Since the release of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light 30 years ago, the Fire Emblem series has been one of the premier tactical RPG franchises, currently having sixteen core entries under its belt. While the series is often regarded for its massive cast of characters that players can utilize in their armies, it also offers players several tools when concocting their strategies.
One of the most important yet frequently overlooked resources for players is the items they can use. While players most often focus on their units and the weapons they wield, there are several key items that can provide incredible value in their respective games. So today, we're going to look at the items from Fire Emblem's history and see which are the best.
10 Member's Card
While the Member's Card is an item that doesn't directly impact combat, it is a valuable asset in the games in which it appears. Most often only appearing once per game, if a character has a member's card in their inventory, they are able to access secret shops.
Though the presence of secret shops is sparse, they tend to contain invaluable, items such as powerful weapons or items needed to promote one's units.
9 Silver Card
Similar to the Member's Card, the Silver Card is an item that directly impacts shopping rather than combat. While a member's card allows for secret shops to be accessed, any character that shops with a silver card in their inventory will half the cost of all purchases made.
This allows a player to arm their units to the teeth with several potent items that they may not have been able to afford otherwise. Though the silver card may not initially seem like it impacts combat, once your units are equipped with superior equipment, its value becomes much more noticeable.
8 Arms Scroll
The first of several consumable items on this list. Rather than increasing the stats of a given unit like most consumables, an Arms Scroll improves a character's weapon rank. While this may not seem like much at first, the most powerful weapons in Fire Emblem can only be equipped if a character has a high enough weapon rank.
As most earlier recruited characters tend to have low starting weapon ranks, and raising these ranks takes a great deal of time, Arms Scrolls can help bypass the need to grind ranks, allowing for more immediate use of silver weapons and other high-rank gear.
7 Seraph Robe
Appearing in nearly every Fire Emblem game, Seraph Robes are a consumable item that permanently raises the maximum HP of a given unit. Depending on the game it appears in, the Seraph Robe provides differing amounts of HP, though in many games it increases a character's maximum HP by 7.
This item can be used rather flexibly, as it can be given to a frailer unit to help their survivability, in case they take an unexpected hit. Similarly, it can be given to an already sturdy and powerful unit, allowing them to pull all the more weight.
6 Delphi Shield
Flying units are some of the most useful characters available in every Fire Emblem game due to their excellent mobility that allows them to ignore terrain and cover significant distances. However, one of the drawbacks of flying units is their susceptibility to arrows.
Luckily, the Delphi Shield is an incredible item that, if in a flying unit's inventory, completely negates this weakness, making them all the more powerful.
5 Chalice Of Beginnings
A reward in Fire Emblem: Three Houses for completing the Cindered Shadows DLC, the Chalice of Beginnings is easily one of the best defensive items in all of Fire Emblem. Once equipped to a unit, that unit gains the ability to counterattack foes from any distance, allowing the most devastating of close-range units to dish out even more counterattacks during the enemy phase.
As if this weren't enough, this Chalice also negates extra effective damage its wielder would sustain, allowing the equipped unit to completely ignore its damage vulnerabilities.
4 Rocky Burdock
The Rocky Burdock is a consumable item in Fire Emblem: Three Houses that permanently increases a unit's strength by one when consumed. While there are items that may increase stats more than the Rocky Burdock, the fact that it can be easily obtained in somewhat large quantities thanks to gardening means it is much more readily accessible and applicable.
Due to the high survivability of enemy units in Maddening Mode, the use of Rocky Burdocks to repeatedly bolster the strength of one's units is a must.
3 Laguz Gem
Appearing in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, the Laguz Gem is the best item a player can use in conjunction with a non-royal Laguz. While all royal Laguz are capable of transforming themselves indefinitely, non-royal Laguz must wait for their gauges to fill and then deal with the fact that they slowly deplete over time.
Luckily, not only does this item start in Giffca's inventory in Radiant Dawn, but with the use of a Laguz Gem, any Laguz can remain transformed for the entirety of a chapter, removing their most glaring weakness from the equation.
2 Knight Ward
Only ever appearing in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, the Knight Ward is a stellar item that can be equipped by any knights, cavalry, or soldiers, automatically appearing in Astrid's inventory when she is recruited. Once equipped, the given unit has their defense and resistance both raised by two, increasing their survivability.
More importantly, as long as a unit is equipped with a Knight Ward, their speed growth increases by an impressive 30 percent, meaning many units equipped with the ward will end up raising their speed every time they level up.
1 Boots
While there are several consumable items in Fire Emblem's past that increase a character's stats, all pale in comparison to boots. Appearing in nearly every entry of the series, once a character uses boots, their movement permanently increases. While the amount of movement boots increase varies from game to game, even in Fire Emblem Fates - in which Boots only increase a character's movement by 1 - they are still such a sought-after resource. So much so that some players debate killing Shura in Conquest, as doing so will reward the player with boots.
As mobility is one of the most integral aspects of a unit in Fire Emblem, boots can be flexibly used to provide a less mobile unit with improved movement, or turn a Wyvern Rider or Paladin into a god of mobility.