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Fire Emblem Awakening Game Guide - Kindle edition by Top Gamer Media. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. This hub is going to talk about Henry, the second of two Dark Mages that you can recruit in Fire Emblem: Awakening. Dark Mages are one of the best base classes in this iteration of Fire Emblem due to the existence of Nosferatu.
Whether you’re new to the Fire Emblem series or just need a refresher (it’s been several years since the last game and nearly a decade since the last handheld iteration), GamesBeat’s spoiler-free starter guide should help you hit the ground running when Awakening releases for the Nintendo 3DS on February 4.
To die or not to die
Awakening’s Casual Mode enables new players (or possibly those who become a little too emotionally attached to their virtual soldiers) to forgo the franchise’s iconic permadeath and allow defeated characters to return after the battle in which they were injured.
For those seeking the authentic Fire Emblem experience, you can choose Classic Mode to ensure that any character who gets caught slippin’ is dead for good. Classic also prevents you from loading previous save games, so once you make a bad decision in-game, there’s no going back.
Note that Classic or Casual Mode are not difficulty settings, so you can still choose Normal, Hard, and eventually Lunatic regardless of the mode you select.
Avoid ‘trap’ characters
Every Fire Emblem game starts you off with some badass character that seems to swat away enemies like flies, and Awakening is no different. The problem is, those characters are usually advanced classes (as is the case with Frederick in Awakening), so while they may tank and attack like beasts, they’ll also eat up a ton of experience that could be going to your other, less-powerful characters.
If you let Frederick, for example, tear through the early missions, you’ll find that your party as a whole will be woefully overwhelmed by enemies later on. If you do bring Frederick, you may want to use him strictly as a meatshield. There will be instances where you can’t reach an enemy without being attacked first, often by multiple opponents, so you can send Frederick in first to take one for the team and probably thin the herd just with counterattacks alone.
Enemies will target the squishies first
So you’ve got a ton of characters near an enemy and figure there’s no way he’s going to go running into the middle of them just to bitch-slap your healer, right? Wrong. The A.I. is designed to take down whomever is easiest to kill, starting with your armorless healers. Keep them out of range at all times.
Skirmishes
Skirmishes are optional battles that appear on the world map. You’ll see an enemy just standing there, waiting for you to come over and slap it with your glove, or how ever people initiated conflicts in medieval times. Sometimes, though, you may encounter unique scenarios where two enemies will fight you at the same time. You’ll reap additional rewards (a random item and $3,000), but make sure you’re prepared.
If you enter a battle with a traveling merchant, he will appear as a nonplayable character. See that no harm comes to him, and he’ll gift you a random item (usually something good). Lastly, you can come across StreetPass or SpotPass characters engaged with the enemy. Those NPC characters will aid you in battle, but be aware that you won’t get any items they take.
Frequent fliers
Although they may start out weak, flying units can become your greatest asset. They’re able to travel further and over terrain types that other units cannot. Just be careful that you don’t let them go too far on their own (best to pair a couple of fliers together); otherwise, they may get stranded and ganged up on.
The only real weakness airborne units have is archer enemies, but since you can view the map before you choose your squad, you’ll know what you’re up against.
Support and pairing up
Unlike many other strategy-role-playing games, the direction in which you attack an enemy and your placement on the map have no effect on combat. So you can’t deal critical back attacks or have an archer deal bonus damage by taking the high ground. Instead, you’ll need to rely on the Support* and Pair Up systems.
One character will support another anytime the two units are positioned next to each other. This automatically provides a stat boost for the lead character in battle (the one attacking or being attacked). The higher the Support Rank between the two characters, the better the stat boost will be.
Support units can also execute a Dual Strike, attacking the enemy for additional damage, or a Support Block, where they dive in front of the enemy’s attack and nullify the damage. Again, the higher the Support Rank, the better the chance you’ll gain these benefits, so make sure your characters are all nice and friendly with each other.
Pairing up works a little differently in that two characters combine to act as one unit. The lead character will gain a bonus Pair Up boost based on the partner’s class (a magic class boosts your magic, for example), as well as still being able to activate Dual Strikes and Support Blocks. Keep in mind that the character who initiates Pair Up will actually become the support unit, but you may switch roles or separate at any time (as long as you still have a turn to take).
*Support Rank is gained by fighting next to each other or pairing up. It starts at a D Rank and can go all the way up to S Rank if the two characters are marriage compatible.
Marriage and children (really)
At a certain point in the game, male and female characters with an S Support Rank will marry each other. This includes Chrom, the main character, as well your own custom character, known as “My Unit.”
Once married, almost every female character has a corresponding child character that you can recruit toward the end of the game. Unfortunately, to further explain this system would spoil the story, but you can check out this incredibly robust FAQ if you’d like to know more.
Infinite Divine Weapons
Expect a downloadable-content episode titled “Infinite Divine Weapons” to be released eventually. This map has three treasure chests, each containing a random weapon, and can be replayed limitlessly. This is the most straightforward way to collect every Divine weapon in the game.
Lunatic-Plus
Veteran strategy-RPG players may find Awakening’s Normal difficulty to be a little too forgiving. The harder difficulties can provide a more appropriate challenge, and finishing the game on Lunatic (the highest difficulty setting) will unlock Lunatic+. The key difference here is that enemies may come equipped with insane skills unique to Lunatic-Plus. Good luck!
Additional tips: Kat Bailey, Serenesforest.com, GameFAQs
Check out GamesBeat’s Fire Emblem: Awakening review.
Fire Emblem Awakening has been described by some as a perfect jumping-in point for the tactical strategy series; the best place to start if you're unfamiliar with either the series or genre. I can confirm this, since I only started playing it recently and have been having a blast -- despite being a complete Fire Emblem noob.
So if you're like me and have always wanted to give the game a try but are concerned about what to expect, here's some basic tips and hints that the game doesn't necessarily inform you of and will help you prepare for the challenges ahead.
1. Party Members WILL Die
There's no sugar-coating this. Regardless of what difficulty you play at on your first time through, your party members are going to get cut down. Now, fortunately, you can turn perma-death off (the feature that means characters stay dead if they fall in battle) but they'll still be removed from the current battle. There's no recovery items or anything.
If the idea of forever losing certain characters scares you, then don't be afraid about choosing to play Newcomer mode. Otherwise, the only way you're not going to lose anyone is if you know the game inside and out.
2. You Won't Have Any Money
You may think, being an RPG of sorts, that acquiring money to spend on more weapons and such is as simple as just defeating enemies. Unfortunately, that's not the case. The only way to make any money is to sell items. Some enemies may drop Bullion (gold) that can be sold for high prices but, otherwise, if you need cash, you're going to have to sell your own weapons.
Fortunately, it's also possible to acquire extra weapons on the battlefield (from defeated enemies and special, sparkling areas) and in the barracks (which is completely random). Just don't think you can spend hours grinding for cash like in some other RPGs.
3. Focus on Weapons' Weaknesses When Forging
Forging may be pretty expensive, but it can be worth it since it can make otherwise weak weapons much stronger for later battles and give already powerful weapons an extra edge. One way to go about this is to focus on what each weapon is lacking.
Weapons have three stats: Might, Hit and Critical, which determine how much damage the weapon does, how likely the weapon is to hit an enemy and the odds of the weapon getting a critical hit respectively. So for example, if a weapon is particularly lacking in Might but has good Hit, prioritize upgrading the former so it balances out.
Also, even if you somehow have lots of money to spend on forging, you can only upgrade a weapon eight times out of the possible fifteen. So use those wisely. A weapon may have a high hit rate, but if it doesn't have strength behind it, it's not particularly reliable.
4. Grind on Risen Battles
Sometimes, old maps that you've already cleared will be infested by the undead monsters known as Risen. These are perfect opportunities to gain experience for your party and are worth attempting the moment they show up.
The Risen's level will depend on what map they appear on, so Risen on the Chapter 1 map will be much weaker than ones that appear on the Chapter 10 map. If you're fighting particularly weak Risen, you can afford to not use your strongest weapons and save them for much trickier fights.
You can also buy an item called a Reeking Box which will summon Risen to whichever chapter you're currently on on the world map. It's not too expensive either, so it's perfect if you feel like you need to grind up a little bit. Just remember what I wrote about the Risen's level so you can decide which area you want to fight them on.
And one more thing: merchants will randomly appear on the map too. Should a merchant and Risen appear on the same area, go there immediately! If you play a different chapter, the merchant will be killed. It's worth going there since, if you protect the merchant in battle and keep them alive, they'll reward you after the fight.
5. Using Master Seals
This easier said than done, since Master Seals are really expensive to buy and are very rarely dropped by enemies. But if you ever find yourself able to get one, use it immediately as it allows a character who is at least level 10 to upgrade to an advanced class of your choice. While it resets their level to 1, they get a massive boost in stats and, sometimes, gain the ability to use a new weapon class. This is especially handy for healers like Lissa since they can gain a means of counter-attacking.
Just a heads-up, not every character can be upgraded via a Master Seal. Some party members that join you, like Frederick, start off as an advanced class and some can't be upgraded at all. For those characters, it's recommend that you use Second Seals which allow a character to completely change their class whilst still retaining any skills they previously had.
6. Complete Paralogues Immediately
Paralogues are essentially side-quests that become available once certain conditions are met. The reason they should be done as soon as they become available is because not only can you get more experience from them, but they usually contain more allies that you can recruit.
Just remember: they need to survive the battle if they're going to join the party, even if perma-death is turned off. And some of them are rather powerful and can be a big help early on so make sure you save beforehand should you need to reload.
7. Turn SpotPass On
When you first boot up the game, it'll ask if you want to turn SpotPass on. Even though the game's no longer receiving support, it's worth doing since you'll almost immediately gain access to a whole bunch of optional maps, items and characters that Nintendo released during the game's initial run.
Go into the options menu on the world map and select Wireless. Go into Bonus Box and you can pick and choose what you want to download. I'd at least recommend downloading Bonus Maps as they're the ones that allow you to recruit even more characters. However, they won't be available until the very tail-end of the game.
In the end, though, you're going to figure out the basics yourself. Only you can decide what characters to focus on, who they should support and what role they should take, because the great thing about Fire Emblem Awakening is that there's no wrong way to play.
You can decide who marries who and you can decide whether you just want to experience the game at its most basic or master it so you can conquer the far more challenging difficulties. Hopefully, though, these tips will keep you going through those early stages and help you ease into the adventure.
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