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Fire Emblem: Echoes - Shadows of Valentia is a remake of the second Fire Emblem game for the NES. As a result, it's quite a difficult game even with all the modern touches added. Even veterans of the series can get stumped by the game's quirks, such as powerful archers and explorable dungeons.
As a result, the game is a little divisive but also the favorite of many. Still, it can be a little intimidating to get into - so we've compiled a few handy tips to set you on your way.
Fatigue Management
As you fight inside dungeons, your party will start to accrue fatigue. You cannot see this directly, but the face icon next to a character's health bar will give you a quick, visual shorthand for how they're feeling. If the face is happy and smiling, they have low fatigue, and a frowny face means the character is tired.
When a character is fatigued, they will have reduced maximum health, making them far more fragile in battle and a liability - especially on Classic Mode. How much health they lose is based on the character, with some characters losing more than others.
There are two ways to deal with fatigue while fighting in a dungeon:
- Briefly return to the World Map. This will heal your party's fatigue entirely and means that if you're close to completing a dungeon and leaving anyway, you can worry less about it.
- Consume provisions. These are food items and generic ingredients that can be acquired from many sources, such as investigating towns.
How much fatigue a provision recovers for a unit will depend on a character's taste preferences. For example, Alm loves meat but hates sweets, meaning that if he's fatigued you should give him Dried Meat instead of Honey, if you have both of those items.
Class Changing
Unlike in many other Fire Emblem games, class changing in Fire Emblem: Echoes - Shadows of Valencia requires that you visit a Mila Idol once a character has reached a certain level. The table below details what level a class must reach to be able to promote.
|
Level Required |
Classes Applicable |
|---|---|
|
Level 3 |
Villager |
|
Level 7 |
Mercenary, Soldier, Archer, Cavalier, Mage, Pegasus Knight, Cleric |
|
Level 10 |
Myrmidon, Knight, Sniper, Paladin, Dread Fighter |
|
Level 12 |
Male Mage |
|
Level 14 |
Female Mage |
Dread Fighters can promote again once they reach level 10, but this will turn them into a Villager again. This means that they can keep the stats they gained on the way and then choose another class.
Villager Promotion Recommendations
There are five characters in the game that begin as Villagers. The Villager class is unique in that it can promote into a number of different classes, namely Mercenary, Soldier, Archer, Cavalier, Pegasus Knight, Mage, and Cleric.
Mercenary, Soldier, and Archer are unique to male Villagers, while Pegasus Knight and Cleric are unique to the one female villager. Any Villager may become a Cavalier or Mage.
In the table below, we have some recommendations for what class each Villager should promote into based on their attributes, strengths, and weaknesses.
|
Gray |
Gray suits the Mercenary class excellently. It uses his good Attack and boosts his Speed nicely. |
|---|---|
|
Tobin |
Tobin suits both the Archer and Mage classes. Archers are great in this game thanks to the high range stat of bows, and Mages are also very effective thanks to most enemies having very low Resistance stats. |
|
Kliff |
Kliff is similar to Tobin, but is far more suited to the Mage class. His spell list is very good and his low speed prevents him from being very effective at anything else. |
|
Faye |
While it might be nice to have a Pegasus Knight so early in the game, Faye really suits becoming a Cleric. More healing is amazing and she gets the valuable Anew spell, letting her act as the game's Dancer. |
|
Atlas |
While Archers are very valuable in Celica's route, there is no denying that Atlas really suits becoming a Mercenary. He makes for one of the best Dread Fighters in the game. Alternatively, having him become a Cavalier can be good as Celica's route is devoid of them until Conrad, the final unit you'll pick up. |
Rare Enemies
If you clear out a dungeon multiple times, there is a chance that you'll come across what are known as Rare Enemies. You'll be able to tell these by their yellow auras and the valuable loot that they drop when killed.
Every dungeon in the game has at least one Rare Enemy associated with it, but only one may spawn at a time. If you're on the hunt for them, leave the dungeon after defeating one and return for another chance at spawning them.
How To Use Alcohol
While it may seem like you should be able to use alcohol to reduce a character's fatigue, this is not the case. The alcoholic provisions are instead used to restore your uses of Mila's Turnwheel whilst inside a dungeon. This is done by offering any alcoholic item to one of Mila's Idols.
You can also restore your Mila's Turnwheel uses by returning to the World Map.
The four alcoholic items that can be used for this purpose are Wine, Ale, Leftover Ale, and Ram Wine.
Don't Miss Atlas
While most recruitable characters are difficult to miss, Atlas is a notable exception. He's the only Villager that you can recruit on Celica's route (unless you forgo recruiting Faye and Kliff on Alm's route and nab them with Celica) and he can be found in a Mountain Village House.
Simply talk to him to recruit him, and you'll have him for the rest of the game. You know, unless he dies, and you're playing on Classic Mode.