===============================================================================
-------------------------
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Skills FAQ
by polki90
[email protected]
-------------------------
===============================================================================
This guide is generally spoiler free. Your eye might wander over some small
bits of info like recruitable characters, but the big stuff like plot events
isn't going to be discussed here. If you want to be safe, I recommend reading
this FAQ after you've beaten the game at least once. That way, there won't be
any surprises lurking around.
=============================================
| ~Table of Contents~ |[\TOC]
=============================================
|I. Version History |[\VRHI]
---------------------------------------------
|II. About Me/ Contact Information |[\AMCI]
---------------------------------------------
|III. About This FAQ |[\AFAQ]
---------------------------------------------
|IV. Introducton to Skills in FE: RD |[\INTR]
| A. Skills |[\SKIL]
| B. Capacity |[\CAPA]
| C. Scrolls |[\SCRL]
| D. Activation |[\ACTI]
---------------------------------------------
|V. List of Skills (alphabetized) |[\LIST]
| A. Inherent Skills |[\INHS]
| B. Personal Skills |[\PERS]
| C. Mastery Skills |[\MASS]
---------------------------------------------
|VI. Frequently Asked Questions |[\FAQS]
---------------------------------------------
|VII. Credits and Legal Info |[\CALI]
---------------------------------------------
Use Ctrl + F and enter the shortcut (in brackets above) to find things quickly.
===============================================================================
~I. Version History~ [\VRHI]
===============================================================================
Version 1.08 - 1/19/09
-Updated FAQ based on some subissions from readers.
Version 1.07 - 11/21/08
-Finished minor edits. Adjusted some priorities.
Version 1.06 - 11/14/08
-Updated FAQ based on some submissions from readers.
Version 1.05 - 10/14/08
-Finished minor edits.
-Updated FAQ based on some submissions from readers.
Version 1.04 - 8/18/08
-Updated FAQ based on some submissions from readers.
-Permitted more sites to use the FAQ.
Version 1.03 - 8/2/08
-Updated FAQ based on some submissions from readers.
Version 1.02 - 7/27/08
-Updated FAQ based on some submissions from readers. Keep 'em coming!
Version 1.01 - 7/15/08
-FAQ accepted!
-Permitted more sites to use the FAQ.
Version 1.00 - 7/11/08
-Finished final editing.
-FAQ submitted for approval.
Version 0.95 - 7/10/08
-Finished Credits and Legal Info section.
-Finished Mastery Skills section.
-Started final editing.
Version 0.90 - 7/9/08
-Continued Mastery Skills section.
Version 0.80 - 7/8/08
-Finished Frequently Asked Questions section.
-Continued Mastery Skills section.
Version 0.70 - 7/7/08
-Finished About This FAQ section.
-Continued Frequently Asked Questions section.
-Continued Personal Skills section.
-Started Mastery Skills section.
-Started and finished Capacity section.
-Started and finished Scrolls section.
-Started and finished Activation section.
-Started and finished guide shortcuts.
Version 0.50 - 7/6/08
-Continued Personal Skills section.
-Continued Frequently Asked Questions section.
-Started and Finished About Me/Contact Information section.
-Started Skills section.
-Started Credits and Legal Info section.
Version 0.30 - 7/5/08
-Started and finished Inherent Skills section.
-Started Personal Skills section.
-Started Frequently Asked Questions section.
Version 0.10 - 7/4/08
-Finished the outline and table of contents for the FAQ.
-Started and finished About This FAQ section.
===============================================================================
~II. About Me/ Contact Information~ [\AMCI]
===============================================================================
Leroy Jia
aka polki90
[email protected]
If you e-mail me, please put something about FE: RD in the subject so I don't
delete your message without opening it like I do 90% of my new messages. =D
In addition, and this is just a personal request, but please make your e-mail
legible. Oh, and hate mail and stuff like that is going to be ignored.
I've been a big Fire Emblem fan since FE7 came out in the US (2003, I believe).
This game is my favorite in the series so far. I didn't see a Skills FAQ for
this game, so I hope this one will help some players out. It was lots of fun
to write!
===============================================================================
~III. About This FAQ~ [\AFAQ]
===============================================================================
The FAQ has the following format:
~~~~~~~~~~
SKILL NAME (listed alphabetically)
~~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: Amount of capacity necessary to equip the skill.
Characters: Recruitable characters who already know the skill. In the Mastery
skills section, I'll list the classes that learn the skill instead.
Found: Ways to obtain the scroll (excluding characters who start with it).
Restrictions: Sometimes, only certain characters can learn a skill. If that is
the case, I'll note that here.
Effect: A brief description of what the skill does.
Activation: How to get the skill to work.
Advice: The kinds of characters I think should learn the skill. Naturally, this
is going to be a bit subjective, but you don't have to listen to me.
Priority: My condensed opinion of how necessary these skills are. I'm only
going to include this part for the Personal skills section because
they're the only kind that can be removed. You can kind of think of
it as a rating from 1 to 5.
VERY HIGH (5): A great skill. Should always be assigned to a unit.
HIGH (4): A good skill. Try to make room for it if you can.
MEDIUM (3): Not too bad. A good filler skill if you have free space.
LOW (2): Lame. Don't equip it unless you really have nothing better.
VERY LOW (1): Not worth your time. Probably better off selling it.
Additional: Based on e-mail submissions readers like you send me, I'll put this
section as a second opinion sort of thing.
Each of the three sections are alphabetized. You can also use Ctrl+F to skip to
a certain section without having to look for it. The shortcuts are next to the
corresponding entries in the table of contents.
I'm going to reiterate this: the "Advice" sections are my opinion. Feel free to
disagree. You can e-mail me if you think I need to include a different point in
this FAQ. Just make sure your e-mail is polite and legible. And put something
about FE: RD in the subject.
===============================================================================
~IV. Introduction to Skills in FE: RD~ [\INTR]
===============================================================================
Skills are a vital part of FE: RD play. They give your characters special
abilities that help them out both in battle and outside of it. This FAQ is a
list of all the skills in the game, where to find them, and my advice about
using them.
============
~IV.A. Skills~ [\SKIL]
============
Press Y (GameCube controller) or B+2 (Wiimote) to pull up data about a unit.
Scroll over a couple of times until you see a big circle. This is where a
character's skills are listed.
Skills with a lock next to them are permanent and cannot be removed. All the
other skills, however, can be removed and placed on another character if you
want. With some exceptions of course...
==============
~IV.B. Capacity~ [\CAPA]
==============
Almost every skill takes a certain capacity to equip. The capacity is a number
that is a multiple of 5. In order to equip a skill, the unit must have as much
free capacity as the skill calls for.
1st tier Beorc units have 15 capacity. They gain 15 capacity upon promotion for
a total of 30. When a second tier beorc unit promotes, he or she gains 30 more
capacity (and a mastery skill) for a total of 60.
Laguz start with 20 capacity. They gain 15 more when they reach level 15 for a
total of 35, and they gain another 35 upon reaching level 30 for a total of 70.
To sum up:
Beorc (first tier) 15
Beorc (second tier) 30
Beorc (third tier) 60
-----
Laguz (level 1-14) 20
Laguz (level 15-29) 35
Laguz (level 30-40) 70
Laguz royals (Kurthnaga, Dheginsea, Giffca, Caineghis, Skrimir, Tibarn, Nailah,
and Naesala) get an extra 30 capacity, bringing their final total up to a
whopping 100 capacity.
Now remember, units with Shove and Canto, aren't really going to have that as
much capacity as I listed above. Also, that extra 30 skill that third tier
beorc get is automatically taken up by a mastery skill (although some only cost
25 capacity). So, plan accordingly!
If a character comes with a skill, it takes up no capacity. On the other hand,
if you remove that skill to give to someone else, it takes space to learn. Even
if you remove a skill a character came with and try to teach it to him or her
again, it will take up space the second time.
One more thing...a unit can only have a total of six assigned skills max,
regardless of capacity.
=============
~IV.C. Scrolls~ [\SCRL]
=============
Throughout the game, you'll find scrolls. These scrolls can be used at a base
to teach the skill whose name is on the scroll. To make a character learn a
skill, go to Manage and then Skills when you are at a base. This will pull up a
list of all the characters you currently have recruited. Select a character to
assign or remove a skill.
If you remove a skill from a character, that skill reverts back to a scroll
that can be given to another character. So, if you're not planning on using
certain characters, go ahead and strip them of their removable skills.
================
~IV.D. Activation~ [\ACTI]
================
So, how are skills actually put to use? It depends which one you're talking
about. Some of them give effects that are always active. Others are only active
in battle and have a set %chance of activating. I've included the activation
rates of all the abilities in the list below. However, there's one more key to
getting a skill to activate more or less often: biorhythm.
Skills will activate more often if your biorhythm is at best or good. On the
other hand, skills will activate less often if biorhythm is at bad or worst.
Other than that, I don't think there are any ways to change how often a skill
activates.
Specifically, biorhythm impacts skill activation in the following ways:
BEST: +10% chance
GOOD: +5% chance
NORMAL: +0% chance
BAD: -5% chance
WORST: -10% chance
So, if you really want a skill to activate, you should try getting a Heron to
sing Bliss for your unit or something.
===============================================================================
~V. List of Skills~ [\LIST]
===============================================================================
And now, the meat of this FAQ. I've classified the skills into 3 kinds:
Inherent, Personal, and Mastery skills. Each section is alphabetized for your
convenience.
====================
~V.A. Inherent Skills~ [\INHS]
====================
Inherent skills are class- or character-specific skills that are locked. You
won't find them in scroll form anywhere.
~~~~~
CANTO
~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: All mounted units (horses, pegasi, wyverns) as well as laguz that
fly (Ravens, Hawks, Herons excluding Rafiel). Black dragons fly,
but they don't have Canto.
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: The unit can use any leftover movement to move again after it performs
an action such as attacking.
Activation: After performing an action, you will be prompted to move the
character again.
Advice: You really can't do anything after moving away. You can't use an item,
you can't trade, and you sure as heck can't go for a second attack. All
you can really do is move your unit into a better position if possible.
For example, after attacking, if your unit took lots of damage, you can
move him or her back to be healed. Or, you can attack someone and then
move your unit to plug up holes in your formation to prevent enemies
from breaking through your frontlines. Maybe you can move someone into
support range and give your unit a boost. All units with Canto have
high movement ranges, so that's good.
~~~~~~~~~~~
CRITICAL +X
~~~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 0
Characters: Certain classes have certain critical boosts. They are as follows:
CRITICAL +5: Myrmidons, Halberdiers, Reavers
CRITICAL +10: Swordmasters, Sentinels, Snipers
CRITICAL +15: Marksmen
CRITICAL +20: Trueblades
CRITICAL +25: Assassins
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Adds "X" to the character's critical hit rate.
Activation: The extra critical is automatically factored in whenever a battle
occurs.
Advice: I tend to view critical bonuses as compensation for not being able to
use more than one weapon. Anyway, this skill comes free, so no
complaints, right? Free extra critical can't be a bad thing. If you
give theses classes Killer weapons or Wrath or put a bond support right
next to them, they'll score even more critical hits. Nice.
~~~~~~~~~
FORMSHIFT
~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 0
Characters: Tibarn, Naesala, Nailah, Caineghis
Found: Chapter IV-F(3) => The boss leaves this skill behind...but only
Kurthnaga can learn it.
Restrictions: Laguz kings and queens only
Effect: Keeps the transformation gauge at maximum, enabling the user to
transform at will.
Activation: Use the Shift or Revert commands whenever.
Advice: Formshift is just one of the many reasons I think Laguz Royals are
better than ordinary laguz. It's a very useful ability that lets the
unit stay transformed indefinitely without worrying about the
transformation gauge. Formshift can't be removed, so your other laguz
can't attain it-- with the sole exception of Kurthnaga who gains the
ability in a plot event.
~~~~~~~
GALDRAR
~~~~~~~
Capacity: 0
Characters: Herons
Found: N/A
Restrictions: Herons only
Effect: Allows Herons to sing to aid other units. The different songs are:
VIGOR: Allows an ally that has moved to move again.
BLISS: Moves an ally's biorhythm to best. Learned at level 15.
SORROW: Moves an enemy's biorhythm to worst. Learned at level 15.
VALOR: Completely fills an ally's transformation gauge (laguz).
Learned at level 30.
RECOVERY: Completely heals an ally's HP and resturns him or her to
normal condition. Learned at level 40.
Activation: A command appears if you can sing to an adjacent unit(s).
Advice: Using Galdrar is the only way Herons can level up...unless you want to
put them in combat or feed them bonus EXP. So, be sure to do lots of
singing! I'm going to break this section up based on the different
songs.
VIGOR: Vigor is pretty useful in situations where you need a unit to
perform two tasks. For example, if you need Micaiah to knock out
an enemy and heal an ally, Vigor will make that possible. And
when you chant to more than one ally, Vigor's usefulness is
multiplied. Just be sure to keep your Heron away from the
frontlines. That almost always spells trouble. And watch out for
long-range magic, too. It's how my herons get killed 50% of the
time.
BLISS: Biorhythm is sorta important to your characters in this game.
It boosts Accuracy, Avoid, and skill activation chances when at
good or best just to name a few things. On the other hand, it
decreases those stats when at bad or worst. So, Bliss comes in
handy when your character's biorhythm isn't at best. Just be
wary: the effect is temporary, and after your unit is at best,
there's nowhere to go but down...
SORROW: This is kind of risky to use, seeing as it involves moving up
next to an enemy. It's also not that great of a deal because
using Bliss on an ally will give you similar advantages in
battle. You don't need to use this song too much.
VALOR: Well, if you use lots of laguz, Valor will come in handy. If you
don't, you'll probably feel ripped off by this ability. It's a
nice substitute for Olivi grasses and Laguz stones. The only
difficult part is you have to get your laguz and Heron together.
But then again, that's not that hard because laguz have lots of
Movement.
RECOVERY: By the time your Heron learns Recovery, you'll probably have
a few units who can heal. And chances are, you'll want to use
those units instead (for the EXP). Still, if there's some
situation where you need to heal more than one person at
once, Recovery might do the trick.
~~~~~
GLARE
~~~~~
Capacity: 30
Characters: Nailah
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Immobilizes an enemy for the rest of the chapter.
Activation: A command appears if it can be used.
Advice: Well, Glare seems like a pretty good ability at first. The problem,
however, is that it misses a lot more than it hits. I'm not sure how
the hit rate for Glare is calculated, but I've only been able to use
it successfully a couple of times. Nailah is a very powerful unit, so
she's probably better off in battle or doing something besides Glaring
at enemies (her turn ends ater she uses it).
Additional: [furryjenny] There seems to be some sort of defense boost when a
unit is petrified...although I don't know why. Also, Glare has a
lower chance of hitting when Nailah is untransformed, and enemy
Avoid and Dodge have no effect on the hit rate.
~~~~~~~
INSIGHT
~~~~~~~
Capacity: 0
Characters: Janaff
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Increases accuracy by 20 and increses vision in fog of war by 5 spaces.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: It's basically a free bonus for using Janaff. However, +20 accuracy
doesn't help too much when Janaff already has excellent skill. And the
extra sight in fog of war doesn't help when there aren't any chapters
to use it in! So, don't use Janaff just for this ability because it's
not that much of a help. (That doesn't mean Janaff is a bad unit,
though.)
Additional: [furryjenny] "If you don't care about Shriek (unless you're using a
lot of laguz, you don't) and have extra space, put Janaff in Ike's
group. In 4-1, fly him into the squares directly west of the
southern entrance, where ground units can't reach him, and since
he's on a cliff, he'll never be hit. You'll get a decent view and,
if you're lucky, a Coin." (Quoted directly)
~~~~~~~~~
SACRIFICE
~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 0
Characters: Micaiah
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Heals ally's HP and hurts user's HP by the same amount.
Activation: A command appears if Micaiah is next to someone without full HP.
Advice: Sacrifice is an ability that you want to use sparingly. After all,
Micaiah probably isn't your strongest character, and continually
reducing her HP isn't a very good idea. In the beginning chapters,
it's good for healing someone and getting cheap EXP. For example, if an
ally levels up and gets a +1 to max HP, you might want to get Micaiah
to use Sacrifice. Of course, if you decide to train Laura, she and
Micaiah are going to be competing for EXP, so be wary of that. I guess
if you wanted to, you could Sacrifice with Micaiah and then heal her
with Laura. But eh...that's a lot of work. If you're going to use
Sacrifice on larger wounds, make sure no one's going to attack Micaiah.
Later on in the game (after part I), Sacrifice essentially becomes
obselete after Micaiah promotes and learns how to use staves.
Additional: [furryjenny] Sacrifice also cures status effects, so that's one
advantage over the traditional staff. But, if you're trying to get
EXP from a poisoned character multiple times, don't use Sacrifice.
Also, giving Micaiah a staff to hold after using Sacrifice will
help her regain lost HP next turn.
~~~~~
SHOVE
~~~~~
Capacity: 5
Characters: All characters who are not mounted.
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Moves an adjacent unit one space away.
Activation: If a shove is possible, there will be a command. The command will
appear if the character you are moving is next to someone whose
Build (Bld) is at least 2 less than the shover's weight (Wt).
Advice: There are many, many strategic uses for Shove. I can't possibly list
them all, but as you play, you will see opportunities for shoving open
up. Basically, you can shove an ally to give him or her extra movement.
You can also shove the ally out of the range of an enemy if you sense
trouble brewing. Note that you can shove enemies, allies, partners, and
other units alike as long as the Build reqirement is satisfied. The
more you play the game, the better you will be at using Shove in
strategic ways.
~~~~~
STEAL
~~~~~
Capacity: 0
Characters: Thieves, Rogues, and Whispers.
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Steals an unequipped item from an enemy.
Activation: A command will promppt you to steal if you can. In order to steal
an item, your strength must be greater than the item's weight and
your attack speed must be greater than the enemy's.
Advice: Hello, free items?!?! Of course you want this ability! It's good to
have a unit who knows Steal in your party at all times so you can get
lots of stuff whenever the opportunity presents itself. If you Disarm
an enemy, he or she unequips that item, leaving it for the taking.
That's a pretty nifty trick, I think. Without Disarming, you can get
lots of free staves from enemy Bishops, if that tickles your fancy. You
can also steal secondary weapons from bosses (since those tend to be
better) or healing items from random enemies. Heh, I don't know...but
if you happen to Steal something you don't want, you can just sell it.
~~~~~~~~~
VIGILANCE
~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 0
Characters: Ulki
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Increases Dodge and Avoid by 20.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: It's like some incentive to use Ulki, only it's better than Janaff's
Insight. I still maintain that Tibarn is the best Hawk, but this would
be the wrong FAQ to argue that. Anyway, it's a decent skill that comes
free with Ulki. Yay. Whether or not you want to use him is up to you.
====================
~V.B. Personal Skills~ [\PERS]
====================
Most of these skills can be found in the form of scrolls throughout the game
and can be transferred to other characters. Many of these skills appear on
recruitable characters for free (they take up no capacity). If that's the case,
I suggest leaving them where they are if you plan on using the unit. Otherwise,
remove it and give it to a character you actually use.
~~~~~
ADEPT
~~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: Zihark, Soren
Found: Chapter III-9 => Aimee's bargains for 6000 gold
Restrictions: None
Effect: Allows unit to attack twice consecutively.
Activation: (Speed)%
Advice: Adept is a very useful ability. That double attack comes in handy in
many situations. Try pairing it up with a different ability like
Vantage or Wrath for better results. You don't have to give it to a
frontliner; Snipers and Sages will also benefit from Adept. Give it to
whomever you see fit; just make sure you use that unit to attack often.
Don't forget to buy the skill when it shows up in Chapter III-9.
Priority: Very High
~~~~~~
AURORA
~~~~~~
Capacity: 0
Characters: The aura surrounding the final boss...who shall remain nameless...
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: Enemy only
Effect: Upon taking damage, half of the damage is reflected back to the
attacker. Kind of like Counter, except Aurora works all the time.
Activation: Whenever damage is taken.
Advice: This is a kind of annoying ability to deal with. The only way around
it (as far as I know) is using a unit with Nihil or Parity to attack.
If Aurora activates and damages your unit, you may want to think about
healing him or her.
Priority: N/A
Additional: [a.cheng1] Apparentlty, Marksmen attacking the aura don't feel the
effects of Aurora. Yay! It also might work for long-range magic and
similar stuff. These are just more ways to get around Aurora.
~~~~~~~~
BEASTFOE
~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: None
Found: Chapter I-4 => Hidden treasure (from the top left space, move the cursor
down 4 spaces)
Restrictions: None
Effect: Attacks against beast tribe laguz become effective.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: This is a must for chapter III-6, where all of your enemies are beast
laguz and you're playing as the underleveled Dawn Brigade. There are
other chapters where Beastfoe will come in handy (like IV-5), too, so
be prepared for those. Howeever, you should remove Beastfoe for
chapters where beast laguz don't appear. That way, you can conserve
capacity. Just remember to reassign it when you need to.
Priority: High for chapters with beast laguz, Very Low for the rest
~~~~~~~
BIRDFOE
~~~~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: None
Found: Chapter IV-5 => Aimee's bargains for 1000 gold
Restrictions: None
Effect: Attacks against bird tribe laguz become effective.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: You know, it might just be me, but I don't recall seeing many enemy
bird laguz in this game. So, Birdfoe isn't as essential as Beastfoe
and Dragonfoe are. In fact, you'll only be using it for one chapter
max: chapter IV-5, where all your enemies are laguz, birds incuded. I'd
still say go ahead and buy it; it's not that expensive. You can remove
Birdfoe and sell it after chapter IV-5 because bird laguz don't appear
in the game after that. Oh, and stick it on a strong unit so that it
does lots of damage. And if you don't have it, don't feel bad. Just use
bows and wind magic.
Priority: Medium for Chapter IV-5, Very Low for the rest
~~~~~~~~
BLESSING
~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: Reyson, Rafiel, Leanne
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: Herons only
Effect: Heals adjacent allies equal to unit's Magic.
Activation: Heals at the beginning of the player phase if hurt allies are
standing on adjacent squares.
Advice: The scroll of this skill is actually called "Sky Boon," but that's not
important. All three of your Herons already know this skill, so I
suggest leaving it there because no one else can learn it. This is best
used for healing small wounds if your Herons aren't at a high level.
Just don't go out of your way and place your Herons in danger to get
free healing.
Priority: Medium, but it's free so don't remove it
~~~~~~~~~~
BLOOD TIDE
~~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: Ena, Gareth
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: Red Dragons only
Effect: Increases Strength and Skill of adjacent allies by 5.
Activation: Always active when an ally is standing next to the Red Dragon.
Advice: You have to put your dragon near the frontlines in order for this skill
to be effective at all since a +5 bonus to strength and skill aren't
going to help units who don't attack. Of course, it'll take some
training to get your Red Dragon(s) to be strong enough. If you're up
to the challenge, Paragon and bonus EXP will help speed up the process.
Blood Tide is a good ability to help take down the bosses of the final
chapter.
Priority: High, but it's free so don't remove it
~~~~~~~
BLOSSOM
~~~~~~~
Capacity: 20
Characters: None
Found: Chapter III-3 => Visit the tent on the left near the beginning.
Restrictions: None
Effect: Halves EXP but increases stat gains when leveling up.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: It's an interesting tradeoff...if you do give a character Blossom, be
sure he or she doesn't become underleveled. You may want to keep this
ability for only a couple of chapters at a time. Maybe if your unit is
close to leveling up when a chapter begins, you can stick it on and
get (hopefully) better stats than you would've. In the end...based on
how much capacity it takes up and how much it holds your unit back, I
don't think it's worth it to keep it on long term, but you may
disagree. Anyway, definitely don't keep it on a unit who's done
leveling up; that just wastes space.
Priority: Low
Additional: [strategyfreak90] Blossom does NOT affect bonus EXP gain. I had
originally written that it halves BEXP gain. My bad. This is why I
need you to send me corrections!
[henryshaw1993] Blossom is also good for leveling up units if you
are abusing experience somewhere. I forgot about that. =D
~~~~
BOON
~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: Ena, Nasir
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: Dragon laguz only
Effect: Restores adjacent units to normal condition.
Activation: Restores allies' conditions at the beginning of the player phase.
Advice: The scroll form of this skill is titled "Earth Bounty." Anyway, you can
just leave the scrolls on Ena and Nasir because there are some attacks
in the final chapter that put status effects on your entire party. Boon
will help counteract that. Other than that, it's not very useful. But,
it comes free, so yay.
Priority: Medium, but it's free so don't remove it
~~~~~~
CANCEL
~~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: Leonardo, Haar
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: None
Effect: Precludes the enemy from counterattacking.
Activation: (Speed)%
Advice: Cancel is a useful ability. Don't give it to a Sniper or Marksman or
someone who does a lot of indirect attacking because they probably
don't get counterattacked that often. Instead, maybe give it to an
offensive character who initiates attacks rather than counterattacks.
That way, you attack first and have a chance at Cancelling your enemy.
Otherwise, the enemy would already have attacked, and you'd be
Cancelling nothing.
Priority: High
~~~~~~~~
CELERITY
~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: Tormod
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: None
Effect: Increases Movement by 2 as long as it's equipped.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: This is a very useful ability for anyone with enough capacity. I don't
think I need to prattle on about how useful +2 Movement is. However,
there's one problem: only Tormod has it. So, if you don't plan on using
him, it is HIGHLY recommended that you take Celerity from him before he
disappears from your party (when part I ends). It's a good deal for 15
capacity, and it's not like Tormod will miss it. In case you didn't get
it before part I ended, you can still take it from him when he
reappears in part IV. But that's a long time to wait.
Priority: High
~~~~~~~~~
CORROSION
~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: Bastian
Found: Chapter III-5 => Base conversation with Haar
Restrictions: Beorc only
Effect: Reduces enemy's weapon's durability based on the level of the user.
Activation: (Skill/2)%
Advice: Corrosion in this game is much more useful than in the last. This time,
it has a considerably better chance of breaking a weapon instead of
just wasting the durability a little. Use Corrosion on enemies that you
can't kill in one turn. That way, if it activates, the enemy is
helpless and you can worry about other ones. While it's not an amazing
ability, it can still help you out a little. Oh yeah...if an enemy is
going to drop a weapon you want, don't use someone with Corrosion to
attack...no brainer...
Priority: Medium
~~~~~~~
COUNTER
~~~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: Titania
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: None
Effect: Upon taking damage, half of the damage is reflected back to the
attacker.
Activation: (Skill)%
Advice: Gee, what's wrong with this picture? Oh yeah! Your unit has to take
damage to deal damage! And unless that unit is taking a lot of damage,
Counter is barely going to hurt the enemy. If you really want to assign
this to someone, give it to a unit who gets hurt a lot. Frankly, this
skill is just going to take up space.
Priority: Very Low
Additional: [furryjenny] Pairing Counter with a healing ability like Imbue or
Sol helps. But, Counter + another ability = too much space to
waste. Hence, you might just want to keep it on Titania. And I
agree.
~~~~~
DAUNT
~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: None
Found: Chapter III-8 => Base conversation (entitled "Siblings")
Restrictions: None
Effect: Reduces the hit rates and critical hit rates of enemies up to 3 squares
away by 5.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: Daunt doesn't do that much, but every little bit helps. It's got a
pretty good range, so give it to a frontliner who sees lots of combat.
Try to get as many of your enemies as possible into the range so they
can feel the effects and suffer. Uwee hee hee!! Oops, did I steal
someone's line?
Priority: Medium
~~~~~~
DISARM
~~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: Brom
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: Beorc only
Effect: Makes enemy unequip current weapon, leaving him or her vulnerable.
Activation: (Skill/2)%
Advice: If you Disarm an enemy, I suggest one of two things. Either seize the
moment and kill the enemy or steal his or her weapon. Or, better yet,
do both. The downside is that Disarm doesn't activate very often, so
it'll probably happen by chance when it does. If you have Flourish, you
can activate that so you have more attacks and therefore more chances
to Disarm.
Priority: High
~~~~~~~~~~
DISCIPLINE
~~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: None
Found: Chapter I-3 => Steal it from the boss
Chapter II-2 => Hidden treasure in the bottom right corner
Restrictions: Beorc only
Effect: Doubles rate of gain for weapon EXP.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: Don't give it to a unit who only uses one kind of weapon. They can
gain weapon EXP fine, assuming you use them enough. It's probably best
given to a newly promoted unit who starts off with a low weapon level
in something. This is a pretty low priority skill meaning that you
should only assign this if you've got nothing better to assign or you
desperately need to increase weapon levels. There are Arms Scrolls for
that, though.
Priority: Low
Additional: [furryjenny] Sages are a good idea since it's tough to max out all
of their weapon levels and they don't double attack frequently
(less chances to raise weapon levels). Hmm...maybe Marshalls are a
good choice too (for the same reasons). Of course, I would assign
combat related skills to Marshalls first.
~~~~~~~~~
DRAGONFOE
~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: None
Found: Chapter IV-3 => Hidden treasure (starting from the top left corner, move
the cursor to the right 11 spaces and down 8 spaces so
that it's next to that big lump of dirt)
Restrictions: None
Effect: Attacks against dragon tribe laguz become effective.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: Dragonfoe belongs on a strong unit who can do lots of damage and take
lots of damage because you need both to take down enemy dragon laguz.
This ability is really going to shine in Chapter IV-F(3) and even more
so if you happen to be playing that chapter on hard difficulty. Make
absolutely sure you give it to someone, even if only for that chapter.
There are a few dragons in IV-5, so you may want to assign it at that
point. You can remove this skill for any chapters where dragons don't
appear. That way, you save some capacity.
Priority: Very High for chapters with dragon laguz, Very Low for the rest
~~~~~~~~
FLOURISH
~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: None
Found: Chapter 3-3 => Aimee's bargains for 3000 gold
Restrictions: None
Effect: Halves attack power (before factoring in enemy defense/ resistance).
Activation: A "Flourish" command appears when the unit can attack.
Advice: The only use for Flourish I can think of is to soften an enemy up so a
different, perhaps underleveled character, can get most of the EXP. But
honestly, I don't think you need Flourish to do that. If you have many
units, you can probably figure out a way to weaken an enemy without
killing it. I guess you could also use Flourish to increase your weapon
level faster by scoring more hits. But there's Discipline for that...
Oh, wait. You can use it in conjunction with Disarm so that you can get
more chances to Disarm an opponent and steal something. But that's only
if you want that item really badly...so, overall, I see no real need
for this ability. But hey, maybe I'm wrong. Send me some suggestions if
you've got 'em.
Priority: Very Low
Additional: [furryjenny] Half power is really not much damage at all. This
means that Flourish even fails at weakening enemies significantly.
So...useless.
~~~~~~~
FORTUNE
~~~~~~~
Capacity: 20
Characters: Meg, Caineghis
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: None
Effect: Completely prevents enemy from getting critical hits.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: This skill takes up a bunch of space. Anyway, it's best to give it to
someone with low Luck, as that's what makes a character more vulnerable
to critical attacks. Also, give it to someone who will see lots of
combat and Killer weapons. But since enemy criticals don't occur that
often, Fortune isn't really worth the space it takes up. Something like
Pavise might be a better choice for 20 capacity.
Priority: Low
~~~~~~
GAMBLE
~~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: Kieran
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: None
Effect: Halves Accuracy and double critical hit rate.
Activation: A "Gamble" command will appear if you unit can attack.
Advice: Well, since critical hit rate and Accuracy both depend on Skill, you
want to make sure your Gambler has lots of skill. Normally, you'll also
want to use other means to increase the critical hit rate such as using
a Killer weapon or giving the scroll to a character who gets an
inherent critical hit rate boost. Furthermore, you may want to bolster
Accuracy by placing a support buddy who increases hit rate nearby or by
getting a Heron to chant Bliss. And of course, look at the percent hit
and crit before you finalize the attack. All of these small things are
tips to using Gamble effectively. Otherwise, it's difficult to get it
to work when you want it to. I doubt Kieran can Gamble well because he
wields axes primarily, so consider reassigning it. If you really want
to use it, that is.
Priority: Low
~~~~~
GUARD
~~~~~
Capacity: 20
Characters: Sothe, Nailah
Found: Chapter IV-F(3) => "Base" conversation with the Heron you brought
Restrictions: None
Effect: Unit takes damage for his or her adjacent support buddy.
Activation: Not sure, but it's supposed to depend on support level.
Advice: In the last Fire Emblem, this skill was different. It had the same
effect as Cancel, so don't get confused. Anyway, I've never really seen
Guard activate very often. Not sure why. In order for it to activate,
two support buddies have to be right next to each other. So, if you
want this skill to activate, you're going to have to kind of restrict
your units' movement so that they stay adjacent a lot. Also, make sure
the unit with Guard is relatively strong. Having a unit take damage for
a buddy doesn't help if the unit is going to die. Honestly, I think
your units will be fine in combat without Guard hogging up capacity.
Priority: Low
~~~~
HOWL
~~~~
Capacity: 20
Characters: Volug
Found: Chapter III-7 => Base conversation (entitled "Catfight")
Restrictions: Beast laguz only
Effect: Enemies that attack indirecly are immobilized for a turn.
Activation: (Strength)%
Advice: This is a semi-useful ability for a beast laguz. If it activates, you
can run away or heal or something. It's only worth having if your laguz
gets attacked indirectly a lot. I'd suggest this or Quickclaw but
probably not both.
Priority: Medium
~~~~~
IMBUE
~~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: Fiona, Black Knight
Found: Chapter III-11 => Base conversation (entitled "Rivals")
Restrictions: Non-magic users only
Effect: Heals unit's HP equal to Magic.
Activation: Automatically at the beginning of the player phase if the unit is
not at full HP.
Advice: This is a great ability for a frontliner, especially one who's too far
away to be healed. But make sure that the unit you give it to has lots
of magic. I'd say around 10 or even more is good.
Priority: Very High
~~~~~~~~~
MAELSTROM
~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 20
Characters: Naesala
Found: Chapter IV-4 => Hidden treasure (starting from the top left corner, move
the cursor to the right 1 space and down 7 spaces. It's
tucked in the corner of that wall)
Restrictions: Ravens and Hawks only
Effect: Damages an enemy that attacks indirectly equal to unit's strength.
Activation: (Skill)%
Advice: It depends how often your birds get attacked indirectly. I know Snipers
and Wind Sages tend to attack birds first, but if that's the case,
wouldn't Nullify make a better ability? But then again, you might have
different experiences. If you think doing extra damage to indirectly
attcking enemies is going to make a significant difference in your
game, then go for Maelstrom, I guess.
Priority: Medium
~~~~~~
MANTLE
~~~~~~
Capacity: 0
Characters: Lehran, bosses of Chapters IV-F(3,4,5)
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: Enemy only
Effect: Nullifies attacks from weapons not blessed by Yune, ignores enemy's
skills, reduces enemy critical hit rate to 0, and heals HP equal to
Luck.
Activation: Always active. Healing occurs at the beginning of the enemy phase.
Advice: It's a lot to deal with, and it makes the last few bosses of the game
pretty painful. You just have to hit hard and fast with your strongest
weapons (which you hopefully chose to bless) and heal accordingly.
Priority: N/A
~~~~~
MERCY
~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: Elincia (in part IV)
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: Elincia only
Effect: Potentially fatal attacks leave the enemy with 1 HP.
Activation: Whenever Elincia's attack would kill the enemy.
Advice: Mercy is kind of proof of how...uh, merciful...Elincia is and expresses
her desire to avoid bloodshed. Unfortunately, it doesn't make for a
very useful ability. The best use I can think of for Mercy is to let
an underleveled unit pick off the enemy for lots of EXP. With Amiti
and Stun, Elincia should be able to heavily damage enemies, so if you
keep Mercy on her, she won't kill them, and someone else can deliver
the finishing blow. If you don't have any characters who need more
training like that or if you plan on using Elincia for the final
chapter, I suggest that you remove Mercy to unleash her full potential.
Priority: Very Low
Additional: [MrSlateGray] Again, this hinges on Elincia's ability to survive.
If you feel she is a very good unit, you can stick a Provoke and a
Miracle on her, then get weaker units to pick the enemies off. Not
a bad idea if you've got a particularly strong Elincia. Be aware of
all the capacity it takes up though.
~~~~~~~
MIRACLE
~~~~~~~
Capacity: 5
Characters: Mist, Ena, Pelleas
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: None
Effect: Potentially fatal attacks only halve the unit's HP.
Activation: (Luck)%
Advice: Don't equip this on a tank character. Leave it for someone who is
more likely to die. Those fragile herons would be good choices,
especially since they have lots of Luck. It's a pretty cheap skill to
equip, so I'm sure you'll find room for it somewhere. You never know
when it'll save your butt.
Priority: High
~~~~~~~~~~
NIGHT TIDE
~~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: Kurthnaga
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: Black Dragons only
Effect: Increases Defense and Resistance of adjacent allies by 5.
Activation: Always active when an ally is standing next to the Black Dragon.
Advice: This will probably require training Kurthnaga up a little bit. That
way, he doesn't get slaughtered in battle. After all, Night Tide
requires your dragon to be next to allies. And to maximize Night Tide's
usefulness, Kurthnaga has to be next to your frontliners. So, train
him by using Paragon and bonus EXP. I don't think Night Tide is quite
as good as Blood Tide and White Pool are, but I'm probably just being
narrow-minded.
Priority: High, but it's free so don't remove it
~~~~~
NIHIL
~~~~~
Capacity: 20
Characters: Nolan, Callil, Nasir, Ike (upon promotion)
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: None
Effect: Ignores enemy's battle skills.
Activation: Activates if the enemy has a skill.
Advice: Nihil is pretty key in the last chapter where the bosses have some
really strong abilities. You should probably toss the scrolls to your
most powerful units. I mean, Nihil for Ike is almost a must. But he
gets a free one upon promotion, so it's all good. Umm...otherwise,
Nihil might be of help against some other bosses with abilities
throughout the game. I mean, they have low chances of activating, but
if you're a take-no-risks kind of person, maybe you'll want to use a
character with Nihil. But it's mostly useful in the last couple of
chapters, so if you want, you can hold off on reassigning the Nihils
until then because they take up quite a bit of capacity.
Priority: Very High for final chapter, Low otherwise
~~~~~~
NULLFY
~~~~~~
Capacity: 20
Characters: Giffca
Found: Chapter II-F => I believe one of the generals at the bottom drops it
Restrictions: None
Effect: Any effective damage is treated normally.
Activation: Always active
Advice: Obviously, this skill should go on a unit who's going to take effective
damage. By "effecive damage," I mean attacks like fire magic to beast
laguz or arrows to Pegasus Knights. Look through your party members and
see who needs it most. Or, you can set it aside if you don't think you
have units who take effective damage very much. After all, you might
have a better skill to assign for that much capacity. Typically, I give
it to a flying unit just because they have multiple weaknesses. Except
Dracoknights who are only weak against Thunder magic.
Priority: Medium
Additional: [henryshaw1993] Haar is a good unit to assign Nullify to. It gets
rid of his debilitating weakness to Thunder magic.
~~~~~~~
PARAGON
~~~~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: Astrid, Geoffrey
Found: Chapter I-6(2) => The boss drops it
Restrictions: None
Effect: Doubles EXP gained.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: This is a must for any underleveled units you plan on using. Otherwise,
you can give it to any other unit to increase EXP gain. Don't keep
Paragon on a third tier beorc at level 20 or a level 40 laguz.
That's just a waste of capacity (obviously). If you have no one you
think who needs Paragon, assign it to one of your Herons so they can
level up much faster. When you get to the final
chapter, you should stick it on any dragons you want to level up.
Priority: Very High for underleveled units, Very Low for max level units,
Medium for others
Additional: [furryjenny] Paragon doesn't affect bonus EXP gain.
~~~~~~
PARITY
~~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: Lucia
Found: Chapter I-F => One of the chests on the map
Restrictions: None
Effect: Ignores both unit's and enemy's skills, terrain bonuses, and support
bonuses.
Activation: A "Parity" command appears when the unit can attack an enemy.
Advice: Parity isn't terribly useful. You want to use it to get an edge over
an enemy, but that's not going to happen if you have to forsake your
own skills and bonuses. And really, how often do enemies have useful
skills or bonuses? The only decent thing about Parity might be the fact
that it can be used as a Nihil against the final boss to avoid Aurora.
And it can also eliminate terrain bonuses coming from those tiles...
maybe Parity isn't so bad for the final chapter. But there's no real
need to keep Parity on until then.
Priority: High for final chapter, Low for flyers, Very Low otherwise
Additional: [furryjenny] Parity is more useful on flying units since they don't
receive terrain bonuses, and they probably won't be in support
range of non-fliers. Ike might also benefit from this skill more
than from Nihil because it can negate the terrain bonuses of some
of the final chapter's bosses. (Laguz royals can get Nihil.) I'm
really glad furryjenny brought this to my attention...heh.
~~~~
PASS
~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: Heather
Found: Chapter I-9 => Base conversation with Jill
Restrictions: None
Effect: Allows unit to pass through enemies when moving.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: Moving directly through your enemies can be kind of useful, I guess.
You can use it to get through places your enemies have blocked up. Or,
you could use it to get your troops in a better position on a map. But
sometimes, when you do, you isolate your unit from the rest of the
group. That's okay for a strong unit, though. I don't really know what
to say about Pass...sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. I'd
assume Pass should go on a frontliner.
Priority: Medium
~~~~~~
PAVISE
~~~~~~
Capacity: 20
Characters: Tibarn
Found: Chapter IV-F(3) => "Base" conversation with Sanaki
Restrictions: None
Effect: Nullifies damage completely.
Activation: (Skill)%
Advice: Pavise is a pretty good skill, but it takes up quite a bit of capacity.
Give it to a unit who gets hurt a lot or someone who's in combat a lot.
Or, you could give it to someone weaker and hope that it activates when
he or she gets attacked. I prefer the first idea, though.
Priority: Medium
~~~~~~~
PROVOKE
~~~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: Shinon, Skrimir
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: None
Effect: Enemies are more likely to attack unit.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: Give it to a unit who can take a lot of hits or a unit with really good
Avoid. Provoke helps get those ballistae and long-range magic attacks
away from your weaker units. Of course, Provoke fails some of the time,
so you still want to be careful when moving your units. Have a backup
plan. You may want to stick Renewal or Imbue on a unit with Provoke to
heal him or her. Oh, and watch out because a unit with Provoke tends to
hog lots of enemies and therefore lots of EXP. If you can give it to a
character who heavily damages enemies but doesn't kill them, that'd be
perfect.
Priority: Medium
~~~~~~~~~
QUICKCLAW
~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 20
Characters: Kyza
Found: Chapter III-7 => Aimee's bargains for 2000 gold
Restrictions: Beast laguz only
Effect: Damages an enemy that attacks indirectly equal to unit's strength.
Activation: (Speed)%
Advice: It's okay. It'll punish units who attack indirectly, and you can just
take them down next turn. But it doesn't do anything amazing for 20
capacity. If you feel like your unit gets nailed by indirect attacks a
lot, you can give it either this or Howl. Assigning both is redundant.
Priority: Medium
~~~~~~~
RENEWAL
~~~~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: Elincia, Ena
Found: Chapter I-6 => Base conversation with Kurth
Restrictions: None
Effect: Heals a character 10% of his or her maximum HP (rounded down) each
turn.
Activation: Activates at the beginning of the player phase if the unit doesn't
have full HP.
Advice: Well...it's not that bad. But if your unit has any magic at all, Imbue
is probably a better choice. Of course, Imbue doesn't work with magic
users, so you might want to assign Renewal to one of them. Laguz can
probably make the best of this skill becuase their max HP is higher
than that of beorc. Since Renewal doesn't heal that much HP, give it
to someone who doesn't take that much damage. Generals and Marshalls
might be a good idea, but there are better skills for them. It's okay
for the early part of the game where you don't have many skills, but
it's easily replaced when you gain access to better ones.
Priority: Low
Additions: [furryjenny] I had originally said that Renewal heals 10% rounded
up, but I turned out to be wrong.
~~~~~~~
RESOLVE
~~~~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: Skrimir, Tauroneo
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: None
Effect: Multiplies Skill and Speed by 1.5 when under 50% max HP. (The game
erroneously says 20% of max HP.)
Activation: Always active when unit has less than 50% max HP.
Advice: Resolve pretty much makes your character a beast-- not the laguz ;]--
at half health. Unfortunately, Resolve does not increase Defense or
Resistance, so make sure your unit has plenty of that (although the
speed bonus will help Avoid slightly). Bring a support buddy just in
case (preferably one that boosts Defense or Avoid). Also, don't stick
recovery skills like Imbue or Renewal on a unit with Resolve. If you
do, your unit might accidentally recover past the 50% mark, but only
barely...and that would leave your unit in a weaker state but not with
Resolve. Alternatively, your unit would keep healing every turn and
never fall below 50% HP, making Resolve pointless. So, yeah, bad combo.
One more thing...a unit with Resolve should carry a Concoction or
Elixir or something of the like so that in the event that he or she is
almost killed, you will have a backup plan. Give Resolve to a character
who is strong enough to survive at 50% max HP but also weak enough to
get to that point. Giving it to a high level laguz isn't a bad idea.
And always keep an eye on nearby enemies.
Priority: High
Additional: [sangdrako] You can add Miracle to a unit to keep him or her alive
longer (hopefully). Good idea.
~~~~~~
SAVIOR
~~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: Tibarn, Fiona
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: None
Effect: Prevents unit's stats from being penalized when rescuing another unit.
Activation: Active whenver rescuing another character.
Advice: Usually, when a unit rescues another character, the unit's speed and
skill are halved. As you'd imagine, this leaves him or her vulnerable.
Savior nullifies those penalities. So, if you use the Rescue command a
lot, Savior is a pretty good ability to stick on one of your units. A
mounted unit or laguz (both of which tend to have high Build) would be
good options for the Savior skill, especially since they have big
movement ranges. My advice is to stick it on at least one of your units
just in case. You can thank me later.
Priority: High
~~~~~
SHADE
~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: Ilyana
Found: Chapter III-3 => The boss drops it
Restrictions: Beorc only
Effect: Character has a reduced chance of being attacked by an enemy.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: This is a good ability for units with low Defense or for a plain, old
underleveled one. It'll keep them out of danger a lot of times. Now, if
a unit with Shade is the only unit in an enemy's attack range, that
enemy is still going to attack. Plus, Shade doesn't guarantee that no
one will choose to attack. It's just a reduced chance. So, you still
need to pay attention to where you're moving your peeps.
Priority: Medium
~~~~~~
SHRIEK
~~~~~~
Capacity: 20
Characters: Vika
Found: Chapter IV-5 => Base conversation (entitled "Birds")
Restrictions: Ravens and Hawks only
Effect: Drops enemy's Luck to 0 for a turn when unit is indirectly attacked.
Activation: (Luck)%
Advice: Eh, I dunno exactly how useful this one is. I mean, so what if your
enemy has no Luck? It's not a huge advantage in combat. Plus, 20
capacity is a lot for a simple skill like this. Try giving your bird
some other skills...Maelstrom comes to mind. But if nothing good is
left, I suppose Shriek is better than nothing.
Priority: Low
~~~~~
SMITE
~~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: Mordecai
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: None
Effect: An upgraded Shove that moves an adjacent unit 2 spaces away.
Activation: An additional "Smite" command appears when a shove is possible.
Advice: If you feel the need to use Smite, you should stick it on a big
character. Laguz would be ideal, but some of your burly axe users would
also be good candidates if you aren't using laguz. I'd only recommend
putting this on a unit if you use Shove often because Smite is
essentially an upgraded Shove. Otherwise, you're better off with skills
you can use more frequently. The decision is yours.
Priority: Medium if you're good with Shove, Low otherwise
~~~~~~~~~
STILLNESS
~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 25
Characters: Volke
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: Beorc only
Effect: Enemies don't attack character unless he or she is the only one in
range.
Activation: Always active.
Advice: Well, by the time you get to access Volke's skills, you're on the last
chapter of the game. So really, the focus should be on trying to pump
up your strongest units with good abilities. And when you try to assign
Stillness...it's unlikely you'll have 25 capacity leftover on any of
your beorc units. Furthermore, you want to bring in your most powerful
units for the final chapter, so giving them Stillness to stay out of
combat kind of defeats the purpose. But if you do happen to have 25
capacity leftover on an Arch Sage or some other unit with mediocre or
low Defense, Stillness wouldn't be a bad idea. Sanaki, for example,
might be a good choice because of her low Defense.
Priority: Low
~~~~~~~
VANTAGE
~~~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: Naesala, Mia
Found: Chapter 1-F => It's in one of the chests.
Restrictions: None
Effect: When attacked by an enemy, allows unit to attack first.
Activation: (Speed)%
Advice: Vantage is no longer always active as it was in the last game. So, be
sure to give it to a fast character who sees a lot of combat. If you
add other abilities like Adept or Wrath, you may even be able to kill
enemies before they get a chance to attack you, which is, I guess, the
point of Vantage. Har har, did I just make a vantage point pun? Wow...
anyway, Trueblades come to mind when assigning this skill. Avoid giving
it to Snipers/Marksmen because they usually don't counterattack.
Priority: Very High
~~~~~~~~~~
WHITE POOL
~~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 10
Characters: Nasir
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: White Dragons only
Effect: Increases Magic and Speed of adjacent allies by 5.
Activation: Always active when an ally is standing next to the White Dragon.
Advice: +5 Speed is pretty nice...it can let lots of units double attack. +5
Magic for your magic users isn't bad either. The catch, of course, is
that you have to put your White Dragon in the fray alongside everyone
else. If you think Nasir can handle it, then by all means, put him near
your frontliners. On the other hand, if you think Nasir isn't up to the
challenge (perhaps on Hard Mode), you may want to leave him out of
battle instead. Or, for those of you who don't care about losing units,
you can still put him in the middle of combat. =D You're pretty close
to the end when you recruit Nasir anyway. White Pool will probably help
you quite a bit for the final boss of the game, thanks to the double
attacks it helps grant.
Priority: High, but it's free so don't remove it
~~~~~~~~~
WILDHEART
~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: Volug
Found: Chapter III-8 => Janaff comes with one in his inventory
Restrictions: Laguz only, Herons excluded
Effect: Allows unit to transform at will with halved transformation bonuses.
(In part I of the game, the transformation gauge stays full. For the
rest of the game, it decreases normally.)
Activation: A command appears whenever the unit can shift.
Advice: Eh...this skill isn't really worth it. Your stats are only multiplied
by 1.5 instead of 2, which is a pretty significant difference. It's
much easier to take Olivi grasses and Laguz stones from units you're
not using and give them to the laguz you are using. I know Volug is
required to have it for part I, but it's okay then because he's
comparatively stronger than your other units. Later on in the game,
Wildheart will be much more of a hindrance than a useful skill, so
I recommend taking it off of Volug (if you're using him). Sell it if
you want; there are better skills to give your laguz.
Priority: Very Low
Additional: [furryjenny] Assign Wildheart to Ranulf (for the missions he's
required to take part in). First of all, don't do that if you plan
on using Ranulf as a permanent unit. Second, make sure that the
halved transformation bonuses aren't too debilitating (I don't
think they are, but you never know).
Kudos to furryjenny for
finding a use for this skill! Oh, and she also informed me that it
doesn't halve EXP like the game says it does.
~~~~~
WRATH
~~~~~
Capacity: 15
Characters: Edward, Nephenee, Nealuchi
Found: Nowhere
Restrictions: None
Effect: Increases critical hit rate by 50 when under 30% of max HP.
Activation: Always active when under 30% of max HP.
Advice: Wrath is a pretty powerful skill, but I can't say that I use it a lot
due to the HP requirement. Naturally, it's best given to classes like
Trueblades or Marksmen that have inherent critical hit bonuses. You
should also make sure that the unit you're giving Wrath to is strong
enough stay alive at only 30% max HP. Sometimes, however, the problem
is that your unit will be too good to take that much damage. Experiment
to see which of your characters are best suited for this ability. For
example, you might try to get Nephenee hit by some magic attacks, then
send her out to fight non-magic units. Try to have a support buddy
who boosts Avoid or Defense nearby, and always carry a healing item
just in case things go awry. If you can, add Vantage so your unit
doesn't face so many enemy attacks. Usually, it's the indirect attacks
that kill a unit with Wrath, so watch out for those.
Priority: Medium
Additional: [sangdrako] You can add Miracle to a unit to keep him or her alive
longer (hopefully). Good idea.
===================
~V.C. Mastery Skills~ [\MASS]
===================
Considered the most powerful of all skills, mastery skills are only learned
when a beorc reaches his or her third tier class; laguz learn a mastery skill
when they use a Satori Sign after reaching level 30. Mastery skills are
class-specific and cannot be transferred, so there's not much advice I can give
for assigning these skills. You're stuck with them whether you like it or not.
Most of the mastery skills just do a bunch of damage that only the toughest of
enemies can survive, but here is a list of their specific effects.
~~~~~~
AETHER
~~~~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Vanguard
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Gives character a double attack: the first heals HP equal to damage
dealt (like Sol) and the second negates enemy defense (like Luna).
Activation: (Skill/2)%
Advice: Aether is an extremely powerful skill, almost always guaranteeing a KO
when it activates. Speaking of which, Aether's activation rate is kind
of low, so don't depend on it to heal you or get you out of a jam every
time you attack. Aether only has a chance of activating when Ike
attacks directly, so remember that when you use Ragnell from far away.
~~~~~
ASTRA
~~~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Trueblade
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Allows unit to attack five times in a row.
Activation: (Skill/2)%
Advice: Well, the downside is that it wears your weapon out faster. That's not
too much of a downside though. =D Otherwise, it's pretty much
quintipling your damage and destroying your enemies. Be careful though;
even with all the Skill a Trueblade has, you're not going to get it to
occur every turn. Astra doesn't activate when attacking indirectly.
Additional: [furryjenny] This is the worst mastery skill. And I can see why.
Just compare it to Adept to see why (lower activation rate, can't
critical, uses weapon faster, etc.). However, the sad truth is that
you can't remove Astra. 'Tis a pity.
~~~~
BANE
~~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Whisper
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Leaves enemy with 1 HP.
Activation: (Skill/2)%
Advice: Bane can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I mean, if it
activates on a first attack, you'll probably end up killing the enemy.
If it activates on the second attack, a weaker unit can pick the enemy
off and get some easy EXP. On the other hand, it can act like Mercy in
that it leaves the enemy alive when you wanted him or her dead...not
cool. So, remember to factor that into your calculations when you use a
Whisper to fight. Bane won't activate against bosses or when you attack
indirectly. So, if you definitely don't want Bane to occur, you can
toss knives from afar.
~~~~~~~~
COLOSSUS
~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 25
Classes: Reaver
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Triples damage and does extra damage.
Activation: (Skill)%
Advice: I don't know exactly how "extra damage" is defined, but Colossus gets
the job done when it activates (fairly often). You can pretend it's a
critical attack, if you want. Colossus doesn't activate when attacking
indirectly, and I've never seen it activate with a crossbow.
~~~~~~
CORONA
~~~~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Light Priestess, Saint, Chancellor
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Ignores enemy's Resistance and halves enemy's Accuracy for a turn.
Activation: (Skill)%
Advice: This is a pretty good ability since light magic is notoriously weak.
The halving enemy accuracy part is okay, as it helps your unit dodge an
incoming attack if your enemy happens to survive. But still, try to
attack so that your opponents can't counter. Corona doesn't actiavte
with staves...obviously...
~~~~~~~
DEADEYE
~~~~~~~
Capacity: 25
Classes: Marksman
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Triples damage and puts enemy to sleep.
Activation: (Skill/2)%
Advice: The sending the unit to sleep thing is pretty useful. Too bad no one
ever lives through the triple damage part (except maybe Generals). So,
don't depend on Deadeye to put an enemy to sleep, especially since the
rate of activation is so low. I don't think Deadeye activates when
using a crossbow, but I'm not sure. Marksmen probably shouldn't be
using crossbows anyway.
Additional: [smbbmaster] confirms it doesn't activate when attacking directly
with crossbows.
~~~~~~~
ECLIPSE
~~~~~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Black Knight
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Quintiples strength and ignores enemy's Defense.
Activation: (Skill)%
Advice: Yeah...ouch. This is essentially a one-hit KO to the enemy. You can
use the Black Knight as much as you want while you have him. Just
beware-- he hogs potential EXP from your teammates. Later on, when you
have to fight him, you shouldn't have to fear Eclipse activating
because Ike should have Nihil. Eclipse doesn't activate when attacking
indirectly.
Addiditonal: Something else I thought of...if you're going for the battle
conversation in chapter III-7 to recruit Lehran, you'll have to fight
the Black Knight one extra time. In that instance, since Ike isn't yet
promomted, the Black Knight might activate this and kill Ike. To be
safe, battle save beforehand. If you removed a Nihil from Callil or a
Parity from Lucia back in part II, you can put it on Ike for that
battle. If you're on hard mode and don't have any of these protective
skills, hope for the best or just go for a ranged attack so that
Eclipse won't activate. If you just let the Black Knight attack you,
he'll attack from afar anyway.
~~~~~
FLARE
~~~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Arch Sage, Summoner, Empress
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Ignores enemy's Resistance and heals user equal to damage dealt.
Activation: (Skill)%
Advice: Flare is not quite as powerful as the other mastery skills, so keep
that in mind. My Arch Sages tend to be at full health a lot of the
time, so I don't rely on Flare to heal them. Yours may be different. If
your Arch Sage gets hit, you can try indirectly attacking a nearby
enemy and hoping for a Flare. But have a backup plan in case. Oh, and
I doubt you thought otherwise, but Flare doesn't activate with staves.
~~~~~~
IMPALE
~~~~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Sentinel
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Quadruples damage.
Activation: (Skill)%
Advice: A very useful skill. If your Sentinel is on the frontlines where he or
she belongs, Impale will help bring down many an enemy. It doesn't
activate when attacking indirectly.
~~~
IRE
~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Red Dragon, White Dragon, Black Dragon
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Triples damage.
Activation: (Skill)%
Advice: Hm...Ire is basically the same thing as a critical. Transformed dragons
have a Skill cap of 30, with the exception of Kurthnaga and Dheginsea.
So, you'll probably be scoring "critical hits" almost a third of the
time. I guess it makes your dragons more powerful, if you've managed to
train them this far. I don't recall whether or not Ire activates when
attacking indirectly, but my guess is that it doesn't.
~~~~~~~~~
LETHALITY
~~~~~~~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Assassin
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Automatically kills the enemy unit.
Activation: (Skill/2)%
Advice: Yep, Lethality just flat out kills your enemy. Now, don't start
daydreaming just yet. It doesn't work on the final boss, or any boss
for that matter. And it's not going to activate too often, so don't
depend on it. Rather, you could try using Volke to weaken enemies and
counting Lethality as a favorable surprise. My point is, don't expect
it to occur a lot. Lethality doesn't activate when attacking
indirectly.
~~~~
LUNA
~~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Marshall
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Triples Strength and ignores enemy's Defense.
Activation: (Skill)%
Advice: Luna absolutely destroys opponents. Put your Marshalls where the
enemies are and let the carnage begin. It doesn't activate when
attacking indirectly, as those of you who have looked at the entries
for the other mastery skills might have deduced.
~~~~
REND
~~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Cat
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Quintiples strength and immbolizes enemy for a turn.
Activation: (Speed)%
Advice: Yeah, this is pretty much like Roar except Rend compensates for Cats'
lower strength. Cats are really fast, so expect this to activate fairly
often.
~~~~
ROAR
~~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Lion, Tiger
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Triples Strength and immobilizes enemy for a turn.
Activation: (Strength)%
Advice: It's pretty much Stun, but you're probably going to kill the enemy
first. This will activate quite a bit since Lions and Tigers have
quite a bit of Strength. Put them near lots of enemies so they can
dominate.
~~~~~~
SAVAGE
~~~~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Wolf
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Triples Strength and halves enemy's Skill for a turn.
Activation: (Skill)%
Advice: The halving Skill part isn't that useful, but your enemy will probably
be too dead for that to matter.
~~~
SOL
~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Gold Knight, Silver Knight, Valkyrie
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Triples damage and heals user equal to damage done to enemy.
Activation: (Skill)%
Advice: If your unit is kind of low on HP, you can try attacking an enemy
Sniper or something. That way, you'll get a couple of free chances to
activate Sol. This is a good ability for keeping your units alive when
they're far away from your healers, which your Gold and Silver Knights
probably are. I believe Sol does not activate from afar...unless you're
using a bow.
Additional: [jklow13] Confirmed that last part about bows. Thank you!
~~~~
STUN
~~~~
Capacity: 25
Classes: Seraph Knight, Dragonlord, Queen
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Triples damage and paralyzes enemy for a turn.
Activation: (Skill)%
Advice: If you fail to kill your enemy with Stun, you don't have to worry. You
can just use Canto to retreat if you're hurt. But, it's like a critical
attack, so chances are, you won't have to worry about that because your
enemy will probably already be dead if it activates...hm, boy does that
sound familiar...maybe because that the case for every other mastery
skill in the game? Oh, and this is probably familar too: Stun doesn't
activate when attacking indirectly.
~~~~
TEAR
~~~~
Capacity: 30
Classes: Raven, Hawk
Found: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Effect: Triples Strength and halves enemy's Speed for a turn.
Activation: (Speed)%
Advice: This pretty much guarantees a double attack if you didn't have one
already. Like all the other mastery skills, it's going to kill 99% of
the time if it activates, so use your bird often.
===============================================================================
~VI. Frequently Asked Questions~ [\FAQS]
===============================================================================
This is the section where I attempt to anticipate your questions and answer
them before you ask me. Naturally, I can't read minds, so if there is a
question you have whose answer is NOT IN THE FAQ, feel free to e-mail me.
Q: How do I get a skill to activate more often?
A: Skills will activate more often if the unit's biorhythm is at best or good.
On the other hand, skills will activate less often if his or her biorhythm
is at bad or worst. Other than that, I don't think there are any other ways
to change how often a skill activates. Besides cheating. Cheating is always
an option. But for those of you who are honest, dedicated players, I believe
that's it.
Specifically, biorhythm impacts skill activation in the following ways:
BEST: +10% chance
GOOD: +5% chance
NORMAL: +0% chance
BAD: -5% chance
WORST: -10% chance
(I took that from the Activation section of my FAQ. Serves you right for not
reading it. =P)
Q: What's the best skill to give to [insert character here]?
A: It's all subjective. Your opinion is as good as if not better than mine. All
I can recommend is that you should play around with them until you get a
combination you like or that you feel is good. My ideas are just suggestions
(quite a few of them are common sense).
Q: Why does your FAQ say Resolve activates at under 50% max HP when the game
says it activates at under 20% max HP?
A: According to many people (myself included), that's just an error on the
game's part. Trials have confirmed that it will activate at any point under
50% max HP, not 20%. So, that actually works in your favor!
Q: So, does the same thing work for Wrath?
A: Unfortunately, no. Your unit must be under 30% max HP to activate Wrath.
Q: Do skills transfer from Path of Radiance?
A: It depends. Many of the skills that the recruitable FE: PoR characters
started with in that game will reappear in this game (and don't take up any
capacity!), but any skills you may have added yourself will not reappear. If
you removed an ability that a character started with in FE: PoR, that
ability still comes back in FE: RD.
Q: How do I learn a mastery skill?
A: If you missed what I said earlier, beorc learn a mastery skill automatically
when they promote to a third tier class. Laguz need to use a Satori Sign
when they reach level 30 or higher.
Q: How do I get more capacity?
A: Beorc get more capacity upon promotion. Laguz get more capacity upon
reaching higher levels. They get extra capacity at levels 15 and 30. Also,
Laguz royals (not just kings and queens) get an extra 30 capacity...just
for being royal. Herons, however, do not count as "royalty" in this case.
Q: I know I have the capacity to add this skill! Why can't I assign it?
A: Sometimes abilities are only for certain species, classes, or characters. I
have listed all of these restrictions in my guide. Look at the
"Restrictions" entry under the skill you're wondering about. If that's not
the problem, perhaps you already have six skills assigned on a character.
That's the maximum, so you're going to have to remove one to add another.
Q: How do I pick up hidden treasure?
A: Move a unit onto the square. There is a chance that the unit will see the
treasure and pick it up. If not, keep trying. Thieves, Rogues, and Whispers
almost always successfully find treasure. Otherwise, units with high Skill
or best biorhythms also have pretty good chances of finding hidden treasure.
For those who are interested, the specific formula is as follows:
% Chance of detecting a hidden item = Skill + Thief bonus + Biorhythm bonus
where the thief bonus is 60 if your unit is a Thief, Rogue, or Whisper and
the biorhythm bonus is +20 if at best, + 10 at good, 0 at normal, -10 at
bad, and -20 at worst.
Q: What do "FE: RD" and "FE: PoR" stand for?
A: FE: RD is the game you're playing, silly. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. FE: PoR
refers to the game that came out before it, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
FE: RD is a sequel to FE: PoR, so I tried to point out some of the
connections between them as far as the skills go.
Q: Your opinion sucks. This guide is lame.
A: That's not even a question. For comparison purposes, see the next QUESTION,
please.
Q: I respectfully disagree with your opinion. I believe you did not give
[insert something here] a fair evaluation. May I e-mail you about this?
A: By all means. I'll include your suggestions in this FAQ and credit you if
your help is good enough. If you read the previous "question," you should
also realize that I'm going to ignore crap like that. Be nice when you
write, please. It makes the world go 'round. If you want to, you can send
[constructive] criticism about my FAQ. I want to make it as good as
possible.
Q: I see this FAQ on a site besides GameFAQs, GameSpot, etc. What should I do?
A: Heh...look at my Credits and Legal Info section.
===============================================================================
~VII. Credits and Legal Info~ [\CALI]
===============================================================================
MAJOR THANKS TO:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
www.serenesforest.net
for some skill effects, skill locations, activation rates, and some other
miscellaneous stuff. This guide would not have been possible without it.
VincentASM, you are my hero.
(Serenes Forest is a great resource for all things Fire Emblem. I highly,
highly recommend visiting. Lots of info available there.)
Nintendo/ Intelligent Systems
for making such a great game. Long live the Fire Emblem series!
OTHER THANKS TO:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
my friends for supporting me while I was writing.
GameFAQs for hosting my FAQ originally.
Other sites (listed below) for also hosting.
Konxilla for proofreading.
furryjenny for various corrections throughout the FAQ and also some suggestions
about some of the skills.
strategyfreak90 for pointing out that Blossom doesn't affect bonus EXP (as I
had erroneously beleived originally).
jklow13 for confirming when Sol activates from afar.
sangdrako for a tip when using Reslove or Wrath.
henryshaw1993 for suggestions for Blossom and Nullify.
MrSlateGray for an idea for Mercy.
a.cheng1 forinforming me Marksmen don't get hit by Aurora when they attack from
three spaces away.
ssmbmaster for confirming when Deadeye activates.
(Your name could be here!)
Fire Emblem is copyrighted by Nintendo/Intelligent Systems.
PERMITED TO POST THIS FAQ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GameFAQs
Neoseeker
Super Cheats
GamesRadar
Cheat Planet
I have only given the sites listed above and their affiliate sites permission
to post this guide. However, I don't really mind if this FAQ turns up somewhere
else as long as I still get credit for it. But, chances are, if a random site
has this FAQ, it's not a very good one. I mean, if it needs to steal other FAQs
to get material, how good can it be? I'd encourage you to visit more...
legitimate sites such as GameFAQs for your gaming help.
I really appreciate you for reading my guide! It was lots of fun to write, and
I hope it helped you on your quest to save Tellius!
Copyright 2008 Leroy Jia
[email protected]
[END OF FAQ]
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