -Effect: Effective vs. Laguz -My comments: Unremarkable unless fighting off Laguz. Short Spear -Durability: 15 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 9 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 12 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 1950 -My comments: Fun to use. Unlike the Javelin, this one's useful. Spear -Durability: 15 -Weapon Level: B -MT: 12 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 5 -WT: 15 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 5700 -My comments: These are in no short supply if you steal them from bosses. Make the most of them. Wishblade -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: S -MT: 16 -Hit: 80 -Crit: 5 -WT: 15 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: N/A -My comments: You can't use this in story mode. Only Bryce has it. -Bows- *Note: All bows are effective vs. Hawks, Ravens, and flying mounted units. Iron Bow -Durability: 45 -Weapon Level: E -MT: 6 -Hit: 85 -Crit: 0 -WT: 5 -Range: 2 -Cost: 540 -My comments: Standard bow. Use it only when you have no other choice. Usually, you have other choices like Rolf's Bow or a nice Steel Bow. Steel Bow -Durability: 35 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 9 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 9 -Range: 2 -Cost: 840 -My comments: Better MT. Early on, most bow users can use all the MT they can get. Silver Bow -Durability: 25 -Weapon Level: A -MT: 13 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 0 -WT: 6 -Range: 2 -Cost: 2000 -My comments: An excellent bow! great WT for a Silver weapon, offset only by its relatively high cost. Brave Bow -Durability: 30 -Weapon Level: B -MT: 10 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 7 -Range: 2 -Cost: 5650 -Effect: can strike twice for every one attack. -My comments: Oddly enough, I never used this. It's very effective if you decide to kill Naesala instead of talking to him. Double Bow -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: S -MT: 7 -Hit: 65 -Crit: 0 -WT: 10 -Range: 4 -Cost: N/A -My comments: Don't let the low MT fool you. once Rolf's weapon level gets to S, this thing is death from above. Too bad you get it so late. Killer Bow -Durability: 15 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 9 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 30 -WT: 7 -Range: 2 -Cost: 1050 -My comments: Great, considering Snipers have an extra 15% chance to critical in this game. Why not add on to that? Laguz Bow -Durability: 15 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 10 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 0 -WT: 10 -Range: 2 -Cost: 1950 -Effect: Effective against Laguz -My comments: Unecessary, actually, even in Chapter 28. I just use Rolf to clear out Hawks and Ravens, anyway, so no need for the extra damage on top of the bow bonus. Longbow -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 5 -Hit: 65 -Crit: 0 -WT: 10 -Range: 2-3 -Cost: 2000 -My comments: the bane of my existence when the enemies use them. However, they're useful in taking out ballistas without having to circle around behind them. Rolf's Bow -Durability: 45 -Weapon Level: N/A -MT: 8 -Hit: 100 -Crit: 5 -WT: 2 -Range: 2 -Cost: N/A -Effect: Usable only by Rolf -My comments: Save this until Rolf catches up to your team in terms of his level. Then go on a killing spree. it's probably the most useful bow overall. Venin Bow -Durability: 40 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 4 -Hit: 65 -Crit: 0 -WT: 5 -Range: 2 -Cost: 600 -My comments: Venin weapons suck. Don't bother. -Wind Magic- *Note: all Wind magic is effective vs. Hawks, Ravens, and flying mounted units. Wind -Durability: 40 -Weapon Level: E -MT: 2 -Hit: 100 -Crit: 0 -WT: 1 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 520 -My comments: The weakest weapon in the game. as soon as you can, swap any Wind magic user to Elwind. Elwind -Durability: 30 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 4 -Hit: 90 -Crit: 0 -WT: 2 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 1650 -My comments: Not too much MT, but most magic users have high enough MAG that it's not that big a deal. Blizzard -Durability: 5 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 8 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 0 -WT: 10 -Range: 3-10 -Cost: 700 -My comments: Pretty good to weaken bosses from afar. Too bad you don't get enough of these tomes. Tornado -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: A -MT: 6 -Hit: 90 -Crit: 0 -WT: 5 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 1800 -My comments: strongest close range Wind Magic. i just used it in the final battle, but it's pretty useful. -Thunder Magic- *Note: All Thunder magic is strong against Dragon Laguz Thunder -Durability: 40 -Weapon Level: E -MT: 4 -Hit: 85 -Crit: 5 -WT: 3 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 600 -My comments: strong stuff early on! you might want to get Soren started on this as soon as possible, as long as you use an Energy Drop so his speed doesn't get deducted. Elthunder -Durability: 30 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 7 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 10 -WT: 6 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 800 -My comments: Awesome that these tomes have a critical rate! Bolting -Durability: 5 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 13 -Hit: 65 -Crit: 5 -WT: 13 -Range: 3-10 -Cost: 800 -My comments: Probably the best of the long range tomes. Thoron -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: A -MT: 10 -Hit: 85 -Crit: 5 -WT: 7 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 2200 -My comments: Never got ot use it. Never got anyone up to an A rank in thunder magic before, but it looks pretty strong. Rexbolt -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: S -MT: 15 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 10 -WT: 14 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: N/A -My comments: Good luck getting someone to an S rank in any Magic. If they do, this tome is too heavy to use effectively. Oh well. -Fire Magic- *Note: All Fire magic is strong against Beast Laguz Fire -Durability: 40 -Weapon Level: E -MT: 3 -Hit: 95 -Crit: 0 -WT: 3 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 560 -My comments: Good balance between accuracy and power compared to the other magic. Elfire -Durability: 30 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 5 -Hit: 85 -Crit: 0 -WT: 5 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 1800 -My comments: Just a stronger Elfire. If you use it, be sure your Mage of choice has the STR to wield it easily. Meteor -Durability: 5 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 11 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 11 -Range: 3-10 -Cost: 750 -My comments: Probably the best and most well-balanced long range magic. Works great with Calill. Bolganone -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: A -MT: 9 -Hit: 85 -Crit: 0 -WT: 9 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 2000 -My comments: The name sounds funny. Kinda like baloney... heh heh. In terms of usefulness, don't bother. It's too heavy. -Light Magic- Light -Durability: 40 -Weapon Level: D -MT: 2 -Hit: 80 -Crit: 0 -WT: 4 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 800 -My comments: Basic Light magic. Until Rhys gets strong enough to use Shine effectively, you're stuck with this. Shine -Durability: 30 -Weapon Level: C -MT: 4 -Hit: 75 -Crit: 0 -WT: 6 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 2100 -My comments: Worth it, despite the high cost. Rhys can kick some ass with this tome if he doesn't suffer the speed penalty. Purge -Durability: 5 -Weapon Level: B -MT: 10 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 8 -Range: 3-10 -Cost: 1000 -My comments: Pretty good for Light magic, but use it wisely and don't let Rhys get attacked when he has it equipped. Nosferatu -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: A -MT: 7 -Hit: 70 -Crit: 0 -WT: 4 -Range: 1-2 -Cost: 3000 -Effect: Heals user equal to damage dealt -My comments: Oddly enough, the healing ability doesn't offset the drop in speed you get when you use this tome. Sell it. -Staffs- Heal -Durability: 40 -Weapon Level: E -Effect: Heals 10+ (user's MAG) HP to target -WT: 2 -Range: 1 -Cost: 800 -My comments: You need to use these in the beginning of the game. They actually stay useful through the whole game, mainly due to their durability. Mend -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: D -Effect: Heals 20+ (user's MAG) HP to target -WT: 4 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1000 -My comments: Great cost for its effect, but runs out quickly. Stick to Heal, for the most part. Restore -Durability: 10 Weapon Level: C -Effect: Heals any negative status effect from target -WT: 4 -Range: 1 -Cost: 2000 -My comments: Near useless. You get inflicted with status effects far too infrequently for them to be a real problem. Ward -Durability: 15 -Weapon Level: C -Effect: Increases DEF and RES -WT: 4 -Range: 1 -Cost: 2250 -My comments: Never used it. Couldn't say. Hammerne -Durability: 3 -Weapon Level: C -Effect: Repairs any item in target's inventory to new condition -WT: 7 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1800 -My comments: Probably the most valuable staff in the game. I prefer to save it for the Sonic Sword or something else really rare. Physic -Durability: 15 -Weapon Level: C -Effect: Heals 10+ (user's MAG) HP to target -WT: 5 -Range: 1-MAG/2 -Cost: 3750 -My comments: VERY useful, but expensive. Luckily, you can get around that by stealing them from the enemy Priests and Bishops. Recover -Durability: 15 -Weapon Level: B -Effect: Heals all of target's HP -WT: 6 -Range: 1 -Cost: 2250 -My comments: Useless. Heal or Mend will always do the trick instead. Rescue -Durability: 3 -Weapon Level: B -Effect: Warps a faraway unit towards user -WT: 6 -Range: 1-MAG/2 -Cost: 1800 -My comments: Useless. If you fight smart, you'll never need to use this. Sleep -Durability: 3 Weapon Level: B -Effect: Puts an enemy to sleep. Prevents them from attacking -WT: 8 -Range: 1-MAG/2 -Cost: 1500 -My comments: Useless. you want to kill an enemy, not put them to sleep. Besides, if you want to kill an enemy without them fighting back, just attack them from long range. Silence -Durability: 3 -Weapon Level: B -Effect: Prevents enemy unit from using magic or staffs -WT: 8 -Range: 1-MAG/2 -Cost: 1200 -My comments: Useless against the majority of the enemies in the game because they don't use magic. Against the magic users, their RES is so high that Silence almost never works anyway. Fortify -Durability: 8 -Weapon Level: A -Effect: Heals 10+ (user's MAG) to all units within range -WT: 7 -Range: 1-MAG/2 -Cost: 6400 -My comments: If you play well, you won't need to use this. Physic still works better and has more durability. Ashera -Durability: 3 -Weapon Level: S -Effect: Completely heals all allies withing range -WT: None -Range: All -Cost: N/A -My comments: Again, useless. if it comes to the point where you have to use the Ashera staff, then you're losing badly and the situation is not likely to improve. HOWEVER! I officially rethought this once I received a tip-off from Alex Letchworth. Anyone who uses this staff gets enough EXP to gain a level once they use it. I guess you could use it a few times if your main staff user is a bit lagging in the level department. A good thing, seeing as that seems to happen anyway with Rhys or Elincia, yes? -Knives- *Note: Knives are stored under Swords in your convoy. Knife -Durability: 30 -Weapon Level: None -MT: 2 -Hit: 100 -Crit: 0 -WT: 2 -Range: 1 -Cost: 320 -My comments: You have no choice until you get Daggers. It sucks, but Volke has high STR to compensate. As for Sothe... well, Sothe sucks. and if you chose Knives for any of your Sages when they promote, then you fail at life.:P Dagger -Durability: 30 -Weapon Level: None -MT: 4 -Hit: 90 -Crit: 5 -WT: 4 -Range: 1 -Cost: 600 -My comments: A bit better. Volke should hold his own with this. See above comments for my other opinions. Stiletto -Durability: 20 -Weapon Level: None -MT: 8 -Hit: 95 -Crit: 10 -WT: 8 -Range: 1 -Cost: 1500 -Effect: Effective vs. armored units(Knights) My comments: This is great! Volke can take down a lot of opponents with this sucker! --------- Item List[item] --------- -Regular Items- Antitoxin Durability: 3 Effect: Cures poisoned characters My Comments: I suppose if you get one off your enemies, you may as well use one. other than that, they're useless. Arms Scroll Durability: 1 Effect: Raises Weapon Level by 1 for user's equipped weapon My comments: Great item, especially since Weapon levels rise slowly in this game. Ashera Icon Durability: 1 Effect: Permanently raises user's LCK by 2 My comments: Just use it on one of your party members who you use often, just with lower LCK. Blue Gem Durability: 1 Effect: Sell for 5000 Gold My comments: It's treasure. You sell it. Why are you reading this? Boots Durability: 1 Effect: Permanently increases user's movement range by 2 My comments: One of the more valuable items. I use it on a low movement unit like Gatrie or one of my Sages. Coin Durability: 1 Effect: sell for... 1 Gold My comments: You are rich, my friend. Spend it wisely. Dracoshield Durability: 1 Effect: Permanently increases user's DEF by 2 My comments: Great stuff! Use it on a unit with low DEF. Elixir Durability: 3 Effect: Fully restores user's HP My comments: Have everyone carry at least one of these, in case of emergencies. Energy Drop Durability: 1 Effect: Permanently increases user's STR by 2 My comments: Great if Ike gets screwed for STR, but i like using them on my magic users so they don't suffer a SPD drop when using strong magic tomes. Laguz Stone Durability: 2 Effect: Turns Laguz into animal form immediately, rather than waiting for the transform gauge to fill up My comments: You may want to consider a couple of these if you use late transformers like Mordecai or Ulki. Master Seal Durability: 1 Effect: Instantly promotes any unit over Lv. 10 My comments: Don't bother. Units can still gain more EXP and levels before promotion, and using a Master Seal makes them miss out on that. Granted, once units reach level 20, you can use the Master seal and save them gaining 100 extra EXP, but I prefer to sell them instead. Whatever floats your boat, I guess... Pure Water Durability: 3 Effect: Increases RES by 7. Weakens by 1 point every turn until effect wears off My comments: Useless. I never needed it. Red Gem Durability: 1 Effect: Sell for 2500 Gold My comments: I dunno, sell it and wallow in riches? Secret Book Durability: 1 Effect: Permanently increases user's SKL by 2 My comments: Use it on someone with low SKL. What else is there to do with it? *shrugs* Seraph Robe Durability: 1 Effect: Permanently increases user's max HP by 7 My comments: Great for Mages and people with bad HP growth. Speedwing Durability: 1 Effect: Permanently increases user's SPD by 2 My comments: You'll need this. The sole failing of some units is bad SPD. Spirit Dust Durability: 1 Effect: Permanently increases user's MAG by 2 My comments: Magic users won't need it, but if you're grooming a unit to use one of the magic weapons like the Flame Lance, this is a perfect addition to your inventory. Statue Frag Durability: 1 Effect: Permanently increases user's build by 2 My comments: This is far from crucial. I just sell it for an easy 4000 Gold. Talisman Durability: 1 Effect: Permanently increases user's RES by 2 My comments: This is great for non-magical units, just in case of emergencies. Torch Durability: 5 Effect: increases vision range in fog conditions- Hard mode only My comments: Never played Hard mode so far, but i never used these in previous games. Vulnerary Durability: 3 Effect: restores 10 HP to user My comments: Good near the beginning of the game, but obsolete near the end. The ability to heal 10 HP is not as useful near the end of the game. White Gem Durability: 1 Effect: sell for 10000 Gold My comments: Sweet! Mad cash! -Equip Items- *Note: All Bands are acquired on second playthrough or later Archer Band Effect: Increase SLK/SPD growth by 5% each My Comments: Are you really so bored that you have to read these all the time? Beorcguard Effect: Decreases damage done by Beorc attacks by half. Use on Laguz only. My comments: I prefer to equip the Demi band on my Laguz instead. but quick transformers like Lethe or Ranulf could use this. Demi Band Effect: Allows Laguz to stay transformed at all times. Some stats are slightly lowered as a trade-off My comments: Use this only on your stronger Laguz. The stat deduction is a small price to pay for them always being combat ready. I like using it on Ranulf. Fighter Band Effect: Increases HP/STR growth by 5% each My comments: Stop reading these!!! Do you think they'll entertain you??? Full Guard Effect: Cancels out any bonus damage a unit may take. Examples include weapon triangle bonuses, arrows on fliers, Laguz weapons on Laguz, and various magic spells on Laguz, that sort of thing. My comments: This is perfect for fliers and fragile units like Reyson. Knight Band Effect: Increases STR/DEF growth by 5% each My comments: I'm only writing these comments to keep up with the format! You're wasting your time!!! :P Knight Ring Effect: Allows unit movement after performing an action, like a mounted unit. My comments: This is great, but only on the right unit. It's useless on mounted units, but units like Volke or magic users can use it to get in, do what they need to do, then retreat from danger. I kept it on Volke all the time! Knight Ward Effect: Increases DEF and RES by 2 each. Also promotes SPD growth by 30%. Usable only by Soldiers, Cavalier-style units, and Knights(and their promoted forms). Thanks to Mariano Soriano for Confirming the SPD growth. My comments: the DEF and RES increase is great, but the SPD growth is suspect... in a good way. every time I equipped it on Gatrie, he maxed out SPD. Maybe he wouldn't need Adept after all... Laguz Band Effect: Allows Laguz to stay in animal form without stats being lowered. Usable only by Tibarn, Naesala, and Giffca. My comments: You have no reason NOT to use it for the Laguz Kings. Laguzguard Effect: Decreses damage done by Laguz by half. Use on Beorc only My comments: If you have one unit without some sort of ring, guard, band, or jock strap, go ahead and equip it on them! Mage Band Effect: Increases MAG growth by 10% My comments: Stop reading these, or Ranulf will claw your eyes out while you sleep. :P In all seriousness, this works great for grooming a physical attacker to use those magic weapons. Pegasus Band Effect: Increases RES/LCK growth by 5% each My comments: Have you ever seen the show Drawn Together? It's really funny. Priest Band Effect: Increases RES/LCK growth by 5% each My comments: If you decide to rate this FAQ on gamerhelp.com, please give it a good rating! ^_^ Paladin Band Effect: Increases HP/SPD growth by 5% each My comments: May I also interest you in a few of my favorite books? I really like the Basic Eight by Daniel Handler, and if you like Star Wars, I recommend the Han Solo Trilogy by A. C. Crispin. The Paradise Snare, The Hutt Gambit, and Rebel Dawn. They're all great. Soldier Band Effect: Increases HP/DEF growth by 5% each My comments: Ooh, almost forgot. I also recommend Sayonara Bar by the lovely Susan Barker. Great novel if you like Japanese culture and raw humor. Sword Band Effect: Increases DEF/LCK growth by 5% each My comments: I am seriously running out of things to say. Thief Band Effect: Increases SKL/SPD growth by 5% each My comments: My music tastes are varied, but I really like the Rolling Stones, Great Big Sea, and BTO. Wyvern Band Effect: Increases STR/DEF growth by 5% each My comments: I also liked reading The Da Vinci Code, Eragon and Eldest, and the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. ------ Extras [extr] ------ -Bands- Archer Band- carried by Shinon Fighter Band- carried by Boyd Knight Band- carried by Gatrie Mage Band- dropped by the boss of chapter 7 Paladin Band- carried by Oscar Pegasus Band- carried by Marcia Priest Band- carried by Rhys Soldier Band- dropped by boss in Chapter 8 Sword Band- carried by Mia Thief Band- dropped by the boss of chapter 3 Wyvern Band- carried by Jill -Unlockable Extra Maps- Hillside Battle- finish the game on any difficulty level Lonely Isle- finish the game on Normal or Hard mode Strange Turn- finish the game on Hard mode Desperation- connect with Fire Emblem 7 Escape!- connect with either North American Fire Emblem Game(I think) Trapped- connect with Fire Emblem Sacred Stones -Unlockable Extra map characters- Oliver- finish the game 3 times Shiharam- finish the game 5 times Petrine- finish the game 7 times Bryce- finish the game 10 times Ashnard- finish the game 15(!!!) times -The three brothers' Triangle Attack- Oscar, Boyd, and Rolf can use a special attack together under the right conditions. First, they all have to be promoted. Second, you had to have chosen bows as an extra weapon for Oscar when he promotes. Third, you have to have listened to both their conversations in the beginning of Chapter 13 and 19. Once all of this is fulfilled, all you have to do is set up the boys in a roughly triangle formation around the enemy with bows equipped, then attack with the last brother to enter formation. BOOM headshot! -------------- Update History -------------- May 17: Finished the walkthrough and submitted it for the first time. May 26: After a well-deserved vacation, I came back and started the Weapon List, fixed some typos and formatting errors that got through, and added some advice by Alex Ruiz. May 27: Not much today, only a few more weapons. May 29: Finished off the weapon and item lists, and the extras. Woo hoo! Oct. 30: Wow, I have set a new recored for lazy. I haven't updated in a LONG time, but it seems a steady stream of people have added on various points of advice and interest. I put it all in, see the Special thanks section for details. --------------------- Copyright Information [copy] --------------------- This FAQ/walkthrough is the intellectual property of Jonny Humphries, copyright 2006, except in areas otherwise noted. Only Gamefaqs.com, 1up.com, and Gamerhelp.com(plus their affiliates) have permission to host this FAQ, as those are the only sites I will be sending updates to. Do not rip any of this off, do not copy it illegally or sell it for profit. Basically, please leave it alone. If you want to use sections of it or something like that, e-mail me with your request and I will likely say yes, depending on what you're asking. And if you want to copy and paste this onto a word processor and save it on your computer, by all means do so. In fact, if it's more useful that way, I encourage it. Just respect my work, please. ------------------- Contact information [cont] ------------------- you may reach me at the e-mail address: ultimate_jonny_2(at)hotmail(dot)com. Generally, I won't take long with responding unless I am busy, but don't take it to heart if I don't respond right away. I have a job, I have friends, I have other things to do besides gaming. You MAY e-mail me for: -general comments about the guide -CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, i.e., suggestions for improvement -compliments -additions or things I might have missed -alternate strategies -questions that aren't answered in the walkthrough. I try my best, but there are things I may have missed. I'm not perfect, embarrassing as that may be. :( Please do NOT e-mail me with: -bland, groundless, or insulting criticism -messages with lots of l33t speak or poor spelling, punctuation, or grammar -things like "OMG jill su><ors!!11!!!!!!one!!1one+shift". Those are good for a laugh at best, and pathetic at worst. -questions that are already answered in the walkthrough -assertions of superior knowledge. I admit I don't know as much about the game as some other people, but I omitted a lot of extra information because I thought it was unnecessary. Oh well. -------------- Special Thanks [spec] -------------- -Gamefaqs- for hosting this guide. -1up.com- also for hosting this guide. -Me- for writing this big chunk of text. -You, the reader- for making the guide worthwhile. -Dan McNicoll- for lending me his experience, providing constant advice for improvements, formatting this sucker, and partially inspiring me to write this guide. You rule, Danny! -Justin Lynn- for sharing my love of the Fire Emblem series, and partially inspiring me to write this guide. You rule too, homie! -Ben Forrester for the information on Brom. -Eric Jeton for information on Astrid's strengths. -Nancy Brenner for reminding me of the EXP-saving trick on the Master Seal. -James Honaker for the information on Ashnard in hard mode. -Mariano Soriano for both the correction AND confirmation on the Knight Ward -Alex Letchworth for the information on the Ashera staff. -Qreyt Wery- For convincing me how good Mordecai can potentially be. -Alex Ruiz- for giving ratings on... well, tons of characters! -Mr. Anthony Nguyen for giving me the information on LCK. -Zab Jade for some more information on LCK. -And lastly, Nintendo and Intelligent Systems for making this great tactical RPG. If you send me something useful and I use it, you could be here too! -------- About Me [abou] -------- Hello again! I am Jonny Humphries, a 19-year-old(as of March 9, 2006) student. I go to Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, and I am a proud Canadian. I am majoring in English Literature and Film Studies. I work part time at Chapters, the best book store ever! I have a 36 inch waist, my favorite movies are the Star Wars movies(including the prequels), Little Shop of Horrors, and anything with Jim Carrey. When not gaming or messing around on the computer, I enjoy reading, animated sitcoms, hanging out with my friends and picking up ladies. Thanks for reading! --SEE YOU NEXT FAQ--