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Fire Emblem: Engage's final wave of DLC introduces a whole new alternate reality in a six-chapter adventure called the Fell Xenologue. Introducing five new characters you can recruit as a reward for finishing and two new classes — the Mage Cannoneer and Enchanter — it's an interesting challenge for the dedicated Engage player.

RELATED: Fire Emblem Engage: Ancient Well Guide

Unlike its predecessor, Cindered Shadows in Three Houses, this challenge will be locked to each independent save. Getting the boons of this challenging endeavor will require you to challenge it anew with each playthrough, meaning you'll have plenty of opportunities to get familiar with its unique attributes and these walkthroughs.

How To Unlock The Fell Xenologue

Xander Tells Alear About Strange Presence In Ancient Well

To unlock the Fell Xenologue, provided you have purchased the DLC expansion pass, you'll need to have opened the Ancient Well and completed Chapter Six.

From here, there are six chapters to challenge, and you may complete them all at any time.

If you complete all six chapters and unlock the new characters at the end, they will join your team at their max-level Advanced class version. This will mean two things:

1. You will suddenly have five overpowered units at a low-level chapter.

2. All your Divine Paralogues, which are scaled to the level of your units, will suddenly become near-impossible.

The recommended time to finish the sixth chapter of the Fell Xenologue is around Chapter 15-17.

The Fell Xenologue has the normal three difficulty levels, (Normal, Hard, and Maddening) but these can be changed independent of your main save's difficulty.

It has been noted by many players that Normal is too easy, Hard is too hard, and Maddening is almost impossible. Keep this in mind when determining the difficulty you would like to play at.

Rules Of The Xenologue

Louis Inventory And Stats Menu In Fell Xenologue Chapter One

The rules of the fourth wave of DLC are a challenging departure from what has been established in the main game.

The most important change to take away from all of it is: your army in your main save file will be almost entirely separate from the Fell Xenologue.

Items And Rings

Moving A Steel Lance From Rosado Into Louis's Inventory
  • Your normal inventory will become inaccessible, and all units will be given fixed weapons/items.
  • You cannot forge/modify weapons.
  • While you can trade weapons between units, you cannot trade them to any forced deployment units like Nel, Nil, or the Winds during pre-battle.
    • To trade items to forced units, you'll need to give them to another unit and spend a battle turn trading them over.
  • All Emblems and Bonds Levels acquired in your main save will carry over.

If you challenge the Fell Xenologue after losing the rings in Chapter 10 and 11, they will not appear in your inventory. You must retake them for them to be usable again in the Fell Xenologue.

Forced Deployments

Alear With Fixed Inventory In Unit Selection Menu
  • Alear, Nel, and Nil will always be forced deployed, and their death is an auto-loss for the chapter.
  • The Winds — Zelestia, Madeline, Gregory, and Mauvier — are forced deployments, but dying is not permanent nor ends in a loss.
  • These units come with a set amount of SP, but they cannot Inherit Skills.
  • These units cannot gain experience, Bond Levels, or Support points.

Guest Deployments

Veyle Inventory And Stats Menu In Fell Xenologue Chapter One
  • Each map will have a set number of "Guest Units" you can select to join your team in addition to forced deployment units.
  • Guest Units can be chosen from any member of your living roster in the main game.
  • All units will have fixed:
    • Levels
    • Classes (canonical only)
    • Stats
  • All Inherited Skills will carry over from your main save.
  • Units lost in the Xenologue do not permanently die, even in Classic mode.

Although your units cannot die in the main story campaign, this protection does not apply to the Skirmishes in the Fell Xenologue. Losing a unit on Classic Mode within the Fell Xenologue will result in permadeath.

Choose Your Fighter(s) - Preparing For Battle

Nil's Inventory And Stats In Fell Xenologue Chapter One

For the first map, you'll be forced to take Alear, Nel, and Nil. Any of these characters being defeated will end in 'Game Over,' so protecting them (especially Nil) will be necessary for success.

Unfortunately, Nel is a barely passable unit, and Nil is practically worthless. Keeping both alive will account for most of your difficulty in this map.

Nil begins with a Restore staff, and he'll prompt you to use it. However, for some reason, he is actually incapable of using the staff he is equipped with. The only way to use the Restore staff on his person is to trade it during a battle turn to another unit or pair Nil with Micaiah.

If you are pairing Nil with Micaiah, make certain to use another unit to trade over a Mend staff onto Nil.

If you are not pairing Nil with Micaiah, Tiki is also a good option. The third and most lackluster option is to pair Nil with Celica.

Louis Trades Spear And Steel Lance To Nel In Fell Xenologue Chapter One

Nel should be given a Spear, but you'll need to put it in the empty inventory slot of another character to eventually trade it over. She makes good pairings with:

  • Eirika - for better damage and Sol healing.
  • Chrom - for helpful stats and additional Levin Sword.
  • Leif - for better Hit rate, more health, and better Build/Speed.
  • Camilla - for choice of Dragon Veins, better movement, and Soar boons.
Louis Uses Override On Corrupted Wolves In Chapter One

Your remaining units should include one tanking unit (either Jade or Louis) paired with Sigurd and one mage/staff unit paired with Veronica (one with at least a Bond Level of 10 to reach Fortify+).

Veyle is the best pairing with Veronica, but if you have yet to recruit Veyle, any solid mage unit — like Citrinne or Hortensia — will do.

It is highly recommended to Inherit the Pair Up skill (Corrin) to your tank unit. The Corrupted Wolves are able to Chain Attack, and there are several of them. Getting ganged up on in this map will be lethal due to the wolves' ability.

Last but not least, make sure to trade a Levin Sword from Celine onto Alear.

Good pairings for Dragon Child Alear include:

  • Byleth
  • Corrin
  • Marth

Dragons From Afar - Battle

Overview Of Chapter One Xenologue Map Above Angle

Enemies

  • x14 Corrupted Wolf
  • x1 Mage (Corrupted)
  • x2 Archer (Corrupted)
  • x1 Wolf Knight
  • ???

Levels are set around Base Class 15

Deployment Allowance

5 - Two "guests," Alear, Nil, and Nel

Victory Conditions / Defeat Conditions

Victory: Defeat The Wolf Knight, ???

Defeat: Alear, Nel, or Nil is defeated

Treasures

None

Difficulty

★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ (6/10)

Top Recommended Units

Any solid staff unit with Veronica, Louis or Jade.

The main gimmick of this map is the ability of the Corrupted Wolves to lower the max HP of anyone they come into contact with by five HP. Even if they deal zero damage, the effect will still take hold, and it stacks to -20.

In order to get rid of this effect, there are three options:

  • Use a Restore staff (provided by Nil).
  • Use Micaiah's Great Sacrifice with a Qi Adept unit.
  • Use Veronica's Fortify+ staff.

The most useful of these options is certainly Veronica's Fortify+ staff, allowing you to both clear the status effect and heal. This can be performed up to three times while Engaged and four if your unit has a Bond Level of 11 with Veronica.

Veronica is additionally valuable here for providing another unit for your team. If the opportunity presents itself, summoning while Engaged will offer a huge bonus for your efforts.

Veyle And Veronica Prepare To Use Elfire On Corrupted Wolf Chapter One

With this knowledge in hand, the winning strategy of this map will be to tread slowly and carefully southward down the center of the map. Your tanking unit can wander a little west, but keeping your units circled in the center will allow for better set up in the late half of the map.

Your goal is to make it to the central area surrounded by rocks. You'll use this area to set up your tank as a shield wall to shoot magic and projectiles over.

Take out the wolves directly in front of you, trading items over to optimize the turn. Use Canter to move your tank unit slightly to the right to draw out the wolf on the far northeast side of the map.

Louis Blocks Eastern Entrance To Central Chamber Fell Xenologue Chapter One

After all the wolves at the start are dealt with, begin heading to the central area, taking out any wolves that may stand in your way. Keep Nel and Nil towards the back of your formation.

Place your tank unit on the eastern side of the central area, blocking the entrance inward. There is a sniper unit, but you can place Nel with a spear or your mage unit on the side to deal with them.

You do not need to waste Restores and Fortify+ on the tank unit so long as they have Pair Up.

You can ignore dealing with the stacking bonus until the ??? and Tiki or a mage unit appears to threaten them.

Louis Blocks Southwestern Entrance In Central Chamber Chapter One

Once most or all the wolves and the sniper on the eastern side have been defeated, wolves will likely begin moving on the southwest side. Move your tank unit in the opening to block them once more.

You can place another ranged unit on the northern side of this blockade to catch the wolves as they funnel through.

Around this time, the Wolf Knight paired with Tiki will use Divine Blessing on a Corrupted Wolf, and another Corrupted Wolf and Mage will spawn in the southwest corner of the map within the same or the following round.

Louis Targeted By Mystery Assassin While Blocking Entrance

Continue through the line of wolves, using your supporting ranged unit to help your tank move at least one square down to bait ??? and Tiki forward.

You may encounter wolves that circle around the blockade to the west side of the central area. Block them with Alear.

If you haven't already, use your supporting unit to unstack the debuffs on your tank unit before ??? and Tiki reach you.

Nel Paired With Camilla Prepares To Finishing Blow Assassin

Once ??? and Tiki come knocking on your doorstep, you can go all out with Engage attacks. The map will end once these two are defeated, so you can ignore all the other wolves so long as you're certain you can end the battle in the same turn as your offensive.

??? and Tiki are thankfully very straightforward. They have no glaring concerns other than their high stats (especially their speed) and high avoid.

With both defeated, the map will end, and you'll be able to move on to the next chapter.

NEXT: Fire Emblem Engage: How To Recruit Every DLC Wave 3 Emblem