Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn - Gaming Helpers

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn (Wii)

An FAQ/Walkthrough
For the Nintendo Wii
Copyright 2009 Richard Beast
"Well the universe is shaped exactly like the earth...

...if you go straight long enough you'll end up where you were." - Modest Mouse

-!NOTE!-
This guide, as you will soon see, is pretty big. Seeing as how this takes effect, you will most likely be lost in trying to find out what you want to read. There is one way to get to it, instantly. Press Ctrl + F, and then look for whatever you want. Let's say you want to go to the Basics section. Type in "IV. Basics", and then you'll go to the basics section, instantly! Pretty neat, eh?

Table of Contents

I. Introduction
II. Legal Disclaimer
III. Contact Rules
IV. Basics
V. Characters

(Part 1)
Va. Dawn Brigade
Vb. Crimea Knights
(Part 2)
Vc. Greil Mercenaries
(Part 3)
Vd. Gods And Men
(Part 4)
VI. Walkthrough

(Part 1)
VIa. Under Gray Skies
VIb. Maiden of Miracles
VIc. The Dispossessed
VId. A Faint Light
VIe. A Distant Voice
VIf. The Lost Heir
VIg. Raise the Standard 1
VIh. Raise the Standard 2
VIi. A Gathering Hope
VIj. Glory Unwanted
VIk. One Survives
VIl. Daein, Arise!
VII. Walkthrough

(Part 2)
VIIa. On Drifting Clouds
VIIb. Winds of Rebellion
VIIc. Tides of Intrigue
VIId. Geoffrey's Charge
VIIe. Elincia's Gambit
VIII. Walkthrough

(Part 3)
VIIIa. The Great Advance
VIIIb. Laguz and Beorc
VIIIc. Stormclouds
VIIId. River Crossing
VIIIe. The General's Hand
VIIIf. Retreat!
VIIIg. A Reason to Fight
VIIIh. Rivals Collide
VIIIi. Incandescent Glow
VIIIj. Marauders
VIIIk. The Heart of Crimea
VIIIl. Just Cause
VIIIm. The Price
VIIIn. Blood Contract
VIIIo. From Pain, Awakening
IX. Walkthrough

(Part 4)
IXa. Chaos Named
IXb. Road to the Empire
IXc. Silent World
IXd. Distortions
IXe. Revelations
IXf. Unforgivable Sin
IXg. Rebirth 1
IXh. Rebirth 2
IXi. Rebirth 3
IXj. Rebirth 4
IXk. Rebirth 5
X. Items
Xa. Weapons
Xb. Magic
Xc. Skills
Xd. Shops
XI. FAQ
XII. Credits

I. Introduction

Well well well. Look who we have here. It's Richard Beast yet again. Writing for Path of Radiance and Sacred Stones just wasn't enough. Oh wait, you don't know who I am? Well, I would normally refer you to my Path of Radiance guide since most people who have played Radiant Dawn have played Path of Radiance as well, which would mean my guide should be second nature to you already in all its awesome (end shameless self plugging), but yeah, if you don't know who I am, I'm basically a twentysomething from southeast Michigan who needs to get a life or something. So to substitute for my lack of life in my life, I play games and write rather long winded guides for said games. It's a decent trade off. To you guys at least.

So, my game of choice this time is Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. I say this time because this is six years in progress now and I forget how many guides I've done, plus I suffer from laziness which prevents me from actually checking and seeing, but yeah. And if you're unfamiliar with this game, my advice to you would be to stop reading this right now and go buy it, and it's friggin' amazing. In terms of gameplay, quite possibly the most solid Fire Emblem game ever made, though Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem 7 are close. But yeah, that's me, and that's this game. Check us each out.

- Richard "Gbness" Beast

II. Legal Disclaimer

You are NOT permitted to put this FAQ on your site without my permission first. All you have to do is email me or IM me saying you want this FAQ on your site, then you can tell me your site and the chance is high that I'll let you. But if you put this FAQ on your site without my permission I swear you will regret it. If I let you, not ONE word should be changed from this FAQ! NOT ONE! Got it? Good. Also, make sure that no money is involved. If you want this FAQ to be sold on eBay, then just forget about it, man. And don't sell this guide either, or pay people to use it, or you'll be in such big trouble you don't want to think.

Another little note is that I will not have this guide hosted on many other web sites besides GameNotOver, GameFAQs, IGN, gaminghelpers.weebly.com, and Neoseeker. You need full-on permission if it's not one of the five above sites. I am sick of people ripping me off (I have been ripped off three times in the past), so if I don't like your site, I won't let my guide be posted on it. I am sorry, but this is how it has to be. If you ask politely and I like your site, you will definitely have the luck of getting it up there. Thank you very much.

III. Contact Rules

First of all, feel free to check out the stuff I've written on GameFAQs. Those include a guide for Baten Kaitos, a few other sorted RPGs, and tons of random PSX games. Honor to the PSX, yanno? Hopefully, that'll be added with awesome Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and Disgaea 2 guides. As you might be able to guess, I'm a large RPG fan and writer.

Alright, enough shameless advertisement about me. You can e-mail me if there is a question you wish to ask that hasn't been answered in the guide, but I REALLY don't want to bother answering questions that have already been done, answered, and done again in the guide, if it isn't too much trouble. Feel free to tell me if there's something I've forgotten, however.

My e-mail address is richard_power1000 [at] yahoo [dot] com. Except, replace the [at] and spaces with a "@" symbol and the [dot] and spaces with a period; I have to write like that so I don't get a dozen spam bots e-mailing me and getting me viruses. Just be polite in the e-mail, don't talk like "omg wtf rich ur gides r t3h su><0rz & how du i beat pugo", and don't ask something that's already been answered in the guide, and I'll respond.

And don't bother sending things like:

"You friggin' idiot. Your guides suck, you suck, and everything about you sucks. DIE DIE DIE!"

"BURN IN THE FLAMES OF HELL, YOU STUPID RETARD!!!"

"What the hell did you think you were doing writing all that garbage, you piece of crap?"

"I hope you fall down the stairs and break every bone in your body!"

"u su><0rz, eVrYtInG BoUt u sUx, dIe ass!!!!!!1"

I will laugh at such e-mails and delete them. So... if you're not just playing a friendly joke on me or something, don't bother with that crap cos I've been through with it too much.

Okay, that's enough for that. My AIM name is rbeast288; sorry, I don't have MSN or YIM. The list is closed, but I'll add you if you ask politely via e-mail. I like chatting with people, but try not to overdo it on AIM if I add you to my list. Since I am busy a majority of the time and all.
(All this information is for the creator of this guide, not me if you wish to learn my contact information go to: Contact Information)

IV. Basics

Odds are if you've played any other Fire Emblem game before, that Radiant Dawn should be at least close to second nature. Odds are if not... it still shouldn't be too bad. But just in case, or for any other case of reference, here I am. Because I'm da man.

BATTLES
=--------=
Fire Emblem is a strategy RPG... but odds are you already knew that. That means you're basically going from one battle to another, while developing your army, 10-14 characters per battle, in strategic, turn-based combat. It's turn based in the sense that all your characters do their thing, and then the enemy does their stuff. Simple enough?

Each character will carry a weapon or two with them, and then when they attack, the formula goes like this: (Your strength + weapon attack power - enemy's defense = damage). Pretty simple formula, right? Then, if your character's speed is high enough, they'll attack the opponent twice. Of course, when you attack an enemy or an enemy attacks you, the character who's getting attacked will counterattack, as long as the attacker is in his/her range. This makes things just a bit more interesting. However, if a character is reduced to 0 HP, they will NEVER come back. EVER. That's what makes this game so different from other strategy RPGs: how extremely realistic that gets.
In battle you'll also weigh in the hit percentage, of which some weapons have a lot more of than others, and the chance of a critical hit. When you critical hit an enemy, the attack does three times more damage than normal. That can easily turn the tide of a battle, even though the chance of it happening is usually around 1-3%, unless you're using special weapons. After every battle after Chapter 1-2, you'll go to the "base screen" where you can buy weapons and items. That's about all for it, so... hey, enjoy it.

STATS
=----=
HP is the driving force behind everything, and is utterly defining. Even if in the long run, defense and resistance will probably do more for you. But basically, you get hit and damage is done to you, right? So the number is subtracted from your maximum HP, and when your HP reaches 0, you're dead. No really, you're DEAD, and you're not coming back. Fire Emblem will let you resurrect characters who hit 0 HP the moment that starts happening in real life, so... yeah, you figure it out. Regardless, you want to keep an eye on this stat, and to do that, don't let weak characters go out in the very frontlines. Use Herbs, Vulneraries, Concoctions, Heal/Mend/Physic... watch out for it.

Strength is my next fave stat, just because it's STRENGTH, man. Can't do anything without this. So basically, you get the strength, and that's the main basis for how much damage you do when you attack. To figure out the formula for physical attacks, just take your strength, add the weapon Might, subtract the enemy defense, and there you have it. You're going to want to have this for nearly everyone, and in gigantic quantities. One other thing that it affects is attack speed. If the weapon you're using has a higher weight than your strength, then the difference is subtracted from your attack speed. So yeah, until your strength is high, lay off on greatlances and poleaxes. But yes, strength speaks.

Magic is the least important one in the game by far, for almost everyone except the mages (Micaiah, Laura, Tormod, Calill, Soren, Rhys, Bastian). If someone's name isn't there, they don't need magic. But basically, magic damage is calculated by the character's magic stat, plus the tome might, minus the enemy's resistance, so it's basically the equivalent of strength, but since the magic people don't need strength, the physical people don't need magic at all, especially in this game where there isn't a Flame/Sonic/Bolt Lance/Sword/Axe like in Path of Radiance. So even with characters like Ike who have 2 magic, it's not going to affect them at all.

Skill isn't in my opinion nearly as necessary as strength and speed, but it can be an extremely deciding factor in one character versus another. Basically, the higher your skill is, the more chance your attacks have of hitting. If you're going to load one type of character full of Skill more than another, definitely give it to axe users like Nolan or Kieran... they need every last bit of this that they can get. Also, Skill plays a role in deciding how often your, well, SKILLS activate. Also, skill very slightly affects your chance of landing a critical, so trueblades benefit too.

Speed is life and death in Fire Emblem. Well, sort of. Basically, you can either double attack, trade hits, or be double attacked in battles here, and speed is the deciding factor in that. Basically attack speed is your speed, minus penalties if your weapon's weight is higher than your strength, and if it's 4 or more above the enemy you're attacking, you'll double attack. Speed weighs into your avoid (double speed then add luck and throw biorhythm in there), so in short, speed is one of the most important things out there, and you want everyone to keep it high. It can make or break a character.

Luck isn't as important as most of the other stats, but it exists enough to warrant a section here. It weighs into hit, avoid, and critical hit rate, and... that's about it. Basically for hit, it's your skill doubled, your weapon's hit rate, and your luck on top of that. Critical hit rate is essentially the same thing except it's the enemy's luck subtracted from it, and avoid works pretty much the same as hit. So, it affects a lot more stuff than any other stat, but with a far smaller impact. So don't focus on it, focus on strength and speed.

Defense is one of the most basic stats and doesn't require any long winded explanation. Basically, the higher your defense, the less damage you will take from physical attacks only. The exact formula is Damage = Attacker's strength + weapon strength - defense. If you have lots of defense (like most generals) and there's no sages around, you can go right in the open and wreak all the havoc you want with no worries.

Resistance is just as basic as defense in that the higher it is, the less damage you will take from magic attacks only. The exact formula is Damage = Attacker's magic + tome strength - resistance. I find defense much more important, but resistance can break some characters (the Dawn Brigade...), and it will keep some of your characters safe from sages with spells that have a range of ten, trust me.

Also, let me vary briefly explain Biorhythm, as that confuses a lot of people. It's based on five horizontal lines, lined up vertically, as well as a wave. When the wave is between the middle three lines, you have "regular" biorhythm, which has no effect on you at all. When the wave reaches the top, you will receive a bonus to your hit and avoid. When the wave is at the bottom, you receive a penalty to your hit and avoid. That's ALL it is. For skill activation it can also increase your chances there, but otherwise, just don't worry about it.

WEAPONS
=----------=
Swords are the most cliched weapon in the RPG universe, and for good reason. They're most commonly used by Ike, myrmidons/swordmasters, generals, falcon knights, cavaliers, and our lone valkyrie, Mist (haha). That's it, but in any case, swords aren't the most powerful weapons around, but if you're using them against axes, you're going to own those guys. Plus Ike, the real best character in the whole game, is a sword user, so you can't deny them of glory. Not to mention there's the almighty Vague Katti and Alondite.

Lances are somewhat between the two extremes of swords and axes: they aren't as strong as axes, but they've got an edge over swords there, plus they hit better than axes, just not better than swords. And pretty much everyone uses them: soldiers/halberdiers, most cavaliers, knights/generals, pegasus/falcon knights, dragon riders/lords... the list goes on. Basically they own swords, they just get themselves beat by axes bad. In this game you've got Nephenee, Gatrie, and Tanith to choose for the ultimate lance, the Wishblade, so there you go.

Axes are raw power in the making. They may not hit too hot, but hey, they will own you. Especially if you're using a lance. They're most commonly used by the fighter/warrior/bandit, several generals, some cavaliers, and the dragon lords. That's really it, but trust me, you'll get a lot of bloodshed out of 'em. Like I said, they may not be the best choices if you desperately need to hit a target, but there's quite a few good users with them, and in my opinion, they may be the most sound weapon to use most of the time.

Bows are neutral among the weapon triangle. The power in them is quite a bit lacking compared to the other three, but you can use them from a range, which is pretty crucial. They're most commonly used by archers/snipers, most cavaliers, and also reavers. Not much, I know, but let's just have a look. Boyd and Nolan can make them click, Geoffrey and Oscar can put them to good use, Rolf is alright, and Shinon is one of the best characters in the game. Plus we have crossbows, which ignore strength and just have a base might. Either way, if you're fighting something with wings... you just win.

V. Characters

This is a comprehensive list complete with recommendations and all that for each and every single solitary character in the game. Is that awesome or what. Note, when it says "Dawn Brigade", for instance, those characters aren't necessarily confined to the Dawn Brigade, it's just characters that join you during that time period. Not counting, of course, laguz generals and other complete beasts who obviously aren't permanent until much later.
By the way, just a few things to note. I give characters ratings. Do not take them too seriously. The overwhelming majority of them are negative, but they're a total composite based on a lot of things. First of all, characters tend to change drastically over the four parts of this game. There's a beginning and an end component for most characters to take into account. There's potential, but something else I consider is what you need to do to unmask that potential. For instance, I rank Geoffrey higher than Kieran. Kieran's final stats tend to be better than Geoffrey's. However, Geoffrey is a lot easier to nurture stat-wise than Kieran, plus starts at a higher level, plus he will naturally acquire more EXP than Kieran will, so that's my reason for giving him a higher ranking. But again, don't take it too seriously.

~- Va. Dawn Brigade (Part 1) ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
NOTE: Nailah is in the Part 4 section, because face it, she's just not even proportional to anyone else here, not even the already overpowered units. In order: Micaiah, Edward, Leonardo, Nolan, Laura, Sothe, Ilyana, Aran, Meg, Volug, Tauroneo, Jill, Zihark, Fiona, Tormod, Muarim, Vika, Rafiel Name: Micaiah Recruited:

PROLOGUE
Class: Light Mage -> Light Sage -> Light Priestess
Attribute: Dark Base Stats:
Base Stats Growth Rates
HP ........ 15 HP .......... 40%
Str ....... 2 Str ......... 15%
Mag ....... 7 Mag ......... 80%
Skl ....... 8 Skl ......... 40%
Spd ....... 7 Spd ......... 35%
Lck ....... 10 Lck ......... 80%
Def ....... 2 Def ......... 20%
Res ....... 4 Res ......... 90%
Micaiah is the proclaimed Silver Haired Maiden of Daein, and at this point pretty much the only one who the dying nation has any hope in to restore it to its former glory. Of course, fitting hand in hand with that, she's the constant target of the forces of the Begnion Empire because of that. With that, though, she's the leader of the Dawn Brigade.
Okay. I have a LOT to say about Micaiah. First of all, when you get her, she's alright. She's absolutely necessary in battle, since you need every extra little bit of manpower that you can get during the Dawn Brigade chapters. That, and she has the special Sacrifice technique, which is handy as a healing manuever. That being said, she has one weakness after another even in the early stages. Her magic power is decent at first, plus when she gets the Thani spell, she'll absolutely slaughter cavaliers as well as armored knights. No question about it. So yeah, she's flawed, but alright at first. Still, look at those stats there, and the growths.

It seems those stats are alright at first, but the growths are horrible. First of all, Micaiah's HP is absolutely awful. You are absolutely required to give her a Seraph Robe, and even then she's weak. That's not even the biggest issue. That is her speed. Her speed is freaking horrible. With only a 35% growth rate, she'll get doubled by even the slowest of enemies, and make her a total liability on the battlefield. Factor in that her defense is some of the worst in the game, and she'll just be a burden for you to bear. It's really terrible, and I wouldn't even think about using her if she wasn't the main character in this game and an absolute requirement.

Here's another thing. Micaiah promotes twice and is forced in that. At the end of Part 1, as well as partway through Part 4. Part 1 is no problem, but to get her to Level 20 before then will require a hell of a lot of favoritism. You get four or five battles to build her, and that's it. So if you want her to be even remotely salvageable, she needs Paragon as well. It really bothers me, that you have to do such things for a character, just so that they can be half decent because they're forced into battle. So yeah, Micaiah sucks. Just being honest, when you unite the parties, Soren just blows her out of the water. Useful in the beginning, but falls, and very fast at that. To her credit, her luck is the best besides herons in the game, and her resistance is outstanding, but those two stats do not a good character make.
My Rating: 3/5

Name: Edward Recruited:
PROLOGUE Class: Myrmidon -> Swordmaster -> Trueblade
Attribute: Light Base Stats:
Base Stats Growth Rates
HP ........ 19 HP .......... 85%
Str ....... 7 Str ......... 60%
Mag ....... 0 Mag ......... 5%
Skl ....... 11 Skl ......... 65%
Spd ....... 12 Spd ......... 60%
Lck ....... 8 Lck ......... 50%
Def ....... 5 Def ......... 35%
Res ....... 0 Res ......... 20%

Edward is a member of the Dawn Brigade, and one of the most loyal companions of Micaiah. He's a budding swordsman with a good deal of potential, though he's often cocky and overestimates his abilities. He joins you automatically in the prologue.

This character is an extremely mixed bag. I'd go so far as to call him one of the most all over the place character in the entire game. First of all, when he joins you, he's average. You don't have anyone else to use until you get loaded with Jeigan-type characters, so Edward is really the best offensive character besides Nolan that you have for a little while. However, you start to notice after a while. Edward is very, very fragile. His defense sucks, and then you've got his resistance, which is even worse. If that wasn't enough, his strength leaves an incredible amount to be desired. His HP isn't great at first either, though his growth is good so that'll be fixed.

The main problem, is that very soon, he needs to compete with Zihark. Now, I'll come right off and say it. If you load Edward up with bonus experience and get him higher leveled than Zihark, he will be just as good if not better than Zihark. That being said, during that chapter Edward will be in the low teens in levels, tops, and Zihark will be already promoted. That gives him incredible odds with which to compete. There's also Mia to contend with, though Edward can edge her out as well, depending on endgame treatment. So there's not really much more for me to say. Edward takes a lot of experience to fully nurture. Now, granted, he's not nearly as bad in that aspect as Sothe or Micaiah, but it's still bad. His resistance sucks, although his strength, skill, and speed end up top notch. So, I prefer Zihark, plus Mia usually edges him out just based on levels, but hey. Edward has potential, so he gets points for that.
My Rating: 4/5
Name: Leonardo
Recruited: PROLOGUE
Class: Archer -> Sniper -> Marksman
Attribute: Water Base Stats:
Base Stats Growth Rates
HP ........ 17 HP .......... 60%
Str ....... 8 Str ......... 40%
Mag ....... 0 Mag ......... 15%
Skl ....... 12 Skl ......... 75%
Spd ....... 10 Spd ......... 35%
Lck ....... 6 Lck ......... 65%
Def ....... 5 Def ......... 35%
Res ....... 4 Res ......... 55%

Leonardo is another member of the Dawn Brigade, as well as a loyal friend of Micaiah and Edward. As an archer, he will join you partway through the prologue to assist his friends.

Radiant Dawn, as well as most Fire Emblem games for that matter, does not give you a hell of a lot to choose from in terms of archers. You've got the two Path of Radiance archers, Shinon and Rolf, and then you've got Leonardo. Guess who comes out on top here. That's right, Leonardo is awful. First of all, as usual, there's the beginning to take into account. Even when you've got only crappy characters to compete with, Leonardo is frail, because he can't defend himself, his avoid is notoriously bad, and his defense is bad and will never recover from that. Sure, he comes in handy a bit in the first two chapters, but after that, he becomes a liability.

In the later part of the game, oh god. Where do I even start. First of all, Leonardo's HP is mediocre. His strength, speed, and defense are all lackluster. In fact, the only half decent stats he get are skill (which he doesn't really even need), and his resistance is okay. That's it. Meanwhile, Shinon and Rolf both trample him in almost every stat in the endgame, plus Leonardo is one of the very hardest units in the whole game to level up. That's what comes from only having long ranged attacks. Factor all that in, and he's worthless after the chapters in which you absolutely need him.
My Rating: 2/5

Name: Nolan
Recruited: CHAPTER 1
Class: Fighter -> Warrior -> Reaver
Attribute: Earth Base Stats:
Base Stats Growth Rates
HP ........ 29 HP .......... 60%
Str ....... 12 Str ......... 45%
Mag ....... 0 Mag ......... 20%
Skl ....... 11 Skl ......... 70%
Spd ....... 10 Spd ......... 60%
Lck ....... 7 Lck ......... 30%
Def ....... 9 Def ......... 35%
Res ....... 3 Res ......... 40%

Nolan is the oldest and wisest member of the Dawn Brigade, as well as the strongest, being he wields axes and looks like a barbarian, which is tight. He joins you at the beginning of the first actual chapter.

For the first time, I'm actually going to limit this to mostly positive things, which is very rare for a Dawn Brigade member, but hear me out. He comes at a much higher level than Edward or Leonardo, but at a level that you can actually build up without stealing the EXP away from your other characters. Which is definitely good. Plus, it's not very long before the other characters catch up with him, and at that point you realize something. Nolan is actually halfway decent. His strength is good, his speed isn't bad at all, and his HP keeps him alive. His defense is rather mediocre, but so is everyone's in the Dawn Brigade, so given the standards, that's not really something to complain about.

There's only two fighters in this game, however. There's Boyd, and then there's Nolan. Now, Nolan ends up extremely similar to Boyd, but here's yet another problem. The Dawn Brigade will have to endlessly compare themselves with the Greil Mercenaries, and the latter are simply higher leveled, and make more with their levels. Plus, in the endgame, there's only room for one Warrior/Reaver. Otherwise, Nolan is one of the few early units that I would consider for it. So, all I can say is to use him only if you aren't going to use Boyd, but for my money, he helps you out. A lot.
My Rating: 4/5

Name: Laura
Recruited: CHAPTER 2
Class: Priest -> Bishop -> Saint
Attribute: Wind
Base stats Growth Rates
HP ........ 16 HP .......... 45%
Str ....... 3 Str ......... 20%
Mag ....... 8 Mag ......... 70%
Skl ....... 3 Skl ......... 70%
Spd ....... 5 Spd ......... 70%
Lck ....... 8 Lck ......... 50%
Def ....... 2 Def ......... 20%
Res ....... 10 Res ......... 35%

Laura is a priest who Micaiah and company meet along the way in their journey, and she has a favor to ask of them, which ends in her landing herself in prison with Micaiah. From there, she becomes a member of the Dawn Brigade.

Okay, this is going to be yet another instance of a Dawn Brigade member failing compared to their Greil Mercenary counterpart due to a lack of leveling opportunities. First of all, Laura is a priest. Priests are almost completely essential in the first part of the game, since she can heal while Micaiah needs to be finishing enemies off rather than healing them. That being said, the problem with priests is that they are ridiculously hard to level. They gain 11 EXP from using Heal, and while they get more from the higher level staves, it's very, very hard to pull off.

So, meanwhile, you've got Rhys with the Greil Mercenaries, who is simply at a much higher level, and is always making a name for himself since he has Ellight and is relatively proficient in light magic. Now, Laura is perfectly fine if she gets to the level he's at, but even then, she's going to have extremely poor HP and defense, which Rhys, while not great in those aspects either, will still be beating her. Granted, Laura has fantastic magic, plus her speed has great potential for growth, but otherwise, stick with Rhys. Only disadvantage he has to her is speed. See, Laura has amazing growths, but you need to abuse bonus EXP for her to utilize them.
My Rating: 2/5
Name: Sothe
Recruited: CHAPTER 2
Class: Rogue -> Whisper
Attribute: Wind
Base Stats Growth Rates
HP ........ 35 HP .......... 30%
Str ....... 18 Str ......... 60%
Mag ....... 4 Mag ......... 20%
Skl ....... 20 Skl ......... 80%
Spd ....... 20 Spd ......... 45%
Lck ....... 15 Lck ......... 65%
Def ....... 14 Def ......... 20%
Res ....... 9 Res ......... 30%

Sothe was one of Ike's companions in the Mad King's War, who came into contact with him because he was looking for a friend, who just so happens to be Micaiah. Sothe is extremely loyal and close to Micaiah, those through it all he is completely obsessed with Ike.

Alright, there will be a few occasions in this section of this guide where I talk about the Sothe Problem. Meaning, Sothe starts out awesome. He slaughters everything that looks him in the eye in one hit, and he just flat out rocks. That being said, one battle later he turns into just great. Then a few battles later he's good; that's the endgame of Part 1. Then Part 3 rolls around and he's very mediocre, paling in comparison to characters like Nolan, Aran, and maybe even Edward. By the end of that part of the game, he blows. Which isn't good, because he is a forced promotion at the end of the prologue of Part 4. So basically, you're forced to use him.

Sothe also isn't a character you want to be abusing in the beginning, because he barely gains EXP from enemy kills. Because of that, he's basically another Jeigan character who steals EXP from the rest of your party. So you need to monitor him, and at that point he's barely someone you want to be abusing. He starts gaining more EXP later, but that's when he's a mediocre character, so it just doesn't work out. Meaning if you want him to be level 20 when you promote him, you need to load him with tons of bonus EXP. And trust me, he's all well and good when he's with the Dawn Brigade, but wait until part 4 when all the teams come together.

At that point, Sothe will be alright as a thief. His speed and skill are obviously way up there, plus his luck isn't bad either. However, in the endgame, you're FORCED to use him. Sothe is not a character I want to use there. For one thing, Volke beats the piss out of Sothe. That, and if you level Heather all the way up, she's comparable if not better than Sothe. But Sothe is required, meaning Volke gets snubbed. That pisses me off. So, in the end, Sothe can be a very decent character. However, you'll need to load him up with bonus EXP and just flak up his strength stat that way, and when it comes down to that, it irks me. But ah well, he's required in the endgame, so yeah.
My Rating: 3.5/5
Name: Ilyana
Recruited: CHAPTER 3
Class: Thunder Mage -> Thunder Sage -> Arch Sage
Attribute: Light
   Base Stat Growth Rate
HP ........ 22 HP .......... 55%
Str ....... 6 Str ......... 45%
Mag ....... 12 Mag ....... 50%
Skl ....... 12 Skl ......... 60%
Spd ....... 13 Spd ......... 30%
Lck ....... 6 Lck ......... 40%
Def ........3 Def ......... 30%
Res ....... 9   Res ......... 50%

Ilyana was another one of Ike's companions in the war, and she runs into Micaiah's group when they get thrown into the prison at the end of chapter 2. She has an extremely frail composition, and has a strange obsession with food.

Okay, here's another bashfest for you people, I knew you guys saw it coming. Ilyana's magic power is okay when you get her. When you get her and how it stacks up in the long run are two different things, though. She's level 14, and it's not really that great at that point, though anything seems good when you're in the Dawn Brigade. And see, that's the thing, you ARE in the Dawn Brigade. Even then, though, she's a thunder sage, so thunder spells are what she's limited to. That pretty much guarantees low accuracy, mediocre power, and getting a double is rare as well.

I'll point something else out. Ilyana leaves the Dawn Brigade and goes over to the Greil Mercenaries around the beginning of Part 3. What this basically means is that training her is completely pointless for the Dawn Brigade as their three Part 3 battles are all you need to worry about anyway, and at least you completely gave up the rest of the Dawn Brigade in favor of her, she has NO place in the mercenaries. Her stats then as well as in the endgame will be completely destroyed by Soren, and essentially everyone else. Factor in the fact she has possibly the lowest average defense in the whole game, and we have a character who I ain't gonna be bringing to battle.
My Rating: 1.5/5

Name: Aran
Recruited: CHAPTER 3
Class: Soldier -> Halberdier -> Sentinel
Attribute: Thunder
Base Stats Growth Rate
HP ........ 24 HP .......... 50%
Str ....... 10 Str ......... 75%
Mag ....... 0 Mag ......... 10%
Skl ....... 12 Skl ......... 75%
Spd ....... 10 Spd ......... 35%
Lck ....... 6 Lck ......... 35%
Def ....... 11 Def ......... 70%
Res ....... 2 Res ......... 25%

Aran is a friend of Laura's, but unfortunately he gets favors from people in Begnion so he has loyalties there. To recruit him, however, all you need to do is have Laura talk to him in chapter 3.

What is this?! A Dawn Brigade unit who's actually (somewhat) decent?! It's tough to wrap your head around that, but it's true, Aran is a character with weaknesses, but that aren't quite as crippling as others, which in turn makes him quite usable. He joins at the perfect time. He's the right level -- around the average of what your other characters will be at that point. Sure, Nolan may be higher, but who cares about that. Aran has good defense and speed at that point. Sure, he won't be doubling, but he won't get doubled himself very much, so it evens out.

You need to consider things outside of the Dawn Brigade chapters with Aran, though. First of all, in the part 3 chapters, he's an absolute necessity. Along with Nolan, he's really the only guy there who can take more than one or two hits, so what can I say. The thing is, like the rest of the Dawn Brigade, his availability makes his difficult to raise, and in the end, Nephenee is faster and will be hitting enemies with a lot better accuracy than Aran. So basically, you probably won't use him outside of parts 1-3, but oh well. I'll take him over Leonardo, Meg, or Fiona any day of the week, plus he doesn't completely rape your EXP supply, although to supplement his speed, some of it is necessary. Ah well.
My Rating: 4/5

Name: Meg
Recruited: CHAPTER 4
Class: Armor Sword -> Sword General -> Marshall
Attribute: Heaven
------------ --------------
HP ........ 21 HP .......... 60%
Str ....... 10 Str ......... 35%
Mag ....... 1 Mag ......... 15%
Skl ....... 7 Skl ......... 40%
Spd ....... 8 Spd ......... 65%
Lck ....... 8 Lck ......... 75%
Def ....... 10   Def ......... 35%
Res ....... 5 Res ......... 50%

Meg is the daughter of a character you may remember from Path of Radiance known as Brom. She joins your party to look for the man that her parents want her to marry, who is... Zihark. Yeah. She just wears armor for protection. How is that not weird?

  Alright, I think that little fact I gave about why Meg is fighting at all kind of speaks for itself. She's a character who has potential, but to hell if I'm ever going to get into that potential. She joins at level 3, and as you can see, her stats are crap. Not only that, but she joins at a time of unease, when you're fighting laguz. She can't handle that, and it's just an uphill battle from there. Needless to say, she's a burden even among the incredibly burdensome Dawn Brigade.

Now, actually, thre is hope for her. If you look at her growth rates, they're not too bad, plus she's at a low level, so statistically she can probably keep up, but even when she does, she will pale in comparison to Gatrie and other Marshalls. If that wasn't enough, she'll have to be the sole proprietor of your entire stock of bonus EXP. That, and she STILL won't be able to handle herself in battle since when you get back you just have more laguz and other extremely strong units to fight, which you need characters who have half decent strength to be able to fight. Bad character. Very bad character.
My Rating: 1/5
Name: Volug
Recruited: CHAPTER 5
Class: Wolf
Attribute: Earth
Base Stats Growth Rate
HP ........ 49 HP .......... 95%
Str ....... 11 Str ......... 25%
Mag ....... 2 Mag ......... 15%
Skl ....... 12 Skl ......... 35%
Spd ....... 13 Spd ......... 40%
Lck ....... 13 Lck ......... 90%
Def ....... 9 Def ......... 15%
Res ....... 5 Res ......... 10%

Volug is a servant of Queen Nailah, and joins Micaiah under Nailah's orders because of their similar goals. He's a unique laguz in that he can Halfshift, which means he can be pretty much half dog, half man. Neat.

I just wish Volug were neater in battle, though. First of all, when he joins he'll be another tank within your party, and you can equate him to how Lethe was in Path of Radiance. You were thinking she was going to be the next Titania. That's similar here, but Volug's advantage over your characters slips just like Sothe's does, but even more dramatically. This is because he suffers in three key stats: strength, defense, and resistance. I can do one of those, but all three of them? Aw hell naw.

Eventually, characters like Muarim join your party, and Volug will become fragile even in the early stages of the game. Consider what that equates to later into the game. When you come back to the Dawn Brigade, Volug will die in about two hits due to his incredibly crappy defense, plus he has almost no potential to improve due to his horrible growth rates. Face it, Volug just ain't a good character. Though I'll give him half a pity point due to how useful he is in the DB chapters. Apart from that, he's not one of the best laguz.
My Rating: 1.5/5

Name: Tauroneo
Recruited: CHAPTER 6
Class: Lance General -> Marshall
Attribute: Thunder
Base Stats Growth Rates
HP ........ 38 HP .......... 55%
Str ....... 24 Str ......... 40%
Mag ....... 12 Mag ......... 5%
Skl ....... 22 Skl ......... 65%
Spd ....... 20 Spd ......... 50%
Lck ....... 18 Lck ......... 20%
Def ....... 21 Def ......... 45%
Res ....... 15 Res ......... 50%

Tauroneo was one of the generals of Daein back in the day, as one of the legendary Four Riders, and to this day his loyalty to Daein remains. He joins the Dawn Brigade for the sake of rebuilding the country.

Here we have a pretty damn good character, but one of many in this game that will suffer from poor availability. First of all, Tauroneo is a Level 14 Lance General, making him at the point you get him, the most overleveled character yet, and in the chapters he's in, he's a towering giant. Only that's the problem. He's not in hardly any chapters! You get him in three chapters in Micaiah's story, plus he's unavailable in a lot of the big ones. Making him a little less useful at that point, naturally.

When Tauroneo comes back, now he has to compete with characters like Gatrie and Brom. And actually, he can put up a good fight against them. When all your characters become completely leveled, Tauroneo as a Marshall is very comparable although he's a little more well rounded. By that, I mean he tends to have higher speed and resistance and whatnot than the other two (especially Brom), but the problem is, Gatrie will have such a huge level lead over Tauroneo, that he becomes the obvious choice. Sad, but 'tis the case. He's still not bad, though, and he has his uses.
My Rating: 3/5

Name: Jill
Recruited: CHAPTER 6
Class: Dracoknight -> Dragonmaster -> Dragonlord
Attribute: Thunder
Base Stats Growth Rates
HP ........ 24 HP .......... 50%
Str ....... 11 Str ......... 45%
Mag ....... 1 Mag ......... 15%
Skl ....... 12 Skl ......... 45%
Spd ....... 15 Spd ......... 65%
Lck ....... 14 Lck ......... 60%
Def ....... 13 Def ......... 35%
Res ....... 3 Res ......... 45%

Jill was yet another ally of Ike in the Mad King's War, daughter of General Shiharam, and she used to be a complete hater of laguz, though Ike eventually got her over that. She's found in this game defending her home country, which is, to the end, Daein.

I like Jill where she is when she joins. She's at roughly the same place the rest of the party is, and while her strength is a little lacking, she has speed and defense to back that up, on top of a fairly decent skill stat as well. The strength holds her back a little in the Dawn Brigade chapters, though her growth in it is relatively decent, plus you have to admit, while her durability is far from fantastic, it's far superior to the rest of the party's, so yeah.

The durability problem rears its ugly head a lot worse in part 3, though, when you start fighting laguz, and she starts taking a number of hits at the same time. In fact, you might even have to give her a Seraph Robe because her HP is so weak, though her promoting makes up for it somewhat. In the long run, though, she turns out relatively good. Her strength will end up better, plus she'll have the speed to back it up, but once again, complete favoritism is necessary. If anyone deserves it, it's her, but it's never something I want to do. Now, I'll give it to her, she can turn out great, but she's competing against Haar, who is arguably the best unit in the whole game, and while she's great throughout her chapters, it's hard to finally make it all work.
My Rating: 3.5/5

Name: Zihark
Recruited: CHAPTER 6
Class: Swordmaster -> Trueblade
Attribute: Earth
Base Stat Growth Rates
HP ........ 30 HP .......... 55%
Str ....... 17 Str ......... 35%
Mag ....... 6 Mag ......... 10%
Skl ....... 22 Skl ......... 75%
Spd ....... 23 Spd ......... 70%
Lck ....... 11 Lck ......... 40%
Def ....... 13 Def ......... 25%
Res ....... 11 Res ......... 35%

Zihark is another character who Ike ran into in the Mad King's War and got to join his side, but it really wasn't because of Ike -- it was because Zihark has a strange obsession with laguz. That being said, he's a loyal citizen of Daein and is willing to fight to the death for it.

When he joins, Zihark is very highly leveled compared to the rest of the party. He's already promoted, meaning he's going to better automatically better than anyone except Sothe, and you know what, no one else really catches up. Zihark has one glaring weakness, though, and that is his defense. It's okay when he joins, of course, but when you consider his level it's not great, plus his horrible growth in it doesn't help. That being said, Zihark has an early gift, and that's his ability to double enemies. So needless to say, he's a hell of a lot stronger than the rest of the Dawn Brigade at the time, and he can still take more hits than the majority of the game.

In the endgame, Zihark is actually surprisingly decent. He was one of the characters who I actually genuinely cared about how they turned out in the endgame, and for me, he got a fair share of Paragon, as since he's really the only one besides Nolan and maybe Jill who are going to be consistently earning kills in the laguz chapters (therefore it's not favoritism). A little goes a long way even when he started so much higher, and his levels will just sky rocket. It's a little difficult to have him keep up with Mia later, but you know, it's doable, and a lot moreso than Edward, for instance. And in the end, his stats are actually very comparable with Mia's, and besides her and Edward, there's not really any other swordmasters to compete with. That's right, a Dawn Brigade character who's legitimately good at ALL times!
My Rating: 4.5/5 (in reality more like a 4.25, but it rounds up here)

Name: Fiona
Recruited: CHAPTER 7
Class: Lance Knight -> Lance Paladin -> Silver Knight
Attribute: Earth

Base Stat Growth Rates
HP ........ 25 HP .......... 45%
Str ....... 8 Str ......... 40%
Mag ....... 6 Mag ......... 15%
Skl ....... 8 Skl ......... 40%
Spd ....... 10 Spd ......... 60%
Lck ....... 7 Lck ......... 55%
Def ....... 8 Def ......... 55%
Res ....... 6 Res ......... 50%

Fiona is the daughter of Lanvega, one of the original Four Riders of Daein before the Mad King's War. Her father's courage transcends to her now, though, and it leads her to rebel against Begnion.

Alright, forget what I said about Meg, I think Fiona is probably even worse than she is. Now, first of all, here's the difference. When you get Meg, she can help you out a bit for like one or two chapters. She can survive an attack or two, plus she can weaken an enemy to the point where someone else can take care of them. Such is not the case with Fiona. Her strength and defense are BOTH lower than Meg's, and she joins six levels higher. See, though, Fiona has potential, as we can see in her growth rates.

There's one problem though. There's no time given to build up Fiona. She joins WAY too late, in fact at that point there's only three more battles which she can participate in. At that point she's Level 9 and the rest of your party should hopefully be at least 14-15 or so (at least characters like Micaiah, Edward, and Nolan who are actually helpful, that is). Fiona's stats are far inferior to them at that point, and when you figure in the fact that almost all of the Dawn Brigade will end up better and are a better choice for giving your bonus EXP to, plus the only paladin she's really better than statistically is Astrid (for my money at least), she's pretty much the worst character here.
My Rating: 1/5

Name: Tormod
Recruited: CHAPTER 7
Class: Fire Sage -> Arch Sage
Attribute: Fire
Base Stats Growth Rates
HP ........ 34 HP .......... 50%
Str ....... 13 Str ......... 55%
Mag ....... 17 Mag ......... 40%
Skl ....... 16 Skl ......... 45%
Spd ....... 20 Spd ......... 55%
Lck ....... 14 Lck ......... 25%
Def ....... 12 Def ......... 35%
Res ....... 14 Res ......... 45%

Tormod was an ally of Ike's, who they met in the desert of Begnion, while Tormod was fighting for a group known as the Laguz Emancipation Army. He's basically a kid who goes around the world with his tiger friend, Muarim.

Alright, Tormod is an otherwise good character who comes with one absolutely fatal and devastating flaw, which I will get to shortly. When he joins you, he's a little overleveled, but still decent. His speed is good, his defense is great for a mage, and his magic isn't stellar, but it's good. Here's the thing, though, after Part 1 he goes AWOL with Muarim and Vika until late Part 4, at which point he rejoins at the exact same level he was when you left off with him. How the HELL does that make sense?!

I hate to say it, but great in Part 1 equates to complete crap in Part 4. At that point, he's Level 5. My Soren was also Level 5. Promoted. Every single enemy in the whole chapter will double attack him, killing him every time. He cannot possibly get up to where the rest of the party is, and actually, his final stats are incredibly bad anyway. He will feature in the endgame, courtesy of his rather mediocre base and growth, the lowest magic stat of any mage in the whole game. So when you get him, he'll help you out. That is the last time he will help you at all. He does come with the Celerity skill, though, which I'd definitely take right away and give to Rafiel.
My Rating: 1/5

Name: Muarim
Recruited: CHAPTER 7
Class: Tiger
Attribute: Thunder
Base Stats Growth Rates
HP ........ 58 HP .......... 60%
Str ....... 18 Str ......... 55%
Mag ....... 3 Mag ......... 5%
Skl ....... 14 Skl ......... 45%
Spd ....... 11 Spd ......... 20%
Lck ....... 12 Lck ......... 55%
Def ....... 15 Def ......... 35%
Res ....... 9 Res ......... 30%

If you really want to learn about Muarim, you can really read Tormod's entry, but yeah, just to clarify, Muarim is a tiger laguz with a kind heart and an actual love for beorc, and a brotherly affection for Tormod.

Muarim, Vika, and Tormod all share the same problem. They all just disappear, and they don't come back until they're completely obsolete. To be fair, though, Muarim isn't a total waste. When he joins you, obviously, he's quite a good unit. He's strong, he'll beat the living piss out of anything in Part 1, and he has the durability to back it up. Even when he's not transformed, you could say that, but 58 HP is nice, plus 30 def while transformed isn't shabby, ever. His speed isn't great, but I can overlook that, especially in Part 1.

So how does he turn out when he's in Part 4 and actually comes back? Well, not very good, but he's still better than Tormod. His strength stat is still solid (face it, 36 strength actually is good even though he's going to get his ass doubled), plus he'll take a few hits and can act as a roadblock. When you get past that chapter, though, you're in the endgame. Muarim just isn't going to hold his own at that point.
My Rating: 2/5

Name: Vika
Recruited: CHAPTER 7
Class: Raven
Attribute: Wind
Base Stats         Growth Rates
HP ........ 38 HP .......... 60%
Str ....... 9 Str ......... 25%
Mag ....... 5 Mag ......... 50%
Skl ....... 13 Skl ......... 60%
Spd ....... 15 Spd ......... 60%
Lck ....... 14 Lck ......... 65%
Def ....... 7 Def ......... 15%
Res ....... 7 Res ......... 65%

Vika is a newcomer, and to tell you the truth, I don't know much about her, as there was never really any explanation as to who she is and why she's hanging with Tormod and Muarim, but she's there, so yeah.

In the beginning of the game, Vika is actually worse than Tormod and Muarim, although she can fly, which is always a bonus. The reason she's worse is because her promoted strength stat is 18. That's not great for a laguz. Muarim creams that, and while Tormod's magic is less than that, the majority of enemies have higher defense than resistance. So, she's not great in the beginning, and if I bring any of the trifecta of AWOL into the endgame, it's Muarim and maybe Tormod. Never Vika.

As for how she turns out after that, well, what do you think. She won't get doubled, but she can't damage anything. At all. She'll die in almost no time at all because of her horrible defense, plus there's even snipers there. Spells death right there. As an actual unit, though, she's not terrible. As you can see, her growths are decent, but the only two (besides magic, and who cares about that) that suck are strength and defense. Probably the two most important. Why Intelligent Systems designed her like that, I have no idea. Either way, her growths will never be fulfilled, and they're horribly imbalanced. It's kind of sad, because Vika is the type of unit who I would normally like.
My Rating: 1/5

Name: Rafiel
Recruited: CHAPTER 8
Class: Heron
Attribute: Heaven
Base Stats       Growth Rates
HP ........ 31 HP .......... 60%
Str ....... 1 Str ......... 0%
Mag ....... 6 Mag ......... 40%
Skl ....... 1 Skl ......... 10%
Spd ....... 6 Spd ......... 20%
Lck ....... 31 Lck ......... 60%
Def ....... 3 Def ......... 10%
Res ....... 13 Res ......... 50%

Rafiel is the most noble of the three heron children of Lorazieh of the Serenes tribe, and obviously the brother of Reyson and Leanne. Due to Senator Hetzel, though, he got out of Serenes and fell into the paws of Nailah, which was where he stayed for awhile.

Herons. Where do I even start with them. First of all, there's three of them, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. What they mainly exist to do, though, is use their Vigor galdr to allies and give them an extra turn. Rafiel completely excels at that aspect, because when he doesn't even need to be transformed to use Vigor on his SURROUNDINGS. That's four characters in one turn. That's just freaking amazing, but here's the thing. He joins in the Dawn Brigade section for two chapters. Which is okay by itself. He's another weak character among them, but he's an asset. An issue with him, though, is that he doesn't return until Part 4. Meanwhile, Leanne and Reyson have a good in between for that.

Now, another issue. Rafiel's stats are awful. No way around it. His movement is absolutely horrendous, plus his defense is the worst in the whole game, no question. His resistance is okay, but not particularly good either. Now, granted, he has no idea for strength, magic, or skill, but I like when my herons at least have SOME chance of surviving an unpredictable attack, and that's not the case with Rafiel. However, he's the perfect candidate for Celerity or Boots (once again not favoritism because there's no one else logical to give them to, really), which fixes the movement problem, and let me just impress this on you one more time: any time he wants, he can restore movement to FOUR units. Four units. Enough said. And honestly, despite the danger he faces in the endgame (last two chapters in particular), he's not really that much worse than Reyson, which makes him my pick for the endgame.
My Rating: 4.5/5

~- Vb. Crimea Knights (Part 2)
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~--~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
In order: Elincia, Marcia, Nealuchi, Leanne, Haar, Brom, Nephenee, Heather, Lucia, Lethe, Mordecai, Geoffrey, Kieran, Astrid, Makalov, Danved, Calill

Name: Elincia
Recruited: PROLOGUE
Class: Queen
Attribute: Heaven
Base Stats Growth Rates
HP ........ 31 HP .......... 45%
Str ....... 19 Str ......... 65%
Mag ....... 17 Mag ......... 40%
Skl ....... 21 Skl ......... 50%
Spd ....... 22 Spd ......... 70%
Lck ....... 29 Lck ......... 60%
Def ....... 18 Def ......... 20%
Res ....... 24 Res ......... 35%

Elincia was one of the most important characters in Path of Radiance, so you probably know her already. If not, though, she's the queen of Crimea as it stands now. Unfortunately, Crimea consists of a bunch of asses who want her off the throne, so that puts the whole nation into trouble. One of the game's "main characters" deserves a longer and more in-depth reviewing, so here you have it. Elincia is a very mixed bag. First of all, in Part 2, she gets two battles. Therefore, she runs into a definite availability problem, since after that she's not available until Part 4. Geez, at least have that one Part 3 battle. So, strike one. First battle she's not too hot, but second battle she will help you out tremendously, because she naturally comes with one of the best swords in the game, the Amiti. At that point, she will single handedly slaughter any unit that comes her way. Naturally she's weak against crossbows and other arrows in general, but so are all seraph knights, so that's not fair to hold against Elincia. When she gets into Part 4, she's... okay. She can double stuff, but her strength is too low to really take advantage of that. Strike two. Thankfully, the thing about Elincia is that she has a high strength growth. She's already third tier, which I'm not too crazy, but she can be salvaged. That being said, it's difficult. It's true she's got the infamous 4-5 to level up in, but unless she has Beastfoe, that's going to be difficult. So she'll need specific babying on your part to get up there. Strike three. But wait, I'm not done. Elincia can do more than use the Amiti. She can equip staves and heal you, too. Hell, she's even good enough with them to the point she can equip the Physic in 2-E, which is, for all practical purposes, as good as she ever needs to be. That definitely helps her usefulness out. However, she naturally needs to be compared to Rhys as well as the falcon knights. She will never be as good as Rhys at healing, but that's just a given. It's just an extra, as what she is at heart is a seraph knight. And in my opinion, she's not quite good enough to get to the endgame. She can quadruple hit with a weapon that has infinite durability. That's just a gift, and I'm not going to deny that. I'm not going to bring any seraph knight into the endgame, but if there was to be anyone, it's Elincia. She ends up flawed, but she has a good base behind her, and a hell of a good concept. For that, as well as how amazing she is in 2-E, she gets huge points from me. My Rating: 4/5 Name: Marcia Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Falcon Knight -> Seraph Knight Attribute: Fire Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 34 HP .......... 70% Str ....... 16 Str ......... 30% Mag ....... 6 Mag ......... 20% Skl ....... 17 Skl ......... 40% Spd ....... 20 Spd ......... 65% Lck ....... 12 Lck ......... 50% Def ....... 16 Def ......... 35% Res ....... 15 Res ......... 35% Marcia was originally a knight of Begnion, though she eventually got super acquainted with Elincia, and now she's one of Elincia's most loyal soldiers outside of Geoffrey and company. I'm not a big fan of Marcia, and there's a number of reasons for that. When she joins you in Part 2, she's... okay. Her strength isn't too terrible, she's fast, has solid defense and resistance, and rather average HP. Not a whole lot to complain about, but then you get her growths. Speed will stay good, as will HP, but everything else will start faltering very quickly. Particularly the strength; with only 30% growth, she's going to have a tough time catching up with any of the other fliers, although she can eventually pull it off, I suppose. Here's the problem, though. Marcia's availability sucks too, as does a lot of the characters in Part 2. Thing is, after Part 2, she gets one battle, then she's thrust into Part 4 and needs to compete with Sigrun, Tanith, and all of the Greil Mercenaries, let alone Haar. Tanith starts at Level 16, for instance. The chance that you're going to level Marcia up that high in those few chapters is very slim. As for her potential, her strength will be rather mediocre, but she'll at least beat Sigrun, though Tanith, Elincia, and obviously Haar (not to mention Jill if we're considering dragon masters) will utterly cream her. My Rating: 2.5/5 Name: Nealuchi Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Raven Attribute: Fire Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 53 HP .......... 55% Str ....... 10 Str ......... 35% Mag ....... 4 Mag ......... 10% Skl ....... 9 Skl ......... 40% Spd ....... 18 Spd ......... 10% Lck ....... 24 Lck ......... 80% Def ....... 10 Def ......... 40% Res ....... 10 Res ......... 25% Nealuchi is one of the loyal servants of Naesala, which essentially makes him a knight of Kilvas. His main role, however, is to defend Leanne, which is obviously something Naesala just tacked on him. Here's another character that is going to be plagued by their crappy availability. Nealuchi is available for several battles in Part 2. At that point, he's decent. He's moderately helpful in the endgame of there, plus he will help you out in the prologue and whatnot. That being said, even though he's a laguz and I'm comparing him to a beorc, Haar does everything he does way better, plus Haar doesn't have to worry about transforming back. And that's just the thing. In all his battles, Nealuchi reverts back very quickly, which turns into quite a problem in the end. But yeah, let's talk about his availability. He's available for Part 2, then completely vanishes until Part 4. In those chapters you have friggin' Naesala. Why would you use Nealuchi when Naesala does everything he does way better than he even has the potential to? Seriously. Use him for the chapters he's required in, then ditch him. My Rating: 2/5 Name: Leanne Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Heron Attribute: Water Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 25 HP .......... 60% Str ....... 0 Str ......... 0% Mag ....... 3 Mag ......... 40% Skl ....... 1 Skl ......... 10% Spd ....... 6 Spd ......... 20% Lck ....... 27 Lck ......... 80% Def ....... 2 Def ......... 10% Res ....... 11 Res ......... 40% Leanne is Reyson's sister, and one of the herons who was discovered in the ruins of Serenes Forest. For that, she gets special treatment from the Kilvas clan. She also can't speak English, so yeah. In my opinion, Leanne is the weakest of the three herons. First of all, statistically, she's even weaker than Rafiel. The thing she does have going for her over Rafiel though is her superior movement. Hell, she even has Canto, which is especially nice. Then again, I don't really hold movement against Rafiel since you're not really going to give Celerity to anyone else anyway. When you're in her chapters from Part 2 though, she'll help out a little. As will all herons. Here's the thing with Leanne, though. She can only give movement back to two people at once (two characters on the same axis). That is extremely limiting, since she can't even give movement back to all characters when transformed, or at least let you pick and choose. Factor in the fact she has far lower leveled and will therefore take a lot longer to learn Bliss and the like, and she's by far the worst of the three. To be fair, though, she's still a heron though. My Rating: 3.5/5 Name: Haar Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Dragonmaster -> Dragonlord Attribute: Wind Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 46 HP .......... 30% Str ....... 23 Str ......... 70% Mag ....... 2 Mag ......... 5% Skl ....... 24 Skl ......... 70% Spd ....... 20 Spd ......... 30% Lck ....... 13 Lck ......... 45% Def ....... 23 Def ......... 65% Res ....... 7 Res ......... 20% Haar was a former soldier in Daein, though after Jill joined Crimea, he eventually followed. To this day he hasn't changed; he goes around assisting whomever he sees fit, and spends more time than not, sleeping. One could make a very strong argument that Haar is the best character in the game. I'm not even kidding, he has two stats that are NOT ridiculously overpowered: speed and resistance. His speed is only decently good, and his resistance is bad. This makes him rather weak against thunder sages, but there are ways to get around that. Essentially, Haar is a complete behemoth. His HP is extremely high, as is defense, but then factor in his strength and skill. Ridiculously high. Then you've got the fact he uses axes and can use lances. Essentially, Haar can kill anything. The thing I like about dragonlords over seraph knights is that they have no fear of bows or crossbows, just thunder magic (and seraph knights are weak against wind too, so who cares). That, and if you have room for only one flier, which is quite likely, Haar is your man as his HP and defense trample all seraph knights. But you see, the cheap thing is that Haar's base stats are so high, but he's actually LOW LEVELED. Only Level 11, so he still has 29 levels to gain. Then there's the fact he's available for all but two of the Greil Mercenary chapters, and there's not a bad thing to say about Haar. In fact, I'd recommend just completely abusing him until Endgame-4, unless he hits 20/20/20 before the endgame. Now, his speed may bite his ass in the end since it caps at 32, but that's still better than Marshalls and most mages. Overall, Haar is the best beorc unit in the whole game besides Ike. My Rating: 5.5/5 Name: Brom Recruited: CHAPTER 1 Class: Axe General -> Marshall Attribute: Water Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 36 HP .......... 80% Str ....... 19 Str ......... 40% Mag ....... 4 Mag ......... 5% Skl ....... 17 Skl ......... 40% Spd ....... 16 Spd ......... 30% Lck ....... 13 Lck ......... 70% Def ....... 21 Def ......... 60% Res ....... 9 Res ......... 25% Brom is a farmer who was imprisoned by Daein partway through Path of Radiance, though he and his friend Nephenee eventually got together with Crimea but then retired to go back to their (hyuk hyuk hyuk) country life. Brom is not a bad unit at all. Yeah, I know you probably expected me to start bashing him right off the bat like I did in Path of Radiance, but you know what, he's actually pretty good. As a general, he uses axes, which are always a very solid weapon to use, plus he has high HP and defense, and his strength and skill are high enough. His speed isn't too terrible either, although Gatrie will easily edge him out. If that wasn't enough, Brom even has great availability (most all of Part 2 and Part 3). Here's the issue though. You have to compare Brom to Gatrie, who joins higher leveled and will most likely have higher stats as well. For instance, Brom joins at Level 2, while Gatrie joins at Level 10. Plus to me, Gatrie is one of the very best of the Greil Mercenaries, especially in the early parts. So how it's going to turn out, who knows. Brom fortunately is one of the Crimea Knights who joins the GMs, so honestly in my opinion, if you use Brom instead of Gatrie, that's perfectly fine. Their growths are both very balanced so that they'll end up the same, plus in my opinion using axes versus lances is a moot point as Gatrie as a Marshall will already be quite skilled in axes. The only problem is that Brom starts lower leveled, but hell, two generals at once isn't... too terrible. My Rating: 4/5 (actually more like a 3.75 but it rounds up) Name: Nephenee Recruited: CHAPTER 1 Class: Halberdier -> Sentinel Attribute: Wind Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 32 HP .......... 45% Str ....... 15 Str ......... 35% Mag ....... 6 Mag ......... 15% Skl ....... 19 Skl ......... 70% Spd ....... 20 Spd ......... 65% Lck ....... 12 Lck ......... 40% Def ....... 15 Def ......... 35% Res ....... 14 Res ......... 45% Nephenee is, like Brom, a country girl who got imprisoned by Daein during the Mad King's War and was then thrust into the battle, though at heart, she is exactly that: a country girl. In my opinion, Nephenee is one of the very best characters in the game. At first, there's absolutely nothing really going against her. She has good growths in the right areas. Strength is okay, plus skill and speed are quite strong. Defense ends up great, because Nephenee will be a sentinel and get ridiculously high avoid. At the beginning, by herself, obviously she won't be quite as strong as characters like Haar or Geoffrey, but she'll get there. That, and she and Brom join the Greil Mercenaries, so she has availability up the wazoo. Once Nephenee gets promoted to Sentinel, her HP and defense will both be outstanding, to the point in which she can double hit most enemies in the game with ease, with great accuracy, both hits doing fantastic damage, as well as avoiding most hits, and when she gets hit, taking very little damage. And for that reason, I consider her to be highly superior to Aran and Danved. She's a great unit, balanced in almost every way, and whenever I play through the game, she maxes almost every single stat except HP. Maxed strength, skill, speed, defense, AND resistance. Throw on the Wishblade and the Imbue skill, and Nephenee is completely unstoppable. One of the best characters in the game, easily, and you'd have to be crazy not to use her in the endgame. My Rating: 5/5 Name: Heather Recruited: CHAPTER 1 Class: Rogue -> Whisper Attribute: Fire Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 32 HP .......... 40% Str ....... 15 Str ......... 20% Mag ....... 9 Mag ......... 20% Skl ....... 21 Skl ......... 50% Spd ....... 25 Spd ......... 70% Lck ....... 16 Lck ......... 75% Def ....... 10 Def ......... 30% Res ....... 14 Res ......... 40% Heather is a thief that the country people run into in Ohma village during the riot that occurs there. She's also a lesbian, but that's well known. Anyway, talk to her with Nephenee or Brom for the recruit. Okay, a lot of people disagree with me, but I consider Heather to be one of the worst units in the game. The reason being, there's already one other central thief, and that's Sothe. I'll get into that later. In terms of actual thieving, you're not really going to need to do it a whole lot, aside from a couple exception chapters (3-3 being a good example). Obviously she's got the same great availability that Nephenee and Brom do, so that's one thing she has going for her. Thing is, I've always had a personal grudge against thieves in Fire Emblem games in the chapters they're not necessary for, well, thievery. Obviously, the reason for that is combat skills, and in that department Heather is completely lacking. Low strength which will only further decrease upon subsequent level ups, and it's at the point that by the time you reach the endgame of Part 2, she won't be able to do squat to the vast number of generals in that chapter. Part 3 doesn't leave space for a unit like her, sadly, and then in the endgame, even if you level her up, Sothe is REQUIRED in the endgame, so that's a thief spot. Even if you were leaving two spots for thieves, there's Volke to compete with, and both he and Sothe will edge her out. So that's really my take on it. My Rating: 2/5 Name: Lucia Recruited: CHAPTER 2 Class: Swordmaster -> Trueblade Attribute: Earth Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 38 HP .......... 50% Str ....... 18 Str ......... 25% Mag ....... 10 Mag ......... 20% Skl ....... 27 Skl ......... 70% Spd ....... 27 Spd ......... 60% Lck ....... 19 Lck ......... 30% Def ....... 14 Def ......... 15% Res ....... 15 Res ......... 50% Lucia is like a sister to Elincia, acting as her most trusted guardian with the possible exception of Geoffrey. She also receives a rather massive makeover at the end of Part 2 which I thought I'd point out. Okay, I called it, here's the character outside of Part 4 with the absolute worst availability in the whole game, as well as the one who is most hurt by that issue. Lucia is in one battle in Part 2. That's it. She rejoins in Tibarn/Elincia's Part 4 chapters, at which point she is highly inferior to your other characters. For instance, let's say you're spreading the other swordmasters out. She'll be with someone else in that case, and whomever it is, they'll be vastly superior to Lucia. Mia has excellent potential for growth and should be a Trueblade at that point, and Zihark/Edward should be at least Level 10 into Swordmaster if not higher at that point. Lucia is a Level 14 Swordmaster who will definitely help you through 2-2 (though I'd advise not using her at all), but after that, her strength and ESPECIALLY defense (15% growth, are you serious?) will be far inferior to anyone else. Overall, there's five trueblades, and Lucia is the worst of all them by far. Even if you build her up, her strength can't possibly keep up with the others, let alone help in the endgame. My Rating: 1.5/5 Name: Lethe Recruited: CHAPTER 2 Class: Cat Attribute: Heaven Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 51 HP .......... 85% Str ....... 9 Str ......... 35% Mag ....... 6 Mag ......... 5% Skl ....... 13 Skl ......... 30% Spd ....... 12 Spd ......... 50% Lck ....... 18 Lck ......... 45% Def ....... 9 Def ......... 35% Res ....... 10 Res ......... 20% Lethe is a Gallian warrior who joined the war effort in Crimea during the Mad King's War, and that's where she stuck around. Despite her interaction with them though, Lethe hates pretty much all beorc. One of the worse units in the entire game, the lower tier laguz in this game are in my opinion some of the most obsolete characters you'll ever come across. First of all, put this into perspective. At base, even when transformed, Lethe has 18 attack. Plus she's a Level 21 Cat, making her hard to level up. Seriously? What the hell is that all about? 18 defense, 24 speed, very unspectacular stats for a laguz that's effing transformed. Now, factor in the fact that Lethe doesn't even have high caps for those stats, and why the hell would you ever use her? A cap of 28 defense. Seriously. With those terrible growths, she has no potential, nor is she even good when you get her. Hell, she dies in my 2-E half the time, which is pretty pathetic. That's what you get for transforming in and especially out quickly. My Rating: 1/5 Name: Mordecai Recruited: CHAPTER 2 Class: Tiger Attribute: Water Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 57 HP .......... 90% Str ....... 14 Str ......... 35% Mag ....... 1 Mag ......... 10% Skl ....... 9 Skl ......... 25% Spd ....... 9 Spd ......... 15% Lck ....... 15 Lck ......... 80% Def ....... 16 Def ......... 45% Res ....... 4 Res ......... 15% Mordecai is another Gallian warrior who assisted Crimea alongside Ranulf and company during the Mad King's War, which is why he joins you this time as well. As a laguz though, he's a little kinder than Lethe, though. Fortunately, Mordecai is slightly better than Lethe, though that's not exactly saying much. His strength is at least passable at first (a full 10 points higher than Lethe's), and although his initial speed is terrible, that's not really going to be an issue offensively, plus defensively you have no worries as he has a base 32 defense transformed. Even out of transformation that's more than probably half your party, even if he'll obviously get doubled. Figure in his much higher HP and you can see why he beats the hell out of Lethe as a unit. Now don't get me wrong, he's still completely out of the realm of possibility for the endgame, but you know, he's at least usable, something a lot of characters aren't. The reason for that is his speed. 15% growth and a cap at 15->30 ain't gonna cut it. My Rating: 2/5 (make that a 1.75 and round it up) Name: Geoffrey Recruited: CHAPTER 3 Class: Lance Paladin -> Silver Knight Attribute: Fire Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 37 HP .......... 60% Str ....... 24 Str ......... 50% Mag ....... 8 Mag ......... 10% Skl ....... 23 Skl ......... 60% Spd ....... 20 Spd ......... 35% Lck ....... 19 Lck ......... 30% Def ....... 18 Def ......... 30% Res ....... 15 Res ......... 55% Geoffrey is the extremely stern and serious general of the Crimean army, and also an extremely overprotective but loyal servant of Elincia. He's also Lucia's brother. Here we have a character that splits people, but in my opinion Geoffrey is an extremely good, underrated unit. Here's his only disadvantage: availability. He has a couple assets that make up for that, however. He has the Paragon ability, and I don't really see any point in removing it and giving it to anyone else (if you want to give one to Ike's party, just use Astrid's or something), which will definitely help him out. Apart from that, he gets one battle in Part 3, and two in Part 2, which will level him up slightly. Being that you really shouldn't use anyone except Geoffrey and Kieran in 2-3, it's pretty reasonable to promote Geoffrey in 3-9. Geoffrey doesn't come back until 4-5 after that, at which point he'll still be underleveled due to his recent lack of availability, but in that battle he should be one of your strongest characters anyway (he gets a Silver Greatlance and a Brave Lance, enough said), so after that he should really be at least close to Titania and Oscar. At that point it can go either way with who you want to use. Geoffrey has initially rather weak HP, but extremely good growth in it. He will have absolutely no trouble in maxing strength and skill, which makes him a very solid unit. Plus, he's a Silver Knight in the end. I like to have one unit equipped with a blessed Brave Lance and Dragonfoe then, and Geoffrey is the perfect candidate for that. Overall, he's a mixed bag and he may not work out for you, but he always clicks for me, so... yeah. My Rating: 4.5/5 Name: Kieran Recruited: CHAPTER 3 Class: Axe Paladin -> Gold Knight Attribute: Wind Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 41 HP .......... 75% Str ....... 21 Str ......... 60% Mag ....... 6 Mag ......... 15% Skl ....... 20 Skl ......... 40% Spd ....... 20 Spd ......... 30% Lck ....... 16 Lck ......... 30% Def ....... 18 Def ......... 60% Res ....... 11 Res ......... 25% Kieran is a long time loyal knight of Crimea, and in this game he's finally gone back to just that -- what his original duty was. He also has a begrudged rivalry against Oscar, even three years later. Base stats here are a little lower than Geoffrey's, though that's kind of to be expected as Kieran is four levels lower. Anyway, of the four royal knight paladins, Geoffrey is my favorite by far, but Kieran is also an extremely solid character. His HP is extremely high, and his growth in it is utterly absurd. Same goes with strength. The Gold Knight maxes strength at 36, and if you choose to raise Kieran all the way, his strength will only be rivaled by Titania among paladins. Again, availability is an issue though. All the royal knights have only two chapters in Part 2, some in Part 3, and Geoffrey is the only one who misses a Part 4 one. That gives Kieran some opportunity to catch up, but availability to me is more of an issue with Kieran than it is Geoffrey, since the latter has Paragon. It's really that reason that I prefer the latter; he starts at a higher level and is even given the foundation to raise it. Kieran's endgame stats are quite good though and stack up right with the best of the best, however, so if you get the chance to raise him, you won't be disappointed. My Rating: 4/5 Name: Astrid Recruited: CHAPTER 3 Class: Bow Paladin -> Silver Knight Attribute: Wind Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 33 HP .......... 55% Str ....... 13 Str ......... 40% Mag ....... 8 Mag ......... 20% Skl ....... 16 Skl ......... 45% Spd ....... 15 Spd ......... 40% Lck ....... 17 Lck ......... 70% Def ....... 10 Def ......... 30% Res ....... 14 Res ......... 25% Astrid was an enemy soldier for a small part of Path of Radiance, but then after having a word with Gatrie, she turned coat over to Crimea, and with Crimea was where she stayed from then on out. Probably because she obviously likes Makalov. Right up there with Fiona, Meg, and Lyre, Astrid is an absolutely terrible character. And that's quite sad, since she was so good in Path of Radiance, but now, everything has gone to hell. First of all, bows have low might, and Astrid only accentuates that with her piss poor strength. Her skill and luck are honestly her only even half decent stats. Her speed is terrible, her defense is a complete joke, and she's given resistance which starts alright, but with a 25% growth... yeah. If that weren't enough, Astrid has terrible HP. Sure, her growth in there is alright, but it caps at 50, so even if you actually raised her, you wouldn't get much in return. And that's just the thing. Astrid has typical Royal Knight availability, but Paragon. It worked with Geoffrey, but that's because Geoffrey started at level fifteen, and Astrid is level TWO. Even in the very early stages, Astrid barely registers damage, so factor in that she has almost no potential whatsoever, and she's possibly the worst character in the whole game. Fiona is even harder to build up, but even she can get better. My Rating: 1/5 Name: Makalov Recruited: CHAPTER 3 Class: Sword Paladin -> Gold Knight Attribute: Thunder Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 37 HP .......... 55% Str ....... 18 Str ......... 40% Mag ....... 5 Mag ......... 15% Skl ....... 17 Skl ......... 40% Spd ....... 18 Spd ......... 75% Lck ....... 20 Lck ......... 45% Def ....... 17 Def ......... 50% Res ....... 9 Res ......... 25% Makalov is the brother of Marcia, and also one of the most finanically stupid and reckless human beings ever to live. Did I mention that he still has the ugliest portrait known to man? He makes Lowen from Fire Emblem 7 look good. Here we have a character who's... marginally alright. That's the only praise I have for him. Let's go stat by stat. His HP is good, strength is rather poor, skill is alright, speed starts rather edgy but gets better, luck is very good, defense is decent, and resistance is bad. Then you have to go by chapter, though. In the first one, his speed won't allow him to double anything, plus he's a sword user, so even though Kieran barely edges him in strength, you'll find the latter doing far more damage. Especially considering how many lance users there are in that, and most battles in this game. That fits hand in hand with his speed growth, I suppose. Then again, his HP and defense still aren't good enough to give him the endurance that characters like Geoffrey and Kieran have, though. By the time you reach the endgame, unless you gave him a ton of bonus EXP, he's already lagging. And face it, Geoffrey is Level 15 and has trouble. Kieran is Level 11 and can only make it in the end with favoritism. Where does that leave a unit who's Level 7, considering he's weaker when he starts out? Sure, he won't be rotten in the end or anything, but it's impossible to have him compete with others. My Rating: 3/5 (more like a 2.75 but it rounds up) Name: Danved Recruited: CHAPTER 3 Class: Halberdier -> Sentinel Attribute: Fire Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 39 HP .......... 75% Str ....... 17 Str ......... 40% Mag ....... 8 Mag ......... 20% Skl ....... 23 Skl ......... 30% Spd ....... 21 Spd ......... 45% Lck ....... 18 Lck ......... 60% Def ....... 15 Def ......... 45% Res ....... 12 Res ......... 25% Danved is a man who undergoes constant rumors he's a man named Devdan. Uh, yeah, probably, but think about it. Danved/Devdan are black. Figures that Intelligent Systems would do it to the black guy. Okay not really, but yeah. Here's another mixed bag of a character. Danved is definitely better than Makalov and Astrid, and in fact I'd edge him over Marcia slightly too. Here's the reason. Look at his HP. Better than paladins, not bad, and compared to Makalov he's one point of strength lower, but he comes with three more speed points. His defense is rather lacking, but in my opinion, he's got a decent base. I'll just reiterate, though. Availability. He's a Level 9 Halberdier at first, and by the time he joins Ike's team, Nephenee will be what, a Sentinel already, if not Level 18-19? Danved can't compete. To be fair, using lances is better than swords, so I'll give him initial credit for that. In the end, though, his defense is another thing that's going to keep him held back. Danved simply won't have the avoid that Nephenee does, and with slightly lower defense as well, even if you build him up over her, he's not going to be as good as either she, or Aran as a matter of fact. Now, I like sentinels so he gets points for that, but in my opinion he's the worst of the lot. My Rating: 3.5/5 Name: Calill Recruited: CHAPTER 3 Class: Fire Sage -> Arch Sage Attribute: Dark Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 32 HP .......... 35% Str ....... 9 Str ......... 25% Mag ....... 19 Mag ......... 45% Skl ....... 18 Skl ......... 60% Spd ....... 18 Spd ......... 55% Lck ....... 16 Lck ......... 55% Def ....... 11 Def ......... 15% Res ....... 17 Res ......... 50% Calill, ever since Path of Radiance, has been the owner of a small shop as well as the wife of a large barbarian by the name of Largo. That, and she has a ridiculously large ego. In battle, Calill is rather mediocre. At least, by my standards, since I'm a Soren fanboy. But yeah, she's the only mage in Part 2, so there you go. She joins in the endgame, and at that point there is absolutely no way she can join the actual fray. She might be able to go to the back and use a fire spell or something from the distance to weaken/finish him off some enemy, but apart from that, her saving grace is the Meteor spell. Very useful, and that's what she was meant to do. That'll help you out. After the Meteor is gone, though, Calill's usefulness runs really thin. Her next battle is 3-9, where she'll be incredibly weak. Although her speed isn't bad plus her growth in it is decent, unless you really loaded her with bonus EXP, she'll die instantly. It's that terrible defense that does it. And honestly, I can't justify taking her any further than that. Sure, Calill is definitely better than Tormod or Ilyana just based on stats alone, but she has absolutely no way of competing with Soren after 3-9, who has a huge level advantage as well as better stats. My Rating: 1.5/5 ~- Vc. Greil Mercenaries (Part 3) ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- In order: Ike, Titania, Soren, Mist, Rolf, Boyd, Oscar, Shinon, Gatrie, Rhys, Mia, Ranulf, Kyza, Lyre, Reyson, Janaff, Ulki, Sigrun, Tanith Name: Ike Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Hero -> Vanguard Attribute: Earth Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 44 HP .......... 65% Str ....... 24 Str ......... 55% Mag ....... 2 Mag ......... 10% Skl ....... 28 Skl ......... 60% Spd ....... 23 Spd ......... 35% Lck ....... 14 Lck ......... 30% Def ....... 21 Def ......... 40% Res ....... 7 Res ......... 15% Ike is the hero of the Mad King's War. His life started when he was a mere mercenary under his father Greil, but then after he was killed mercilessly by the Black Knight, and from there, he set out for good. Eventually he became the general of the Crimean army, and led them to complete victory over Daein. At the beginning of this game, however, Ike went to work with the rest of the mercenaries, though eventually they make their appearance, and it's swift and felt. Well, Ike was the best character in Path of Radiance, and... he's the best character in Radiant Dawn too! Ike is a god in every way imaginable. He joins at Level 11 promoted, and has the entirety of Part 3 to get to Level 20, which he absolutely will. All his stats except resistance are superb. And indeed, that's really the only weakness that Ike has. His resistance is a little subpar, but apart from that, he's a complete beast. Unfortunately, equipment in the first part of the game doesn't nurture him well, but with his Ettard, and a Wind Edge, he's incredibly versatile. Ike's strength and speed are both stellar, and once you get Ike promoted, he can even equip axes. With axes and the Ragnell, he will double hit every single enemy that the entire game offers, pretty much, and on top of that, his HP and defense are both incredibly strong. I'd definitely try to procure a Talisman at some point though and use it on Ike. Ike has no need for magic whatsoever, so if you do that, he'll be absolutely perfect. You're required to use him, but who the hell has a problem with that. As long as you pay attention that he doesn't get screwed in speed (which almost never happens but I suppose is theoretically possible), he has no flaws. My Rating: 6/5 (one of two characters who gets that rating) Name: Titania Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Axe Paladin -> Gold Knight Attribute: Light Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 36 HP .......... 60% Str ....... 25 Str ......... 60% Mag ....... 10 Mag ......... 15% Skl ....... 22 Skl ......... 55% Spd ....... 21 Spd ......... 50% Lck ....... 19 Lck ......... 40% Def ....... 20 Def ......... 20% Res ....... 14 Res ......... 30% Titania has been the most loyal confidant of Ike for a long time, as well as the deputy commander, if you will, of the Greil Mercenaries. She also had a very strong attachment to Greil, back in the day. In my opinion, Titania is the best paladin in the game, but she has a few issues with her, naturally. First of all, HP. For a Level 16 Paladin, her HP is rather bad and makes Geoffrey's look good. Hell, Oscar, who is four levels lower, beats her by two. That's just paladins in general, though. For her stats Titania is a little overleveled in my eyes, but she's overall an extremely solid character. Her strength stat caps at 34, which is a bit lower than Kieran, but Titania has far more availability, potential, plus higher speed, so yeah, that's why she beats him out. Another issue I have with Titania is her defense. Decent at first, though a 20% growth is a little weak. Thankfully that's strengthened by the increase she'll get due to promoting to Gold Knight, but it's still a disadvantage. As far as the actual Greil Mercenary chapters, though, she's awesome. Only Oscar is the same as her in terms of movement, plus her strength is extremely high for the time. Just make sure she actually does get some EXP for her name, and she'll turn great. Granted I don't think she's as good as Shinon or Gatrie, plus I'm not a huge paladin fan, but Titania works out in the end. My Rating: 4.5/5 Name: Soren Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Wind Sage -> Arch Sage Attribute: Dark Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 28 HP .......... 40% Str ....... 9 Str ......... 25% Mag ....... 23 Mag ......... 80% Skl ....... 21 Skl ......... 60% Spd ....... 18 Spd ......... 35% Lck ....... 11 Lck ......... 35% Def ....... 9 Def ......... 25% Res ....... 21 Res ......... 70% Soren is one of Ike's most loyal friends, and also the master strategist for the Greil Mercenaries. As a person though he's a complete jackass, owing to the fact that he's a Branded, meaning he's half beorc and half laguz. For that reason, he hates laguz. I have one complaint about Soren, and that is all the negativity I'm going to have for him. His HP is too low. That's all. I would highly suggest obtaining a Seraph Robe and giving it to Soren, because then he'll be able to stand his own ground. Even considering that issue, though, Soren is a mage and comes in a party with characters like Boyd, Gatrie, Shinon, Titania, and Oscar. Aka, characters who can defend him and keep him safe, so that's hardly even an issue in the end. Soren comes at Level 5 and has decent stats to start off, meaning he'll have excellent potential for growth. And for my money, Soren is the best sage in the game, and it isn't even close. Soren's strength is okay, meaning he'll be able to handle heavy tomes just fine. His magic stat is outstanding, plus his speed may have a rather average base but it'll grow just fine. Here's the thing with Soren though, which makes him even better. Before he promotes to Arch Sage, he'll cap several stats. Magic, resistance, probably skill... he'll cap it. This makes him an absolutely perfect candidate for bonus EXP. You should have mountains of it by 3-10 anyway, so get him near promotion around then, and you'll get his speed almost maxed, plus his defense will be quite good. In fact, for me, usually the only stat the guy doesn't end up capping is luck. He caps HP and strength, what do you have to say to that. Overall he's an extremely good asset in the main game, and the only offensive mage I would even contemplate bringing to the endgame. My Rating: 5/5 Name: Mist Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Cleric -> Valkyrie Attribute: Water Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 28 HP .......... 40% Str ....... 8 Str ......... 25% Mag ....... 13 Mag ......... 80% Skl ....... 13 Skl ......... 60% Spd ....... 15 Spd ......... 35% Lck ....... 16 Lck ......... 35% Def ....... 7 Def ......... 25% Res ....... 16 Res ......... 70% Mist is the sister of Ike, which obviously makes her the daughter of Greil, and because of that she bears a vengeance against the Black Knight as well. She's also the bearer of the accursed Lehran's Medallion, the Fire Emblem. Statistically, what do you really expect. Mist blows. Her HP is the same as Soren's, which is to say, bad, plus she has less defense and resistance on top of that. What Mist exists to do, however, is heal your party. She's marginally alright at doing that, but a base magic of 13 isn't going to be effective when you have Rhys at a base magic ten full points higher. Apart from that, Mist's other stats are all equally poor except for her 80% growth in magic and 70% in resistance. And come on, those are given. Oh, but wait, Mist is a fighter as well! That's right, she can use swords and comes with the Florete sword. Which is a good sword on its own, but Mist is the only unit who can use it, and she's amazingly crappy at it. Her strength is so terrible she can barely make a dent in enemies, plus she has a 25% growth and a cap at 25. Considering that Rhys and even Elincia are going to utterly crush her in the healing department as well as doing damage, I wouldn't waste my time. Interestingly enough, Mist gets a special item that promotes her in 4-1, but whatever, I'm not leveling her up at all. After Nephenee and Haar join, to hell if you need two healers for the Greil Mercenaries. My Rating: 2/5 Name: Rolf Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Sniper -> Marksman Attribute: Wind Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 32 HP .......... 85% Str ....... 17 Str ......... 75% Mag ....... 3 Mag ......... 10% Skl ....... 20 Skl ......... 45% Spd ....... 19 Spd ......... 45% Lck ....... 13 Lck ......... 35% Def ....... 13 Def ......... 35% Res ....... 9 Res ......... 20% Rolf is the younger brother of Boyd and Oscar, though at the same time he's obviously the least physically developed. As an archer, he's the pupil of Shinon, which is an interesting teacher-student relationship. As a character, Rolf is like he is in Path of Radiance. He starts amazingly crappy, but has fantastic growths and can when nurtured, grow into a total beast. Here's the difference though. In Radiant Dawn, Rolf and Shinon join at the same time, and Shinon totally outclasses Rolf in almost everything at the beginning, is a full twelve levels ahead, and has the Provoke ability on top of far higher defense and HP, meaning that he doesn't even need to counter, he can just stay in the front and draw enemies while taking negligible damage. It's badass. And here's the thing. If you level Shinon and Rolf all the way up, Shinon will cap all the stats that Rolf does, except HP. See, here's the problem with that. Marksmen are not going to need overt amounts of HP in the endgame. Rolf has ridiculously good strength growth, but I've never NOT had Shinon max strength. Rolf's skill will be lower, speed will both get maxed at 34, and he'll likely lose out on the defense and resistance departments as well. See, in the end, Rolf isn't a bad unit by himself. I like characters with HP and strength growths which are that high. But the endgame, and the game as a whole, does not leave room for two snipers. When he's this outclassed by someone, he doesn't really get a place in the game. My Rating: 3/5 Name: Boyd Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Warrior -> Reaver Attribute: Fire Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 45 HP .......... 80% Str ....... 22 Str ......... 65% Mag ....... 1 Mag ......... 5% Skl ....... 20 Skl ......... 45% Spd ....... 18 Spd ......... 45% Lck ....... 13 Lck ......... 40% Def ....... 15 Def ......... 50% Res ....... 8 Res ......... 10% Boyd is the brother of Oscar and Rolf, and as the middle one he's the most rash and the most impulsive, as well as the biggest warhead. He's the strongest one, though. If you need pure brute force at the possible expense of keeping yourself safe, Boyd is your man. First of all, as far as beorc go, Boyd is the top in terms of HP. As a Reaver, he has incredible HP growth, and will cap HP at 68. He always pulls it off, too. Plus he has extremely good strength, and a 65% growth in it is pretty damn good. Obviously, those are two stats he's going to cap. My complaint with Boyd, however, is his speed. It's average, but come on, it's beaten by friggin' Gatrie (actually by a lot). It's the weakest of the main offensive Greil Mercenaries, by a long shot. Another problem existing in Boyd is defense and resistance. This is obviously a Reaver problem as a whole (not as prominent in Nolan though), but for all his high HP, it's going to get reduced pretty damn quick. Plus defense caps at 31, which is rather poor considering what characters like Gatrie can do. That being said, for what Boyd can double, he's a great unit against them, and hell, he hits some things so hard he doesn't even need to double them. Now I like having axe users in the endgame, so he definitely has room in there, so it's your call. You'll need to bonus EXP him up a little to get his speed up though (35 is the cap, which is hard to reach but at least the cap is high). And I might point out Nolan can turn out better, but yeah, Boyd is obviously far easier to nurture unless you just want to ignore him. My Rating: 4/5 Name: Oscar Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Lance Paladin -> Silver Knight Attribute: Earth Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 38 HP .......... 50% Str ....... 20 Str ......... 35% Mag ....... 7 Mag ......... 20% Skl ....... 22 Skl ......... 65% Spd ....... 21 Spd ......... 60% Lck ....... 18 Lck ......... 55% Def ....... 17 Def ......... 30% Res ....... 13 Res ......... 20% Oscar is the older brother of Rolf and Boyd. There's not really much more to say about him except he looks like he's stoned, is a great cook, and has a rivalry with Kieran. Yeah. To me, Oscar has some issues. First of all, he joins at a good level. Level 12 as a Lance Paladin, that's not bad. Here's his faults, though. His strength is not good enough considering the fact he's not going to be doubling much. See, I cut Boyd slack here, but that's because his strength has a full 30% higher chance of increase. So there's one strike. Oscar's skill is good, plus his speed has the chance for increase, so at some point he'll start doubling more, meaning that'll definitely make him more rounded. My issue is with his defense. Oscar's defense starts at 17, and his growth rate in it is barely better than Titania's. So overall, Oscar is one of those characters that's a jack of all trades but a master of nothing. He fortunately has higher HP in general than Titania, though, so that's an advantage. When he promotes, as a whole, Oscar is inferior to Titania and sometimes Geoffrey depending on your luck of the draw, but he's still a good character. His speed will be caught up, he'll have good strength, but he rarely makes my endgame roster. He'll help you out in Part 3 though, no worries. My Rating: 4.5/5 Name: Shinon Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Sniper -> Marksman Attribute: Thunder Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 43 HP .......... 50% Str ....... 21 Str ......... 40% Mag ....... 7 Mag ......... 15% Skl ....... 28 Skl ......... 70% Spd ....... 24 Spd ......... 65% Lck ....... 15 Lck ......... 30% Def ....... 20 Def ......... 45% Res ....... 14 Res ......... 20% Shinon is another one of the veteran members of the Greil Mercenaries, and as an archer he's the teacher of Rolf. He was loyal to Greil though; he dislikes Ike and most people in general, so he's basically a jackass. I called it, Shinon is the most underrated unit in the game. And yes, I know a ton of people like him, but see, the way I see it, if one person said Shinon wasn't completely awesome, he'd be underrated. Shinon's stats are fantastic in absolutely every way. Now, I know you're going to jump on me for the 21 str and the 40% growth, but let me just say this. Shinon's skill and speed will get maxed before he promotes to marksman, easily. And at that point, just give him a little bonus EXP. His strength will absolutely skyrocket. See, if that weren't enough, Shinon's HP and defense each have a strong base and a great growth. Alright, I'm not finished. Shinon comes with the Provoke ability, meaning he'll lure enemies towards him. Shinon has an incredibly high avoid so he'll barely take any hits, but even when he does, he's got such good defense that he won't have a problem. Even in the early game, he can survive longer than Oscar and Titania. The hell is with that?! I'm not done. Shinon has the highest speed of everyone except Mia in the Greil Mercenaries, and a critical rate to die for, especially when he promotes. 50-60 percent critical? That's not even fair, plus he has Deadeye and a range of 3 as well. His only even possible downfall is that he can't counter at 1 range without a crossbow, but with something like the Aqqar (and especially when he has the completely overpowered Double Bow), that flaw is eliminated. Overall, Shinon is one of the most absurdly overpowered characters in the game. How can you fault cheaply high strength, skill, speed, defense, avoid, and critical? My Rating: 5.5/5 Name: Gatrie Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Lance General -> Marshall Attribute: Light Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 44 HP .......... 50% Str ....... 25 Str ......... 60% Mag ....... 5 Mag ......... 5% Skl ....... 18 Skl ......... 45% Spd ....... 20 Spd ......... 60% Lck ....... 15 Lck ......... 30% Def ....... 24 Def ......... 60% Res ....... 11 Res ......... 35% Gatrie is, along with Titania and Shinon, one of the veteran (not to mention one of the best) members of the Greil Mercenaries. He's a total obsessive womanizer who, according to Shinon, will hit on a tree with a skirt. I don't even know what to say here. Gatrie is another absurdly good unit, and as far as marshalls go, Brom can get up to his stats in the end, but Gatrie's bases are so good, plus he's already at such a higher level, that I'm not quite sure why you would want to. But yeah, look at those growths. Just look at them. 60% in strength, speed, and defense. That's insane. Now, typically the problem with generals is that they get doubled by everything, but Gatrie drives the hearse. For the earlier parts of the game, GATRIE will be the one doubling. All the while doing insane damage, and taking no damage. Gatrie is yet another candidate for bonus EXP, as he'll max strength and defense rather fast. Personally though, I'd get his speed up to 25 or so and then just give him the Master Crown, as he'll be wasting his time as just a Lance General. At that point, you'll have a complete tank of a unit who will get even more strength and defense (36 and 37, hell yeah), most likely max his HP albeit a little late, and he makes a perfect candidate for a second Provoke skill. Now sadly, Gatrie isn't quite as awesome in the later parts as he has a rather poor speed cap (31, yeah), though at least it's >30. I'd still take him to the endgame without question though, as even among laguz royals, he'll take impressively low damage. Why did we get the Dawn Brigade again, when we have characters this overpowered? My Rating: 5/5 Name: Rhys Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Bishop -> Saint Attribute: Fire Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 27 HP .......... 40% Str ....... 8 Str ......... 25% Mag ....... 23 Mag ......... 65% Skl ....... 16 Skl ......... 35% Spd ....... 14 Spd ......... 35% Lck ....... 21 Lck ......... 60% Def ....... 7 Def ......... 20% Res ....... 24 Res ......... 75% Rhys is a priest who accompanies the Greil Mercenaries as they go, though he's not as much of a fighter, owing to the fact that he can't stand the sight of bloodshed and fighting. Most people think Rhys is a complete epic fail. I disagree. Sure, he has a number of rather nasty issues, but he's not terrible by any means. First of all, based on initial bases, Rhys has 10 more magic power than Mist. I think the better healer between the two is pretty obvious. I might add, both Mist and Rhys have terrible speed, so doubling is out of the question. But here we go. Mist needs to be in close range, and her base att is 22. Rhys's base att with an Ellight spell is 28, and that's not taking into account most enemies have higher defense than resistance. All in all, their other stats are pretty comparable, but Rhys pretty much solidly blows Mist out of the water. Even though the Greil Mercenaries are so strong, you still need a healer, and your only options are Rhys and Mist. I might also point out that he's a Level 3 Bishop initially, and as far as endgame is concerned, I'd love to see Laura get there without complete abuse, let alone maintain a level like that. Sure, for the endgame, you might be able to get by with just Micaiah for healing, but if you need another, you obviously have no better choice than Rhys. In fact, if Rhys had better speed and defense, I'd give him a high score. Now Rhys is a perfect candidate for the bonus EXP you have, so that solves the issue later on, but that's the thing, he has a rough start. My Rating: 4/5 Name: Mia Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Swordmaster -> Trueblade Attribute: Fire Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 34 HP .......... 70% Str ....... 17 Str ......... 45% Mag ....... 5 Mag ......... 15% Skl ....... 26 Skl ......... 60% Spd ....... 28 Spd ......... 65% Lck ....... 18 Lck ......... 35% Def ....... 13 Def ......... 40% Res ....... 8 Res ......... 25% Mia is a purple haired (always good!) swordswoman who was recruited by Greil for some odd missions, so technically isn't one of the main mercenaries, but she sticks on because she has an obvious crush on Ike. Alright, in the first game, Mia has horrible strength and defense, with pretty much decent stats in all other departments. Here, those stats are only average while she has good HP, skill, speed, and luck. So, you could say that it all evens out, although in my opinion swordmasters are rather flawed in this game and a lot of the time, I don't even take one into the endgame. Anyway, when she joins, Mia's strength is pretty mediocre. It's at a Rolf level, but still, she has a whooping 28 base speed. That's incredible, and yeah, it's 9 points higher than Rolf's, so trust me, Mia's speed will never be an issue to you. So as you continue through the Greil Mercenary chapters, definitely beef Mia up. She ends up as a good candidate for bonus EXP, being that she'll max her ridiculously high skill and speed quite early, allowing you to complement her HP, strength, defense and whatnot. See, again, there's five swordmasters and I have issues with all of them since swords are my least favorite weapon in this game and when I need a swordsman I have Ike, but Mia is probably the overall best choice of all the trueblades. Zihark will probably be slightly better statistically since his HP, strength, and defense caps are higher, but Mia is a lot easier to build up. My Rating: 4.5/5 Name: Ranulf Recruited: CHAPTER 4 Class: Cat Attribute: Wind Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 55 HP .......... 70% Str ....... 14 Str ......... 30% Mag ....... 6 Mag ......... 15% Skl ....... 16 Skl ......... 40% Spd ....... 15 Spd ......... 35% Lck ....... 23 Lck ......... 55% Def ....... 13 Def ......... 15% Res ....... 10 Res ......... 10% Ranulf is the general of the Gallian troops besides Skrimir, but of course, he's the brains behind the operations while Skrimir is the pure brawn. For that he's really the most reliable person there short of Caineghis himself. Alright, Ranulf is decent enough, but here's his biggest flaw: his class. The cat is the worst form of laguz, because for one thing, they have decent speed which is usually more than they'll ever need, but at the expense of strength, which is something laguz are going to need up the wazoo. More importantly, though, their transformation is terrible so they're going to be constantly reverting back to human form, meaning you need to baby them with Olivi Grass. So that's the thing with Ranulf. He would have made an amazing character as a Tiger, but as a Cat he's rather eh. Then again, as far as cat laguz go, there's far worse (look at Lethe or Lyre if you want to see that). Ranulf actually has good stats, and as long as you don't give him Halfshift or some other equally crappy benefactor, he'll retain that. His strength is solid, speed and skill are quite good, and his HP and defense are decent. Granted his defense caps way too early, plus his growths are rather poor, but then again he's a Level 26 Cat. Obviously he's not going to be an endgame candidate as he takes a long time to level up, plus his strength maxes out too early, but that's a moot point as you've got laguz royals in the endgame. Not bad. Just not fantastic. My Rating: 4/5 (the usual case of 3.75 rounding up) Name: Kyza Recruited: CHAPTER 4 Class: Tiger Attribute: Light Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 55 HP .......... 85% Str ....... 10 Str ......... 40% Mag ....... 3 Mag ......... 5% Skl ....... 10 Skl ......... 45% Spd ....... 11 Spd ......... 35% Lck ....... 14 Lck ......... 50% Def ....... 10 Def ......... 40% Res ....... 5 Res ......... 15% There's not much to say about Kyza. He's a soft spoken Gallian warrior who joins the Laguz Alliance under Ranulf and Skrimir. Kyza is a rather poor character, though he's at least salvageable, which isn't something I can say about a certain character he can be compared to. First of all, he's a tiger, a class that I definitely prefer over cats, but let's look at his stats. You've got a cat that's eight levels higher, and the stats go hand in hand with that. 20 base strength for a laguz? That's pretty terrible. 20 base defense is mediocre, 22 base speed is alright, 10 resistance is bad... what all that leads to is a pretty bad unit. Now, Kyza actually has potential though. His strength has a fair growth (40%) and caps at 23, so 46 strength in the end is as usual, not bad, though Mordecai and Muarim have the same. Then again, he joins in a party full of ridiculously strong units, so he can't really find a place in there. Still, if you must use another laguz besides Ranulf, definitely pick him over Lyre. My Rating: 2/5 Name: Lyre Recruited: CHAPTER 4 Class: Cat Attribute: Thunder Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 47 HP .......... 50% Str ....... 7 Str ......... 35% Mag ....... 6 Mag ......... 10% Skl ....... 11 Skl ......... 65% Spd ....... 11 Spd ......... 70% Lck ....... 16 Lck ......... 50% Def ....... 7 Def ......... 20% Res ....... 8 Res ......... 30% Lyre is another Gallian warrior who gets recruited unto the Laguz Alliance under Ranulf. Alright, I called it, here's the very worst character in the entire game. Lyre has 14 strength. Transformed. Along with, like the rest of the cats, a rather inconsistent transformation rate which will leave her defenseless more often than not. Now she has 22 speed, which is okay and will at least allow her to double the slowest of characters, but when she's doing the same damage that Mist will do on average with the Florete, she won't be damaging anything worth a damn. Now if that wasn't bad enough, she has 14 base defense. Considering a laguz without Canto is meant to be a front liner, she's going to die, plus there really is absolutely no potential for her to grow. I give her the worst rating in the entire game, because face it. Astrid, Fiona, and Meg may all be quite bad, but they're at least usable for a chapter or two. Lyre is completely unusable. Hell, I take back what I said about Volug, here's the worst laguz in the game. My Rating: 0/5 (DAMN) Name: Reyson Recruited: CHAPTER 5 Class: Heron Attribute: Fire Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 40 HP .......... 65% Str ....... 3 Str ......... 5% Mag ....... 5 Mag ......... 30% Skl ....... 5 Skl ......... 20% Spd ....... 11 Spd ......... 20% Lck ....... 31 Lck ......... 60% Def ....... 6 Def ......... 20% Res ....... 17 Res ......... 20% Reyson is the elegant prince of the herons, and the actual first heron that Ike meets, when he gets involved in Oliver's illegal laguz slave trade. He doesn't exhibit typical heron behaviors though, as he's pretty rude. Alright, third heron that you get in this game, and... what do you expect from a heron. Reyson is friggin' awesome. Statistically, Reyson is pretty good for a heron. Luck and resistance are standard fare, speed is alright, plus his HP actually isn't bad at all. Hell, he even has a good growth rate in HP, so if you choose to use Reyson from the beginning on, he'll actually develop to a point that if an accident happens, he might actually survive. Plus, he's at a half decent level. Not amazing, but at Level 15, it's certainly higher than Leanne or even Rafiel were at. Here's the catch to Reyson, though. When untransformed, he can only restore the movement of one character. Now, in previous Fire Emblem that'd be seen as incredible, but look what we're dealing with. I'll say this, though. Reyson is capable of using a Laguz Gem, which if you got two of them, makes him fit perfectly into your endgame roster if you don't want to use Rafiel. And when transformed, Reyson is perfectly fine. 22 speed will keep him alive, plus he can restore four people's movement. Plus, I might add. Reyson has by far the best availability of the three herons, along with a party that can actually keep him alive. Therefore, he's the best statistically by far. I slightly prefer Rafiel just based on a battle's first turn, but Reyson is a VERY close second. My Rating: 4.5/5 Name: Janaff Recruited: CHAPTER 7 Class: Hawk Attribute: Thunder Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 57 HP .......... 55% Str ....... 16 Str ......... 40% Mag ....... 2 Mag ......... 15% Skl ....... 19 Skl ......... 45% Spd ....... 17 Spd ......... 25% Lck ....... 30 Lck ......... 50% Def ....... 12 Def ......... 35% Res ....... 8 Res ......... 10% Janaff is the right hand man of King Tibarn of Phoenicis, and his purpose is the king's eyes. Basically meaning, he can see stuff from a long way away. As a character, he's very bright and happy. Alright, I called it, there's Kurthnaga later in the game, but besides him and even considering in Ranulf, the best non royal laguz in the game are Janaff and Ulki. Now I have a number of reasons for that, but here's the thing. They join at a half decent level. Laguz are frustrating as all hell to level up, so having them with a good base is definitely a strong asset. Janaff, when he joins you, has great stats all around. A base of 32 strength and 34 speed? That's not bad at all. Granted, for a laguz, 24 defense is rather mediocre, plus he's always going to have to put up with the transformation issue, but at the very least he has 57 HP and can actually take a few hits. Naturally Janaff needs to be compared to Ulki, though, and personally, I find that Janaff is better all around while if you're going to take one into the endgame, Ulki works out a little better. What Janaff excels at, in any case, is pure strength. He has a higher strength growth and a lower speed growth, which is really surprising, but that's how it is. Either way, it's up to you if you want another laguz, but honestly you can't really go wrong with either of the two mainstream hawks. My Rating: 4.5/5 Name: Ulki Recruited: CHAPTER 7 Class: Hawk Attribute: Water Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 59 HP .......... 65% Str ....... 14 Str ......... 25% Mag ....... 3 Mag ......... 30% Skl ....... 17 Skl ......... 25% Spd ....... 18 Spd ......... 40% Lck ....... 25 Lck ......... 35% Def ....... 11 Def ......... 30% Res ....... 10 Res ......... 25% Ulki is the left hand man of King Tibarn of Phoenicis, and his purpose is the king's ears. Basically meaning, he can hear and sense stuff from a long ways away. As a character though, he's incredibly quiet, and has a creepy ass face. You can pretty much read what I said about Janaff to get what I feel about the hawks as a whole. I've never been a huge laguz fan, but you honestly can't go wrong with either of these two hawks. Statistically though, Janaff and Ulki are a bit different. First of all, Ulki is one level lower than Janaff, but hell, with that huge pile of Satori Signs that you're not going to ever have used, one of them definitely goes to both of the hawks, plus Ranulf, plus Kurthnaga. The best four non-royal laguz, but I'm off topic. Here's the only complaint I have about Ulki: his strength is a little low-ish. Ulki does have 28 base strength, which is of course, not something to make fun of, but that's an issue when Janaff has 32 as his base and a higher growth to boot. Ulki is actually the faster of the two, as well as the more durable and easier to keep alive. That all comes down to avoid, since Ulki has the speed to back that up. Not to mention his HP is a bit higher, and every little bit counts. Naturally, though, I think the speed advantage is going to be slightly better than the strength advantage in the endgame. If I need a bird laguz I'm going to bring Tibarn, so actually Janaff ends up being slightly better than Ulki, but still, I can't deny how much better they are than most laguz. My Rating: 4.5/5 Name: Sigrun Recruited: CHAPTER 11 Class: Falconknight -> Seraph Knight Attribute: Water Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 34 HP .......... 40% Str ....... 18 Str ......... 45% Mag ....... 13 Mag ......... 10% Skl ....... 22 Skl ......... 70% Spd ....... 24 Spd ......... 25% Lck ....... 28 Lck ......... 70% Def ....... 20 Def ......... 10% Res ....... 22 Res ......... 50% Sigrun is the most loyal confidant of the apostle Sanaki of Begnion, and like her, she loses her voice within the government of Begnion for a long time. Then again, she eventually makes a comeback. Alright, let's get the good and the bad out of the way. Sigrun comes at a level that's hard to pass up. At Level 19, almost ready to promote, that's what I like to see; unfortunately, her stats don't back that up. Tanith, who is three levels higher, is overall better (more HP and strength kind of seals the deal), and has WAY better growths. Because face it, Sigrun has some of the worst growths in the entire game. HP is mediocre, speed is horrible, and defense is that of Leanne and Rafiel. Enough said. So while Sigrun is passable at first, she has almost no potential whatsoever. If you compare endgame stats, Sigrun will be beaten by Elincia, Marcia, and Tanith in almost every stat except luck and maybe resistance. So basically, use Sigrun in 3-11, because she's pretty good there in conjunction with Tanith. Also, I complain about things in Tanith. Apply all that to Sigrun, because it's bad in Tanith and worse in Sigrun. My Rating: 2/5 Name: Tanith Recruited: CHAPTER 11 Class: Falconknight -> Seraph Knight Attribute: Earth Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 35 HP .......... 35% Str ....... 20 Str ......... 55% Mag ....... 10 Mag ......... 15% Skl ....... 21 Skl ......... 75% Spd ....... 23 Spd ......... 40% Lck ....... 22 Lck ......... 35% Def ....... 19 Def ......... 40% Res ....... 20 Res ......... 30% Like Sigrun, Tanith is a falcon knight of Begnion who serves Sanaki loyally, and makes a comeback after the little Valtome-Zelgius match. Tanith joins with comparable stats to Sigrun. Almost the same HP, strength, skill, speed, and defense; Sigrun just has 6 points higher luck, which ain't going to make her that much better. Plus she's at a higher level and has utterly terrible growths. Tanith's growths aren't bad at all. 55% strength is pretty good, 40% speed/defense are fair (and certainly better than goddamn 25% speed/10% defense). Tanith's availability isn't in your favor a lot, though. Two chapters in Part 3, two chapters in Part 4, then you're at the endgame. It kind of presses you for time. Normally, I'd be quite in favor of a character like Tanith, but let's face it. The seraph knight is a crappy class. Weakness to bows and crossbows is a huge disadvantage, plus their stat caps are terrible. 50 HP, 32 strength, and 28 defense. That's not great. 36 speed is alright, but there's a ton of other classes where you can get something comparable to that. As far as fliers go, Tibarn and even Janaff/Ulki will outclass Tanith, and let's not even get into Haar or even Elincia, who does what Tanith does on top of wielding the Amiti and heal staves, just slightly lower stats. So if you put effort in, Tanith isn't bad, but she just has utterly no space in the endgame, to me, plus her availability doesn't help. My Rating: 3/5 ~- Vd. Gods And Men (Part 4) ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ In order: Skrimir, Sanaki, Naesala, Nailah, Tibarn, Stefan, Oliver, Bastian, Volke, Kurthnaga, Ena, Caineghis, Giffca, Renning, Gareth, Nasir, Pelleas, Lehran Name: Skrimir Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Lion Attribute: Fire Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 66 HP .......... 90% Str ....... 19 Str ......... 35% Mag ....... 3 Mag ......... 5% Skl ....... 14 Skl ......... 35% Spd ....... 13 Spd ......... 25% Lck ....... 24 Lck ......... 20% Def ....... 16 Def ......... 50% Res ....... 9 Res ......... 5% Skrimir is a young general of the Gallian army, although as a general he's extremely incompetent, and only really takes over because Caineghis and Giffca are incapable. That being said, he's a future king. In battle, Skrimir is yet another character who joins at the wrong time. I find it all a bit odd that he joins in Part 4, yet is in almost every single storyline cutscene in Part 3, but whatever. Skrimir is strong as hell. You wish you could have used him in Part 3, because Skrimir is essentially a slightly watered down laguz royal. His strength is 38 right off the bat, plus his HP is extremely good, and hey, he has a 90% growth rate, so it's pretty much going to increase whenever he levels up. All his other important stats are pretty decent too. I don't care for his speed much, but he's good. The reason Skrimir pales in comparison to the laguz royals, though, is because he's limited to just a Fang instead of a Great Fang, plus he has no Formshift. That definitely limits his overall ability. Plus even though his strength and defense cap at 48 and 44 respectively, which are obvious laguz royal stats, his speed is weaker. However, give him a Laguz Stone in 4-3, and he will absolutely dominate. He's definitely worth using in the chapters he's in. That being said, I need to be hard on laguz units, since you've already got Caineghis, Giffca, and Nailah for the endgame. My Rating: 3/5 Name: Sanaki Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Empress Attribute: Light Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 28 HP .......... 70% Str ....... 2 Str ......... 40% Mag ....... 33 Mag ......... 60% Skl ....... 22 Skl ......... 60% Spd ....... 23 Spd ......... 35% Lck ....... 32 Lck ......... 55% Def ....... 10 Def ......... 30% Res ....... 28 Res ......... 50% Sanaki is none other than the empress of Begnion. The thing with her though is that she was powerless while the senate carried out the agenda of Begnion while she was imprisoned, though. Plot twists around her, too, it's tight. Here we have a potentially salvageable, but still otherwise medicore character and yet another weaker type of character that is forced into the endgame. Alright, Sanaki. As you can see, her HP and defense are both terrible. Plus this is Part 4, so we kind of have higher standards now. That, and her speed. Sanaki will NEVER double attack anything, and in fact will oftentimes get doubled herself, simply because her strength is absolutely dreadful and her speed isn't too hot either. Now, thankfully, Sanaki is given good growths to complement the areas she sucks in. 40% strength growth is decent, 70% HP growth is fantastic. Still, consider. She joins in the endgame, in two chapters where she's not going to be getting much experience. So if you need to build her up to decency, you have to abuse bonus EXP on her. Which might actually not be a terrible idea, but that's what you'll have to do. Even in the endgame though, Sanaki won't be good enough to compete with Soren or even Micaiah. Unfortunately, she's someone you're forced to use, though. My Rating: 2/5 Name: Naesala Recruited: PROLOGUE Class: Raven Attribute: Dark Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 60 HP .......... 40% Str ....... 17 Str ......... 45% Mag ....... 7 Mag ......... 15% Skl ....... 20 Skl ......... 30% Spd ....... 21 Spd ......... 45% Lck ....... 20 Lck ......... 55% Def ....... 13 Def ......... 15% Res ....... 14 Res ......... 35% Naesala is the sly, dastardly king of Kilvas. Much like Pelleas, he becomes a victim of Lekain and his blood pacts early on, and because of that, he falls back from the Laguz Alliance, although he's actually a very kind and courageous royal, plus he has an obligation to the herons. Alright, besides the little bit of Nailah from Part 1, Naesala is the first laguz royal that you actually recruit. And, in actuality, he's the worst of the whole lot of them. That is due to his strength stat. That's due to the fact that it maxes at 20, which leads to a strength of 40 transformed. Tibarn will have 44, Nailah will have the same but more defense (plus she's the second weakest anyway), and Giffca and Caineghis will both have 48. That's a rather sizeable difference. Now, to be fair, he's a lot better than most beorc, especially considering his speed is godly (it maxes at 25... meaning 50 transformed, which is incredible). That being said, it needs the strength to cap it off, and I prefer the overall balance that the lions and Tibarn keep statistically. That, and Naesala's HP and defense are both rather lacking for a royal. Now, obviously, Naesala is the fifth best laguz in the game, so it's unfair for me to compare him to the other royals, but he's just not got the punch for me for the endgame. Helps out in his chapters though. My Rating: 4.5/5 Name: Nailah Recruited: CHAPTER 1 Class: Wolf Queen Attribute: Wind Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 66 HP .......... 60% Str ....... 17 Str ......... 25% Mag ....... 5 Mag ......... 50% Skl ....... 23 Skl ......... 60% Spd ....... 19 Spd ......... 60% Lck ....... 35 Lck ......... 65% Def ....... 16 Def ......... 15% Res ....... 13 Res ......... 65% Nailah is the wolf queen, and the one who brought up Rafiel after the Serenes Forest was burned down. She and her accomplice Volug run into Micaiah and the rest of Daein early, and it all goes from there. When Nailah joins you in Part 1, she's not even funny. You have several rather overpowered units there, but except for the Black Knight, she makes all of them look like complete sissies. She's absurdly fast, does 40+ damage a strike, and half the time activates Savage, which makes her even more ridiculous. She doesn't rejoin until Ike's chapters in Part 4 though, and at that point, she's great. I have the same complaint with Nailah that I do about Naesala though, and that is that she is not strong enough. Her strength stat caps at 20, which leads to 40 strength, and since she doesn't fly either, that's particularly crippling for a laguz royal. I prefer her slightly to Naesala though, since she has much higher defense, and if you give her a little of your bonus EXP in the endgame, she will cap her HP to 70, which can really make a difference. Overall, she's pretty good in the endgame. I never bring her there, but that's totally your call, since she works well however you slice it. My Rating: 4.5/5 Name: Tibarn Recruited: CHAPTER 2 Class: Hawk King Attribute: Heaven Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 68 HP .......... 75% Str ....... 18 Str ......... 40% Mag ....... 2 Mag ......... 5% Skl ....... 24 Skl ......... 10% Spd ....... 20 Spd ......... 20% Lck ....... 29 Lck ......... 40% Def ....... 16 Def ......... 40% Res ....... 10 Res ......... 20% Tibarn is the hawk king of Phoenicis, and one of the main spearleaders of the Laguz Alliance early on in the game. His personality has taken a beating since Path of Radiance though, since he's ridiculously gung ho and reckless, not to mention a complete jackass. But hey, he's a hawk, what do you expect. Alright, if you need a flying laguz, Tibarn is your man, no questions asked. Granted he joins for as much as Naesala or Nailah based on her Part 4 stuff, but he's still the best of the fliers. Now, his strength caps at 22, which means 44 while transformed. For a flier, that's pretty damn good. He's also absurdly fast (46 is as much as you need, people), and his HP and defense are top notch. Sure, they're not as much as Caineghis or those other people, but come on. Tibarn effing flies. His only weakness is wind magic and arrows, and since he's so fast he'll be dodging a lot of that crap anyway. If you're bringing multiple laguz royals into the endgame, he's definitely your second choice after Caineghis. Another great thing he has going for him is 4-5. Enough said, he can level up a hell of a lot there, and since his HP caps at 75, he'll be lasting a while. My Rating: 5.5/5 Name: Stefan Recruited: CHAPTER 3 Class: Trueblade Attribute: Heaven Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 53 HP .......... 55% Str ....... 27 Str ......... 50% Mag ....... 7 Mag ......... 20% Skl ....... 37 Skl ......... 60% Spd ....... 36 Spd ......... 60% Lck ....... 20 Lck ......... 15% Def ....... 21 Def ......... 40% Res ....... 16 Res ......... 50% Stefan is a hermit who's been living in the deserts of Begnion for several years. What he strives to do there, somehow, is establish peace between laguz and beorc. Very successful, huh? Alright, the first character who joins in the extremely late parts of the game who I need to analyze. Well, Stefan is... alright. His HP is solid, his skill and speed are obviously great, and since he's a Level 8 Trueblade, he'll get them maxed easily. It's his other stats that he really lacks in, though. His strength is only average, his defense is low, and his resistance is quite bad. If you promoted Mia to Trueblade, chances are her HP is slightly lower, but all her other stats should be at Stefan's level or at least extremely comparable (because face it, who the hell needs that much skill). It's quite possible that your other trueblades got screwed over, and if that's the case, then go ahead and use Stefan, he's not terrible. He's not that great either, though, just warning. Definitely recruit him though, he has the Vague Katti. My Rating: 3/5 Name: Oliver Recruited: CHAPTER 4 Class: Saint Attribute: Fire Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 48 HP .......... 65% Str ....... 22 Str ......... 55% Mag ....... 31 Mag ......... 35% Skl ....... 22 Skl ......... 35% Spd ....... 20 Spd ......... 45% Lck ....... 28 Lck ......... 30% Def ....... 18 Def ......... 30% Res ....... 32 Res ......... 20% Oliver is the infamous Duke Tanas, a hypocritical savage who bathes in his delusion that he is "beautiful", and also has a manic obsession with herons. Three years ago, his illegal heron slave trade was discovered, but he's a Begnion senator, so he gets away with it. To recruit Oliver, you need to have Rafiel move into his range in 4-4, and then he'll recruit himself onto your party. That's not absolutely necessary, but of the weaker characters that join you in Part 4, Oliver is by far the least bad. Now, naturally, he's a saint, so what do you really expect. His magic is alright. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but it'll get him through. His speed is alright, defense is weak, resistance is good, and HP is very good for a saint type of character. As a saint, Rhys is one of the more difficult characters to build up in the endgame, so if your Oliver edges him out, yeah, go ahead, take Oliver into the endgame instead of him. The endgame definitely leaves room for a healer besides Micaiah, so there you go. Otherwise though, Rhys or Elincia at full potential completely outclass Oliver in every way possible. My Rating: 3/5 (more like a 2.75 but rounds up though) Name: Bastian Recruited: CHAPTER 5 Class: Arch Sage Attribute: Wind Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 45 HP .......... 25% Str ....... 21 Str ......... 20% Mag ....... 35 Mag ......... 30% Skl ....... 27 Skl ......... 70% Spd ....... 24 Spd ......... 40% Lck ....... 21 Lck ......... 40% Def ....... 20 Def ......... 25% Res ....... 32 Res ......... 50% Bastian is another one of the most loyal confidants of Elincia, though he spends the majority of the game on an emissary mission to Daein, and therefore does not join until incredibly late in the game. Bastian isn't a bad unit by himself, but he comes at a terrible time in the game, as well as suffers from an incredibly crippling fault, and that's his speed. Let's get to that in time though. As an arch sage, Bastian is okay. His HP and strength are solid, his magic is undoubtedly inferior to Soren's but alright, skill is good, and defense and resistance are typical sage fare. His growths are all relatively poor aside from his skill growth, though, and face it, how much does a sage need skill? Think about that. Here's the thing, Bastian joins extremely late, and that speed is horrible. Soren will ideally, by the time you get to the endgame, be way into the 30's. He'll have roughly the same defense if not slightly higher, higher HP if you were like me and gave him a Seraph Robe early, higher magic, and yeah, a speed that's 5-6 points higher. As a sage, it's important to be able to double, and that's something Bastian won't do. Now he's useful in 4-5 to some extent, as he can legitimately rack damage on enemies and get them hurt, but he has absolutely no place in the endgame whatsoever. My Rating: 2.5/5 Name: Volke Recruited: CHAPTER 5 Class: Assassin Attribute: Wind Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 52 HP .......... 50% Str ....... 30 Str ......... 50% Mag ....... 5 Mag ......... 5% Skl ....... 36 Skl ......... 60% Spd ....... 35 Spd ......... 65% Lck ....... 19 Lck ......... 20% Def ....... 26 Def ......... 45% Res ....... 32 Res ......... 15% Volke is a man of many mysteries. He's had a good number of connections with Greil back in his day, as well as Ike, though no one knows what his true motives are, as well as why he wants so much money. To get him to join, you have to have Elincia and Geoffrey pay him 3000 Gold in 4-5. To me Volke is like a more badass version of Stefan. More HP, more strength, comparable skill and speed, more defense, just less resistance. Now, the thing with Volke is, however, that he's an assassin, which is essentially a souped up thief. He's definitely great for a thief, since he can do everything that a thief does, but Volke has ridiculously high strength, plus the Lethality skill, which essentially makes him a complete demon. Hell, he joins in 4-5, the biggest EXP chapter in the game, so in there alone, he can max his HP and strength. Here's my issue with Volke though. Sothe is required in the endgame. Now don't get me wrong, Volke utterly blows Sothe out of the water. Did it in Path of Radiance, and he does it here too. The problem is, however, that your endgame lineup likely isn't going to leave room for another whisper/assassin type character. The thing with Volke is that if we want to think of him like a trueblade (hence the Stefan comparison), the trueblade will have a stronger weapon, comparable strength and defense, plus honestly Astra is quite a bit better than Lethality. But oh well. Volke will help you immensely in 4-5, but he just gets screwed over by the endgame being a jackass. My Rating: 4/5 Name: Kurthnaga Recruited: ENDGAME-1 Class: Black Dragon Attribute: Water Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 55 HP .......... 95% Str ....... 15 Str ......... 45% Mag ....... 7 Mag ......... 15% Skl ....... 8 Skl ......... 20% Spd ....... 10 Spd ......... 35% Lck ....... 21 Lck ......... 60% Def ....... 15 Def ......... 25% Res ....... 15 Res ......... 40% Kurthnaga is the prince of Goldoa, and fitting in with that, a fairly normal dragon. He hates warfare and becomes sick at the sight of bloodshed, but that doesn't stop him from fighting for a noble cause. Alright, Kurthnaga is a perfect example of a love it or hate it character. I've heard him called everything from the best non-royal laguz to the worst unit in the whole game. Personally I'm not sure I'd go to either extreme, but Kurthnaga is a very useful character. First of all, in the endgame, Kurthnaga is a requirement, so you might as well level him up. And considering he's Level 20 and has twenty more levels to go while most of your other characters should be at least halfway through their third tier with a number of stats maxed, I honestly don't see any reason not to give Kurthnaga Paragon as well as a little bit of bonus EXP every now and then. I'm not going to lie. Kurthnaga is very weak at first. With only 30 attack power and an average weapon, as well as a horrible 20 speed, he's not going to be too good initially. However, Kurthnaga has a lot of potential. His strength and speed growths are good enough, his HP growth is fantastic, plus I really don't believe his defense growth is as low as it seems, as that seemed to be going up a lot for me, though in the endgame resistance is more important. Now, I would give Kurthnaga a solid 5/5, but there's one issue. He has only an A in strike at first, meaning you may need to give him an Arms Scroll. Now the EXP, I have no problem with, but in order to increase his fighting power you are going to need to do a little babying in that fashion. If you get him at least moderately up to par by 4-E-3, though, he'll be incredibly useful and if you give him Paragon (again I see no reason not to), he'll gain a very decent share of levels at the same time. Also, Kurth gets Formshift after 4-E-3. Can't go wrong with that. My Rating: 4.5/5 Name: Ena Recruited: ENDGAME-1 Class: Red Dragon Attribute: Earth Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 59 HP .......... 50% Str ....... 10 Str ......... 20% Mag ....... 15 Mag ......... 50% Skl ....... 13 Skl ......... 40% Spd ....... 11 Spd ......... 40% Lck ....... 18 Lck ......... 35% Def ....... 13 Def ......... 15% Res ....... 17 Res ......... 50% Ena is a female dragon whom you could say has a number of loyalties. She's loyal to her king Dheginsea, but at the same time feels a duty to Ike and Kurthnaga, which is what sends her to their side in the endgame. Alright, I ain't gonna sugarcoat this. Ena blows. Her attacking power, as you can see, is absolutely horrendous, plus she has a 20% growth. What the hell is up with that? She even starts two levels higher than Kurth, making her especially hard to raise. But seriously, her speed is I guess marginally better than Kurth's, and her HP STARTS better (but if you leveled them both up ten times or so I promise without a shadow of doubt Kurth would surpass her), plus Kurth actually has a half decent potential in strength, whereas Ena gives all that up for magic, which she has absolutely no need for. Not only that but her defense sucks too. Now to be fair, Ena can be put to good use in 4-E-3 just like Kurth can. Not having anything attack her is an asset you can't possibly pass up, though if you don't give her EXP beforehand, she won't be able to damage crap, whereas Kurth can at least make a dent in the dragons. That and she has one small advantage over Kurth to me in that her Blood Tide gives adjacent enemies added strength and skill, whereas Kurth's Night Tide raises defense and resistance. Both good, but Ena's edges him out to me. Plus let's face it, Ena as a barrier in 4-E-3 is good, but she never gets Formshift either. So honestly, I'm not a dragon guy at all, but even if you completely overload her with favoritism in management, Ena will only be as good if not probably worse than Kurthnaga with only a slight amount of work. My Rating: 2/5 Name: Caineghis Recruited: ENDGAME-1 Class: Lion King Attribute: Earth Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 76 HP .......... 50% Str ....... 22 Str ......... 40% Mag ....... 4 Mag ......... 10% Skl ....... 23 Skl ......... 40% Spd ....... 17 Spd ......... 20% Lck ....... 30 Lck ......... 40% Def ....... 22 Def ......... 30% Res ....... 10 Res ......... 10% Caineghis is the noble king of Gallia, the nation of beast laguz, not to mention he's new to Radiant Dawn. That, and he used to be the commander of Greil, which is tight. Okay, what can I say. Caineghis is the best of the laguz royals, no questions about it. His ONLY weakness is that he cannot fly. And who the hell am I to scratch that off against someone. I would normally say he's weak to fire magic, but since there's about one fire sage in the whole game after you get him, that's a negligible argument. Caineghis has an absurdly high strength stat, with 44 transformed. That's as high as Tibarn's cap. Caineghis caps at 48 total, which is incredible considering he's also ridiculously fast, and will double most everything that the whole game offers. All this, and he has the highest HP and defense in the game besides Gareth, who's a crappy unit anyway. He's really got everything down, and while none of the laguz royals have very high resistance, Caineghis isn't going to be suffering from that either when he's so fast it's a moot point. Overall, if you're going to play it fair and use one laguz royal, make it Caineghis. My Rating: 6/5 (he's the best laguz royal... what does that tell you) Name: Giffca Recruited: ENDGAME-1 Class: Lion Attribute: Dark Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 73 HP .......... 40% Str ....... 21 Str ......... 35% Mag ....... 4 Mag ......... 10% Skl ....... 22 Skl ......... 35% Spd ....... 18 Spd ......... 50% Lck ....... 28 Lck ......... 25% Def ....... 20 Def ......... 30% Res ....... 11 Res ......... 15% Giffca is the shadow of King Caineghis, and for the most part goes where the king does, though he's been known for carrying out odd tasks such as the final battle of Path of Radiance. Giffca is another complete and total beast, as you can expect. Like Caineghis, Giffca caps strength at 48, and while he's not quite as likely to hit it, that is what it is. His HP and defense are just as high, his skill is just as good, and he's even faster, if that was at all possible. In fact, just get his speed up a little and he'll have over 40 in four stats, which I think only Lehran is able to do besides him. That's absolutely outrageous. So what's the catch? While all the other laguz royals come with Formshift, Giffca does not. Now fortunately, Giffca has a Laguz Gem, so he is able to transform for the entire battle, but this wastes one turn. That seems pretty minute, but it's something that can actually make a difference when comparing such overpowered units. So statistically he's beaten very slightly by Caineghis and for that flaw he loses out to Tibarn for me, but hey, what the hell, he's friggin' Giffca. And in my book, he's the third best laguz royal. My Rating: 5/5 Name: Renning Recruited: ENDGAME-1 Class: Gold Knight Attribute: Earth Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 56 HP .......... 40% Str ....... 31 Str ......... 60% Mag ....... 18 Mag ......... 10% Skl ....... 32 Skl ......... 50% Spd ....... 29 Spd ......... 40% Lck ....... 24 Lck ......... 10% Def ....... 27 Def ......... 70% Res ....... 23 Res ......... 20% Renning is the uncle of Elincia, who has gone missing from the kingdom of Crimea for three years. Reason being, he's undergone transformation because of the likes of Izuka, and lost his mind due to laguz drugs. Here's a good example of a character who would have been great about a whole part ago, but right before the endgame, Renning is going to be pretty much obsolete. Now, to be fair, he's not as bad as some would say. If you totally neglected paladins throughout the game, Renning is okay for at least the first couple chapters of the endgame. His strength is alright (if you actually trained others though, they'll trample him), and his skill is strong. Pretty much any paladin will beat him in speed though, plus his defense and resistance are both rather lacking. Overall, he's cool, but I wouldn't substitute him for Titania, Oscar, Geoffrey, or Kieran. My Rating: 2/5 Name: Gareth Recruited: ENDGAME-4 Class: Red Dragon Attribute: Thunder Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 82 HP .......... 90% Str ....... 22 Str ......... 40% Mag ....... 5 Mag ......... 5% Skl ....... 10 Skl ......... 30% Spd ....... 7 Spd ......... 10% Lck ....... 20 Lck ......... 65% Def ....... 21 Def ......... 30% Res ....... 9 Res ......... 25% Gareth is one of the most loyal guardians of the nation of Goldoa, as well as a trusted soldier of King Dheginsea's, and that carries out to the very end. To recruit him in the endgame... just let him live. That's basically it. Alright, you thought Renning or Skrimir were bad in terms of joining too late? Gareth destroys all that. He has a base transformed defense of 42. Here's one problem though: there is one physical attack in ALL the chapters that follow his joining. So despite his ridiculously high HP (highest in the game, not even close), he's going to die. That, and his speed is a complete joke. It starts at FOURTEEN transformed, and caps at TWENTY transformed with only a 10% growth, meaning he's going to get doubled by everything. What the hell is up with that? Now, to be fair, there's a way to use Gareth, which involves really blatant favoritism. 4-E-5 allows him to perhaps do a little damage to the auras, plus in 4-E-4 there's a decent setup of wardwoods, meaning he'll have +10 res there, then you can use a Pure Water on him. That's horribly restricting, though, and come on. I'm not going to blatantly constrict a character like that, geez. Now, if someone died in 4-E-3/4, then feel free to use Gareth in that empty spot. Otherwise, Gareth is just too much of a tank to be of use. Plus, seriously, isn't 2 dragons enough? My Rating: 1.5/5 Name: Nasir Recruited: ENDGAME-4 Class: White Dragon Attribute: Light Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 74 HP .......... 70% Str ....... 7 Str ......... 15% Mag ....... 24 Mag ......... 45% Skl ....... 13 Skl ......... 35% Spd ....... 8 Spd ......... 20% Lck ....... 19 Lck ......... 45% Def ....... 12 Def ......... 15% Res ....... 21 Res ......... 40% Nasir is the grandfather of Ena, as well as an old companion of Ike's. He's a man of many sides, though, in that he has about as many betrayals as Naesala, really. Plus unfortunately, his ultimate loyalty is to Dheginsea. Like Gareth, keep him alive to get him, capiche? I don't like Nasir in battle in this game very much because once again, he joins WAY too late. Fortunately, he has a little more practical use than Gareth. First of all, almost all of the endgame attacks are completely magic. Nasir has a base of 42 resistance transformed, which you can improve by 4 through levels. Now just think of what he'd be if you give him the kind of special treatment Gareth needs just to survive. =) Now granted, Nasir has slightly less HP, but it's still a freaking ton of it, so that's certainly not a problem. Nasir's speed is still awful. It's a little better than Gareth's just based on base, but it's still horrible. However, I honestly don't care here because he was never going to get to the point where he's going to double, plus with his resistance he'll be taking so little damage it's really not too major. One other thing is that Nasir has Nihil. Meaning he's not going to hit by the dreaded Aurora attack that the final boss's auras have. Again, if you have empty room because of a character death, take Nasir. Otherwise, pass. My Rating: 2.5/5 Name: Pelleas Recruited: CHAPTER 2 (second playthrough) Class: Dark Sage -> Arch Sage Attribute: Water Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 33 HP .......... 35% Str ....... 13 Str ......... 25% Mag ....... 24 Mag ......... 55% Skl ....... 20 Skl ......... 45% Spd ....... 21 Spd ......... 60% Lck ....... 14 Lck ......... 40% Def ....... 14 Def ......... 30% Res ....... 19 Res ......... 45% Pelleas is the unfortunate king of Daein, as well as the supposed son of the late King Ashnard and the branded Almedha. TO RECRUIT HIM: you must be on your second playthrough. Refuse his offer in 3-13, and then he'll join you a couple turns into 4-2. Alright, I bet everyone wants to know what I think of Pelleas, and what is the case with him? He's pretty bad! Yeah, I know you were probably expecting something more than that, but that's really all I have to say. First of all, Pelleas joins in 4-2. The standards jump considerably from Part 3 to Part 4, and had Pelleas joined in Part 3, he probably would have been fairly decent. See, Pelleas has 24 base magic though. His stats are barely higher than what Soren's are when he joins you, and he's seven levels lower on top of joining about 15 chapters earlier. That's a fairly significant difference. Now, the thing with Pelleas is that he's essentially the druid of this game, in that he wields dark tomes. Dark tomes are naturally cool, but trust me, they're nothing special that you can't experience through any other form of magic, so the novelty will grow old after a little while. 4-2 is a treacherous chapter, plus his next chapter, 4-5, will give him a chance to promote him if you want, but his stats are honestly way too low for me to give him my consideration. 31 maxed speed is pretty terrible, 24 defense, all that is mediocre even by mage standards. My Rating: 2/5 Name: Lehran Recruited: ENDGAME-5 (second playthrough) Class: Chancellor Attribute: Light Base Stats: Growth Rates: ------------ -------------- HP ........ 50 HP .......... 0% Str ....... 11 Str ......... 0% Mag ....... 40 Mag ......... 0% Skl ....... 40 Skl ......... 0% Spd ....... 40 Spd ......... 0% Lck ....... 40 Lck ......... 0% Def ....... 23 Def ......... 0% Res ....... 40 Res ......... 0% Lehran needs no introduction. The ancient "hero" as well as the one who sealed Yune in a medallion and serves Ashera. TO RECRUIT HIM: you must be on your second playthrough. Deploy the Black Knight into battle in Part 1's Endgame, then in 3-7, have Ike attack the Black Knight, but make sure that both of them survive. With that, in 4-E-2, view Ike's memory scene. With that, Lehran will join at the beginning of 4-E-5. What am I supposed to say about Lehran, honestly? Well, first of all, Lehran has an SS in light, dark, and staves. So if you're going to recruit him at all, then you might as well train Pelleas so he can come bless the Balberith and get that to Lehran. If he can even get the Balberith, Lehran will be a total beast in the endgame with that. Reason being, he has a 40 in FIVE stats. Admit it, that's pretty damn nice. Considering Lehran can wield the ultimate light AND dark tomes plus comes with a free Ashera Staff, which is a true blessing, he's alright. But come on. He joins for the last chapter in the second playthrough. How high can I rate him? My Rating: 3/5 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ VI. Walkthrough (Part 1) ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The game you are about to begin is probably the longest Fire Emblem game ever made, although going along with that, it's one of the best ever, so it all evens out. Just a few notes before I get started: -> There are spoilers in this walkthrough. Obviously. -> If you've ever read any of my guides before, you know how they are rife with lame jokes. This is no exception. -> The guide assumes you're playing on Normal difficulty. Whether you're a Fire Emblem guru or not, that's an excellent place to start, so I advise you do the same thing. -> When I mention a "cavalier", that basically means I'm referring to a Sword/Lance/Axe/Bow Knight. I'm just old school like that. -> Unless you really, really don't want to use a character ever again, you might as well reset if they die. Let it begin. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ VIa. Under Gray Skies ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ ~ Difficulty: 2 ~ My Party: Micaiah, Edward, Leonardo* ~ Max Turns: 10 Well, we've got a fairly decent cutscene to start this all off, and then you'll realize your main character is Micaiah, the so-called Silver Haired Maiden of Daein. It's probably strange that you're playing as Daein despite seeing how evil the lot of them were in the last game, but anyway, first battle kicks us off on the streets of Daein. =============================================================================== Enemies: Reinforcements: --------- ---------------- Lv. 5 Fighter (Pugo) N/A Lv. 3 Bandit x2 Lv. 2 Bandit x3 Lv. 1 Bandit x2 You might see that even though this is the freakin' prologue, I gave it a 2/5 difficulty rating. That's right, don't be fooled, we get off right into a battle that's not hard at all from an objective standpoint, but if you're just coming into this game fresh, you could easily die without expecting it, so it's one that you need to be on your toes for. But anyway, you've got two characters here to start the battle off, and not one of them is a Jeigan esque fighter who can solo this place. Neither of them have over 20 HP, so what the key here is, is to watch the enemy movement. Unless you're damn sure you can handle it, never let more than one approach you. Two, tops. So, what you're going to want to do is have Edward kill the first bandit, then have Micaiah support him from the back. She has Sacrifice if you plan to keep her back out of harm's way (pretty good idea) and heal Edward that way, although Edward has a Vulnerary and will pick up an Herb along the way. At that point one of the Bandits will come forward, so step up a little bit, but keep your distance. Four turns in, an archer named Leonardo will enter, who is no stronger than the other two, but hey, there's strength in numbers. Gradually make your way up, never at any point letting anyone's HP stay below 10. With any luck, Edward will be able to stay alive through the bandits. Watch out for the enemy at the northeast, though, who is the boss of this place. Stay out of his range for a little, make sure that you're healed, and then have one of the three (preferably Edward) step into his range. He'll come to you himself. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Boss / Class / LV / HP / STR / MAG / SKL / SPD / LCK / DEF / RES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pugo | Fighter | 5 | 27 | 11 | 0 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pugo is the first boss of the game, and I gotta say, he provides a decent fight given that title. If you compare him to characters like Zawana in the last game, his stats are way higher, notably his strength which leads to a whooping attack power of 19 right here. Here's how to do it, though. Put Edward in his range, then he'll come forward and attack. At that point, use Micaiah and Leonardo to hit him from long range and get his HP down. With that, Edward should be able to deliver a finishing blow to him. If you're going to get hit back and die, though, make sure that you're going to attack last so that he doesn't get a chance to actually hit you. Fortunately Micaiah and Leonardo get the long range advantage, but anyway, don't let this guy get in more than his initial strike. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Undoubtedly, once you finish that little problem off, this battle will be done. Well, you made it through that, but that was of course arguably the easiest battle in the game. It's just one that can very easily catch you off guard, hence its difficulty rating. But anyway, one moment later you'll see the first villain of this game, the halberdier Jarod. Kills one of his own men right on the spot, kinda cues you in. So, anyway, Part 1 officially begins here. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ VIb. Maiden of Miracles ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ ~ Difficulty: 1 ~ My Party: Micaiah, Edward, Leonardo, Nolan ~ Max Turns: 7 A quick history lesson basically starts this chapter up. So if you didn't know already, in the last game, the nations of Crimea and Daein were at war, and Crimea won the war, giving them reign over Daein, but they passing that over to the Begnion Empire, who are now completely terrorizing them, so now we've got Micaiah of Daein, who is the last hope for the dying nation, along with her Dawn Brigade. But anyway, new area of town, new battle. =============================================================================== Enemies: Reinforcements: --------- ---------------- Lv. 7 Myrmidon (Isaiya) N/A Lv. 4 Fighter x1 Lv. 4 Soldier x1 Lv. 3 Fighter x6 Lv. 3 Archer x1 Lv. 3 Soldier x1 In this battle, although I definitely wouldn't recommend it in a lot of battles you'll see in the future, I actually find that a good offense is the best defense. By that I mean you've got a new addition to the party in Nolan, an axeman who is a total one man army. He's no Seth/Jeigan/Titania by any means, but he starts at level 9 while Edward and Leonardo start at level 4, and with axes he does much heavier damage than those two do with their swords and bows. In fact, right off you'll find a soldier guarding a house. Well, we know that axes beat lances, so go right ahead and move Nolan right below that soldier so that you can attack. It looks dangerous, and you will indeed move a number of forces towards Nolan, but he should be able to survive their onslaught. Move Edward up a little bit, followed by Leonardo and Micaiah so that he can guard them. At that point, the advantage to what has already taken place is that Nolan has damaged the surrounding fighters sufficiently so that the rest of the characters can one hit them. Nolan may be in too bad of shape (aka, single digit HP) to be able to risk attacking though, so have him move so that he's guarding the others, and use a Vulnerary there so he can get back to top shape. At that point, check out the house and you'll get a Hand Axe, which will make Nolan even stronger, allowing him to attack from a long range. But anyway, at the yellow squares at the top you will see two enemies standing guard. The one on the left, as the little blinking shield will always indicate, is the boss. The other enemies will come to you and die, so just get through those and then you've got the boss to deal with. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Boss / Class / LV / HP / STR / MAG / SKL / SPD / LCK / DEF / RES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Isaiya | Myrmidon | 7 | 27 | 7 | 0 | 14 | 14 | 6 | 6 | 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ You actually do not need to fight this guy. In fact, the fighter standing next to Isaiya has a long range weapon, making him your first priority. He can be taken down by having Edward double attack him, then either Leonardo or Micaiah can take him down. With that you can just escape on the side of him. Because let me just spill this out now: bosses guarding squares such as these yellow ones will NEVER move. EVER. No exception here even though there are two squares. Therefore, with four characters you can keep your distance while moving on, plan it out, and then deliver all your striking in one turn if you so please. That's pretty much the best idea. Anyway, this guy uses swords, so even though Nolan has probably been performing exceedingly well in this battle, refrain from using him here. Just use Leonardo and Micaiah; Isaiya has no long range attacks, so he'll be defenseless to them, given his inability to move. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Isaiya drops a Steel Sword upon his defeat, which Edward should be able to equip at this point. Anyway, here's something important. You now have the opportunity to escape, but the battle ends after Micaiah escapes. Something that will come into play later is bonus EXP, which is basically free experience that you can award to your characters, and you will gain more later if the other characters escape first. So Edward, Leonardo, and Nolan... in any order, get them out first, then have Micaiah escape behind them. Anyway, more disaster on the streets caused by Jarod, following. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ VIc. The Dispossessed ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ ~ Difficulty: 2 ~ My Party: Micaiah, Edward, Leonardo, Nolan, Laura, Sothe* ~ Max Turns: 10 And our first indoor battle is about to take place. Before the battle actually starts you'll meet a priest by the name of Laura, who will join with you, and then you'll be taken to this manor, where Sothe is in a different spot than you, but anyway, here's where the chapter takes place. =============================================================================== Enemies: Reinforcements: --------- ---------------- Lv. 8 Armor Lance (Zaitan) Lv. 7 Soldier x1 Lv. 7 Soldier x1 Lv. 6 Archer x1 Lv. 6 Fighter x1 Lv. 6 Soldier x1 Lv. 6 Myrmidon x1 Lv. 5 Archer x1 Lv. 6 Archer x1 Lv. 6 Soldier x2 Lv. 5 Archer x1 Lv. 5 Soldier x2 Lv. 4 Fighter x2 Lv. 4 Soldier x3 As you can see, that's easily the biggest enemy setlist yet. Still, there's a trap right here at the beginning of the battle, and that will be the most you'll need to worry about all battle long. See, this battle is the first introduction to altitude. As you move from left to the middle, you'll see there's an enemy standing right above you. If he comes down and gets to Laura, she'll die in one hit and it'll be a game over right then and there. You obviously can't let that happen, so you'll need to check the guy's range, and make sure that he can't hit you, or that if he can, it's someone like Edward who can take a hit. If he comes down, then by all means finish him off. Have Nolan in the front lines though, handling the soldiers at the right. Also make sure he's got the Hand Axe, since that'll ensure he doesn't take as many hits. Three turns in, Sothe will enter the battle. He is a complete beast compared to the rest of the party, as he is a whole class ahead of them, so use him but don't overuse him, capiche? Use him to take out the two surrounding soldiers, then move down to where there's a small room with two chests. There's two enemies there, and Sothe can easily finish both of them, though I'd suggest using Leonardo to at least land a few hits on them for experience. Anyway, definitely use Sothe to go down there and open the two chests. They contain a Thani and a Wind Edge, which are weapons for Micaiah and Edward respectively. You don't need to go up and equip those now, but definitely hold onto them as they'll be useful in the future. That, and also consider that the archer in the corner drops a Chest Key, which you definitely do not want to have go to waste quite yet. The advantage Sothe has, though, is that he can open chests without them. Nifty. But anyway, the rest of the party needs to move up to the top, and once again, Nolan is great in the front lines to handle the enemies at the upper right, although feel free to have Leonardo and Micaiah land a few hits now and then if it's safe. Note that the boss does NOT move, so that's less you need to evaluate for the worst case scenario. Eventually though, only the boss will be left. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Boss / Class / LV / HP / STR / MAG / SKL / SPD / LCK / DEF / RES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Zaitan | Armr Lance | 8 | 30 | 13 | 0 | 11 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I'll repeat this if you didn't catch it the first time. Even though Zaitan is not guarding a space, he does NOT move, so you'll have a lot less to worry about in regards to him. Anyway, though, Zaitan has a Javelin, so you can't just use the Hand Axe to hit him with no worries. You have three weapons against him, though. First is Sothe. My Sothe wasn't anywhere close, plus I would strongly advise against using Sothe to solo him, as he will steal EXP from everyone else. Second is Micaiah using the Thani. The Thani deals bonus damage to armored knights and cavaliers, so that'll be almost instant death. And third is just Nolan with a Steel Axe, who will win in a straight fight. Just don't overcomplicate things or push your luck, and this guy won't give you much of a challenge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ With Zaitan done with, you may notice there's a chest right behind him. That might be tricky to get quickly if you want to finish the battle in ten turns, but it's definitely possible even if you had Sothe indulge in the two chests below and got the Chest Key as well. The actual chest contains an Energy Drop, which I would strongly suggest giving to Edward so that his attacking power gets halfway decent. But anyway, you need to Arrive here, not Escape, meaning only Laura can do it. Basically, don't try to have anyone else do it, as there's no more EXP to be gained that way. With that, the battle concludes.