Name | Class | Affinity | Starts At | HP | STR | MAG | SKL | SPD | LUC | DEF | RES | MOV | CON | AID | PRF |
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These are mathematically average stats based upon starting stats, growth rates and number of levels gained. Values in bold mean that the unit hits the class upper limit for a stat. Values may well be higher overall since, if you're anything like me, two one-point levels up will cause you to restart a mission (or you'll save scum using the virtual console reset point) so that characters will end up better than average. Remember that values can go down as well as up. This means that characters whose stats are on the border of acceptable (e.g. Guy's strength or Sain's skill) may end up below par. Most units will not reach 20/20 unless you spend dozens and dozens of turns abusing arenas. I'd advise against arena abuse for a couple of reasons: it will really hurt your tactics ranking and there are only a handful of units who can compete in the arena without dying. Bummer to have to restart Port Badon because Oswin just got killed. For a better idea of how a unit will likely turn out, look at the 20/10 stats.
The CON stat determines the weight of weapon that can be carried without a SPD penalty. It is also used in the calculation to determine whether one character can rescue another: if the first character's AID stat is greater than or equal to the second character's CON stat, a rescue can be effected.
The PRF column follows the weapon / magic triangles and should be read off as Lance, Sword, Axe, Bow for physical units and Anima, Light, Dark, Staves for magical ones. These are the starting proficiencies when you first recruit them and / or immediately after promotion.
Although the raw stats provide an easy way to compare characters, they don't tell the whole story. They show the destination but say nothing about the journey; Raven may be an an easy character to level up but the same can't be said of Wil or Nino. For ranking purposes, consider the overall utility of the unit. All else being equal, mounted units are more useful than foot units and flying units are more useful still. Units who can wield multiple weapon types are more useful than units who can only wield one. Units that can fight at 1 and 2 range are more useful than units who are limited to 1 or 2 range. Units who are available for most of the game are more useful than units who are recruited towards the end. Units who are already promoted become more useful the later they're recruited, particularly since they come with good weapon proficiency.
Lords promote at fixed chapters in the game two chapters apart with your main lord promoting last. When they promote, they gain a secondary weapon at rank D. Assuming you go through Lyn's story first, Lyn will have a slight level advantage over the other two which tends to mean that she'll promote first. Her story also has a couple of use-them-or-lose-them stat-up items which can be used to improve her HP and strength. Regardless, she is an excellent unit. Promoted, she becomes, in effect, a swordmaster who can use bows. Eliwood tends to promote towards the end of the game which means that he's unlikely to get much past 20/12. On promotion he gets a mount and the ability to use lances. If you compare him to a paladin of the same level, he will have better stats overall but worse constitution and slightly worse move. Hector hits hard and tanks well throughout the game. Early on he has issues with speed and skill but blossoms later. After promotion, he gains the abilities to use swords, but there's not a lot of point in developing this ability - you're better off gaining S-rank in axes.
Lots of choice for cavaliers. On promotion, paladins gain the ability to use axes but unless the unit's name is "Marcus", I wouldn't bother going out of my way to level up their axe weapon rank since they'll still be some way from mastering swords and lances. Kent and Sain are both solid units, with Sain trading skill for strength. This isn't necessarily a good trade, however. Not only does Sain hit the strength cap very early, he can end up with a skill score sufficiently low that he ends up benched. Kent, on the other hand, is almost guaranteed to end up useful - just keep him away from mages. Lowen is, well, not great. He's sort of a mobile tank, but Oswin and Hector tank much better than him. Marcus and Isadora are both pre-promotes. Despite a bad rep, Marcus is quite good: only speed ends up really sub-par and you'll be a good way through the game before this actually becomes an issue. His greatest benefit is weapon mastery: he can easily end up with SAA ranks. He is particularly useful during the early- to mid-game and by the time the rest of the team starts to catch him up, he's done his job. Isadora is hit-or-miss: strength and skill are borderline and defence is downright lousy. Decent luck and speed scores mean that a lot of enemy attacks will miss, but still.
Wallace is encountered in Lyn's story. On normal difficulty, you're forced to promote him right away which means that he will end up quite bad. On hard difficulty, you can just let him gain a couple of levels clearing the way to Lundgren without promoting. You'll only encounter him again if you leave your lords a little under-leveled (otherwise you get the map where you recruit Geitz). This is a fog of war map and on hard difficulty he's likely to die before you can recruit him. Punishment for not playing the game well enough? He can become an acceptable unit with a bit of work. Alas, he's competing against Oswin for a place in the team and Oswin is all-round better with much better availability. Oswin's biggest issue is getting to the fight in the first place so it might be an idea to leave him to take care of reinforcements. Where a living wall is required there are none better.
All the Pegasus knights are top-class units. They start off fragile but don't stay that way for long. Prior to promotion, they have a fatal weakness to archery but post-promotion this ceases to be such an issue since very little can hit them (though you may want to play safe with silver bow snipers). They are pretty much immune to magic which makes them ideally suited to take out mages behind enemy lines. Actually, they're good for taking out pretty much anything behind enemy lines including most bosses. Use two or, if you can, all three. Farina is only available in Hector's story and the cost of hiring her is enough to negatively impact your funds ranking. However, having three falcoknights gives you complete air superiority and allows you to triangle attack enemy bosses; it is by far the most satisfying way to take out Nergal. The biggest weakness is the horrible constitution score which means that they're limited to iron lances for most of the game.
Wyvern riders are another matter. Lacking the insane dodge of the pegasus gals, enemy archers remain a fatal weakness and high defence only partially compensates. Worse, their resistance score is through the floor so enemy mages will own them. One weakness is a problem, two is a fatal flaw. Heath has great stats (apart from RES) but comes in late and underleveled. Despite coming in very late, Vaida's starting level is 9 promoted which means that it's possible for her to reach the level cap. She also starts with A rank in lances and swords while Heath will struggle to get above (or even to) rank C in the latter. This means that she could turn out to be the better of the two wyvern units and will save you the cost of an Elysian whip (unused promotion items boost your funds ranking).
There's a theme running through these guys: massive HP and strength but at least one horrible flaw that keeps them on the benches. Dorcas's flaw is speed - he has the lowest of any unit. This means that enemy units will routinely double him. Because of his low resistance, enemy mages will be lethal. Hawkeye also has horrible speed but at least he has decent RES. Dart has horrible skill. Since axes are inaccurate, this is not a good thing at all: there's no point in hitting like a truck if you miss. Dart is also extremely expensive to promote - the ocean seal is worth a fortune. Geitz is OK and has a B-rank in bows when recruited but he also has the worst resistance of any unit. Furthermore, he's a pain to recruit: you'll need either the assistance of Ninian or Oswin. If you try to use Dart alone, Geitz will most likely kill him. Although Bartre ends up quite well balanced he starts off slower than Dorcas and doesn't overtake him until level 19. If you want the complete set of swordmasters, you'll have to make him at least a level 5 warrior (not fighter) to unlock the future Mrs. Bartre, Karla. Couple of things to note. Warriors (but not berserkers) gain the ability to use bows. With 30 strength, even short bows can OHKO enemies. If you want a good axe user, however, Raven is probably your best bet.
Swordsmen are divided into the glass cannon swordmaster and the solid hero. Swordmasters can only use swords but gain critical bonus. Enemy generals and wyvern riders are problematic for them whereas the hero character can simply switch to axes. Guy is OK but has two problems. First off, Lyn has most of his capabilities, somewhat better stats and bows. Second, he's not really competing with Lyn; he's competing with Raven. And Guy ain't winning that competition. To accommodate Guy you're going to have to leave out another good unit. If and when you get him, Karel is at least as good. Fewer HP, but better DEF and CON and doesn't cost you a hero crest. Karla can only be obtained at the very end of the game and is a worse unit than Guy and Karel. Not worth it when you consider the opportunity cost of levelling and promoting Bartre.
The mercenary / hero is all round good with no weaknesses. Well, RES could do with being higher but high speed means that attacks are frequently dodged. Raven is one of the top units in the game: solid growths all round, high base stats and weapon triangle control. He is hurt somewhat by the stat caps since he caps speed early and caps strength not long thereafter. If you use him, he will be one your main killers. Harken is another all-round solid unit, not as good as Raven but then who is? Harken is also an absolute pain to recruit and, since he comes with both high stats and the brave sword, can easily kill the character sent to recruit him.
Karel and Harken are recruited on the same map. Which map depends on a hidden calculation. If the combined levels of Dorcas, Bartre, Guy and Raven are higher than the combined levels of Erk, Lucius, Serra and Priscilla you'll get one map and a different map if it's the other way round. You can only recruit one or the other. For it to be Harken you have to fulfil some PITA objective, for example, NOT kill promoted enemy units for nine turns. Not only will this hurt your tactical ranking but he starts off as an extremely dangerous enemy who can cause you a game over. Although Harken is the better unit, actually getting him in your army can be maddening.
Thieves have the unique ability to steal stuff from enemy units. Stealing gives a big boost to your funds ranking. However, opportunities are few and far between and engineering opportunities might cause problems (such as leaving your feeble thief open to an enemy attack). Because of low strength, thieves are difficult to level up since most XP come from enemy kills. When you recruit him, Legault is likely to be way ahead of Matthew. As for promoting your thieves, it's not worthwhile. You get the unique and extremely valuable fell contract near the endgame. Jaffar is already all the assassin you need. To recruit him, ensure that you talk to him with Nino when you recruit her. Note that Jaffar is able to unlock chests with the added benefit of not being killed by an enemy mage armed with bolting.
Wil has a strength advantage while Rebecca has a speed advantage. Since an archer needs to be doubling enemies to gain experience in her own right, Rebecca has an advantage over Wil. In my experience, Wil is just too hard to level up to a point where he's not doing chip damage or mooching kills. If Rebecca doesn't end up strength deficient (which is a distinct possibility), she'll reward the initial babying that she requires to get a few levels under her belt.
If you've not levelled up either of them, Louise is a perfectly adequate sniper. If you're using Pent (and you probably should) you may want to use her anyway because of the A support between them. Her high RES means that she'll be able to make enemy mages very dead while taking little damage in return.
Rath is a unique and good unit. His main problem is availability. You'll meet him in Lyn's story. You'll probably bench him because at this point he'll be over-levelled. You won't see him again until much later by which time he'll be way behind in levels and you may have a significant investment in either Wil or Rebecca. When he promotes, he'll gain the ability to use swords which will be worth developing up to level C. Curious fact: killing him off in Lyn's story can actually make him stronger in the long run.
Erk is the first mage you acquire in both Lyn's and Eliwood/Hector's stories and for a long time is the only anima mage you'll have. He's quite good although his magic stat is not guaranteed. By the time you start encountering light mages for him to dominate you may well already have benched him. Nino ends up the most powerful mage you can acquire if you take the trouble to level her up. That's a big if, however. She comes in seriously underleveled a few chapters before the endgame. Training her sufficiently will require that she be allowed to mooch the lion's share of the kills which can hurt the rest of the team. Since she ends up only slightly more powerful than Pent who starts out level 6 promoted, she isn't worth the trouble. Pent is the best of the anima mages. Not only does he not cost you a promotion item, he's already rank A in staves, whereas Erk and Nino will be level E after promotion (and Nino will never get past that level).
Priscilla starts off as a dedicated healer. She is required in at least one mission to recruit Raven. Who then recruits Lucius. There's probably not room for two dedicated healers so who do you use? Priscilla has three advantages over Serra: greater mobility, higher skill and easier supports. She is, alas, quite difficult to level up pre-promotion so you'll probably end up promoting her before she reaches level 20. Use 15/20 to get a more realistic idea of her ending stats. Once promoted, she becomes quite the powerhouse with crazy dodge to offset her fragility. You may want to give her an angel's robe, though.
Serra starts off as a dedicated healer. Because you recruit her much earlier, she will have a moderate level advantage over Priscilla. If you persist with her, she promotes into a quite serviceable offensive mage starting with rank D in light which is enough to use Shine, the most effective light magic tome. Her high luck means that she will dodge most attacks. Her principal deficiency is skill so you'll want to make her read a secret book or two. Lucius is both the most powerful and most fragile of mages. Despite being worse off in the magic triangle, he'll take out most non-boss anima mages easily and all those shamans and druids had better run: Lucius is coming to getcha. Unfortunately, if other enemies reach him. he'll die from a steel overdose in no time flat since his defence and luck are lower than any other unit. When he promotes, he gains rank C in staves which is really good. Renault is something of an easter egg, recruited on the penultimate or antepenultimate mission. His support conversations reveal a terrific lot of backstory (read them on the Internet since you'll need a lot more patience than I have to see them in game). But 12 magic at level 16? C'mon! Were it 20, he'd be useful. As it is, he's only useful for the staff he comes equipped with.
As a dark magic user, Canas is unique. While it's true that Luna kills 99% of bosses, Canas has a major issue. Dark magic tomes are extremely heavy which means that his questionable speed is effectively reduced. You can give him a couple of speed wings, of course, but there are other units who can make good use of those. If you're lucky, he has the highest magic cap of any male magic user at 29 (Nino has a cap of 30). Since he has no weaknesses, he's a good candidate for Afa's Drops if you're using him.
Nils/Ninian have identical stats. You can't use both. You use Nils in Lyn's story and at the very end of the game while you use Ninian for the bulk of Eliwood and Hector's stories. They can't attack, but they can enable another unit to act twice in a turn. They also have limited use special abilities that can grant a temporary big stat boost: +10 attack might allow a dangerous boss to be ORKO'd (yes, endgame Uhai, I'm talking about you). Since you're forced to use him / her a number of times, you may as well level him / her up a little. If you're going to play Hector's story, getting Nils to level 7 in Lyn's story can help unlock a secret mission much later on. Nils / Ninian can't promote. Unless you waste a lot of time, they won't get close to level 20 anyway.
Merlinus will allow you to send him your excess items if you deploy him. He doesn't cost you a spot on the roster so you may as well. If he survives, he'll gain a level. While he's only a tent, you may need to leave a guard since reinforcements will make a beeline for him. When he promotes to wagon form (automatic, no promotion item needed), he can follow the rest of your army.
As mentioned earlier, Wallace can remain unpromoted in Lyn hard mode. "LHM Wallace" shows his alternate development which is much better than his force-promoted counterpart. Hector hard mode gives a boost to starting stats when the unit starts out as an enemy. "HHM Guy", "HHM Raven", etc. shows their HHM stats. A reward for the sheer grind of the mode?
These are mathematically average stats based upon starting stats, growth rates and number of levels gained. Values in bold mean that the unit hits the class upper limit for a stat. Values may well be higher overall since, if you're anything like me, two one-point levels up will cause you to restart a mission (or you'll save scum using the virtual console reset point) so that characters will end up better than average. Remember that values can go down as well as up so that, for example, Ross's questionable speed or Natasha's poor skill can end up distinctly sub-par. Most characters won't end up anywhere near level 20/20 during normal campaign play. 20/10 plus/minus a few is more like it for your core team. However, Sacred Stones allows for unlimited grinding, both during the game and post-game so depending on how patient you are, you can max out as many characters as you like.
Characters recruited during Eirika's and Ephraim's routes may have different starting levels and/or bases. When there is a difference, the stats when the character is recruited during Ephraim's route are shown at the end, signified by "(Eph)" after their names.
Unpromoted units have a choice of which class they will promote into. This doesn't affect growth rates but does affect the promotion bonus as well as the stat caps. Three of the characters, Ross, Amelia and Ewan, do not start off at level 1; instead they start off at more like level -10 with horrible stats. When you've levelled them up ten times, they will promote to a normal unpromoted class at the start of the next chapter. At this point they should have excellent stats for a level 1 unit. They will end up strong but not overwhelmingly better than other units, apart from the luck score which is through the roof. In order to unlock the "trainee" career path (e.g. Recruit -> Recruit (2) -> Super Recruit) you must complete both Eirika and Ephraim's stories and start a new game.
The CON stat determines the weight of weapon that can be carried without a SPD penalty. It is also used in the calculation to determine whether one character can rescue another: if the first character's AID stat is greater than or equal to the second character's CON stat, a rescue can be effected.
The PRF column follows the weapon / magic triangles and should be read off as Lance, Sword, Axe, Bow for physical units and Anima, Light, Dark, Staves for magical ones. These are the starting proficiencies when you first recruit them and / or immediately after promotion.
Although the raw stats provide an easy way to compare characters, they don't tell the whole story. They show the destination but say nothing about the journey; Gerik may be an an easy character to level up but the same can't be said of L'Arachel or Amelia. For ranking purposes, consider the overall utility of the unit. All else being equal, mounted units are more useful than foot units and flying units are more useful still. Units who can wield multiple weapon types are more useful than units who can only wield one. Units that can fight at 1 and 2 range are more useful than units who are limited to 1 or 2 range. Units who are available for most of the game are more useful than units who are recruited towards the end. Units who are already promoted become more useful the later they're recruited, particularly since they come with good weapon proficiency.
Eirika is the leader of the game for the first eight chapters and for the rest of the game if you choose her route. Prior to promotion, she has the characteristics of a myrmidon - high speed and skill, so-so strength and defence - and almost identical stats to Joshua with higher luck. She promotes after chapter 16 with a significant stat boost and gains a mount. Her stats end up really nicely balanced with no weaknesses besides a low CON score. Ephraim is only around for nine chapters total on Eirika's route, otherwise he's your main lord from the mid-game on. Ephraim is in a class of his own, being a dedicated lance user who is strong, tough, skilled, speedy and lucky. Promotion gives him a big stat boost and a horse of his own. Both lords get their own special weapons. Eirika's rapier is a nice light sword that kills knights, generals and cavalrymen. Ephraim's Reigenleif is a spear that wastes everyone. When they promote they get their own dedicated super-weapons. In case it's not clear, both are excellent and deserving of a slot in your team even if they're not required.
Depending on whose route you take, one or the other is unavailable for six chapters in the mid-game. They will return at the higher of the level they were at or 15. Since Ephraim's route provides more experience, Eirika may be somewhat underleveled at this point. Two chapters should be enough to get her to level 20 in time to promote.
There are four dedicated cavaliers available and they're all good to very good. Unlike the previous game, paladins don't have the ability to use axes. The alternate promotion route, great knight, does. In most cases I would promote to paladin since 8 MOV is more useful than an extra weapon category. Indeed, because of terrain restrictions, the movement of a great knight is slightly worse than most promoted foot soldiers which is a bit of a step down. It's worth noting that great knights are vulnerable to both anti-cavalry and anti-armour weapons since quite a lot of enemies in the game wield slayer weapons.
Franz has a lot going for him: a horse, the second best availability of any unit and growths in all the right areas. Only his resistance score ends up lacking. Forde and Kyle are the red and green knights of the game: Forde has greater speed, skill and luck while Kyle has greater HP, strength and defence. Kyle ends up with the better end of the deal because his speed and skill are perfectly adequate while his strength hits the class cap easily. Kyle does have noticeably low resistance which is problematic in a game with a lot of long range magic users. He is also the only cavalier whom I would turn into a great knight because he can take advantage of the higher strength cap.
Seth is the promoted unit that you get right at the start of the game. This means that you should avoid using him at all costs because he will steal XP from more deserving units and turn out terrible in the end. Wrong! He's excellent with tremendous utility and the best availability of any unit. His high level stats are perfectly adequate for the endgame and he has no weaknesses. Sure, other units may eventually surpass him but the question is: when? By the time Franz is 20/1, Seth should easily be 20/10, hence still ahead. His AA starting rank in weapons is outstanding. To put it in perspective, Franz, Kyle and Forde are unlikely to get A-rank in both lances and swords in normal gameplay. Meanwhile, Seth will have had an S-rank in his weapon of choice for most of the game. While it is true that in the early game your other units get more benefit from killing scrubs, Seth gets more from killing bosses. While it is also true that if you simply let him destroy everything you will have team issues further into the game, using him tactically will cause you no problems at all. Experience that Seth gains early on is not wasted because he has a strong claim on a permanent spot in your squad.
Gilliam is a good unit stuck in a bad class. The problem is that 4 MOV which means that he arrives at the fight in time to survey the carnage wrought by the rest of the team but not in time to participate. To develop him, you're going to have to consciously hold everyone else back which is no good at all. Furthermore, there are no maps where the ability to wall is really useful; even where the goal is survival for x turns, an aggressive strategy will yield better results than turtling. If you're going to use him, I would promote him to great knight. While the general has a great class skill (great shield, which has a chance of blocking all damage from an attack), the 5 MOV is horrible. Promotion either way will open up sword and axe proficiencies. I would be inclined to ignore swords. While getting C-rank in axes (for killers) is straightforward, getting sword rank up to C as well isn't going to happen in campaign play. Duessel is already promoted to great knight. His outstanding feature is A-rank in all weapons. Since good specialist axe users are notable by their absence, you should have little trouble in getting him up to S-rank in axes. With +5 SPD, Garm, the S-rank axe, kinda has his name written on it. While a 20/10 Gilliam is statistically superior. getting Gilliam to 20/10 in the first place is, well, unlikely.
Amelia is the trainee lance user and she is, frankly, awful. The fact that she ends up not terrible is because of 47 levels-up and 2 promotion bonuses. However, her bases are dismal and her growth rates among the lowest of any unit. Getting her to adequate (say, 10/11/0) is painful and tedious. Cautionary tale: when the game first came out, I heeded the questionable advice of a certain site that publishes FAQs for games and gave her a slot in the squad (along with Ross!). I got so bored grinding the first floor of the Tower of Valni and so dispirited with how she was turning out (bad growth rates, remember) that I simply stopped playing. What makes her so very bad is that by the time she's recruited (chapter 9) every enemy will ORKO her. Because of her dismal bases, javelins are problematic which means that she has trouble indirectly attacking anyone and directly attacking them with her slim lance (and 4 STR!) is fatal. If you are going to train her, avoid the knight / general path (see Gilliam for why). If you've unlocked the trainee recruit path, she can end up as something unique. The super recruit is limited to lances and has low CON but gets a 15% critical bonus. This makes her directly comparable to the swordmaster units and in that company, she ends up OK, slightly better in fact.
With an ability to go anywhere on the map without regard to terrain and ferry other units great distances, fliers have great utility regardless of their inherent fighting abilities. All flying units have a weakness to arrows so you need to watch them around enemy archers. The pegasus knights have high skill, speed, luck and resistance with moderate strength and defence. Vanessa is the first you get. Her starting chapter is horrible, filled with axe users but after this she grows steadily into one of the most effective units. Her strength is on the low side so she is an ideal recipient for any spare energy ring you may have. Tana joins in the mid game badly underleveled in chapters where her effectiveness is limited (on Ephraim's route she's locked in a cell without any weapons!). She needs a little babying but grows rapidly and has no weaknesses. There is no clear advantage to either of their promotion options: falcoknights gain the ability to use swords (albeit at E-rank) while wyvern knights gain a decent CON boost along with a so-so skill, pierce, which has a small chance of ignoring enemy defence.
Syrene is a third falcoknight whom you recruit close to the endgame (the last unit you'll recruit, in fact). She's OK, not terrible but certainly not great. If you've been using them, she'll be way behind Vanessa and Tana by this point and superfluous to requirements. One advantage that she has is the ability to support both Vanessa and Tana which can help when your fliers are operating far ahead of the rest of your squad.
Cormag is a wyvern rider. He is a very solid physical unit. Although he arrives underleveled, his excellent bases means that he can make a positive contribution right away. Besides wyvern knight, Cormag can promote to wyvern lord, which is slower but tougher and gains the ability to use steel swords which is immediately useful. Since the reduced speed cap is unlikely to become an issue during campaign play, I would promote him to wyvern lord. Besides weakness to arrows, Cormag's dismal RES makes him dangerously vulnerable to magic. The danger of being taken down to critical health by a shadowshot from halfway across the map is hassle that I don't need, particularly as it's not an issue for the pegasus gals. Curious fact: on Eirika's route it is quite easy to steamroller the chapter in which he's recruited a couple of turns before he shows up. Do so and he disappears from the game.
Garcia may hit hard but his speed is rock-bottom which means that he'll be doubled by enemies that he's not able to OHKO. He'll also be badly mauled during the enemy phase. His RES is terrible as well so he's not a unit I field past the point where I get the choice not to. Were I to use him, I'd probably promote him to hero since C-rank swords is far better than E-rank bows. Two points of speed for five points of strength may seem like a really bad trade-off but two attacks at 25 STR is preferable to one at 30.
Ross is the first of the trainees that you can recruit. He's considered the least bad of the trainees probably because you get him early and he's only a moderately severe pain to level up. I personally look at him and wonder how he barely turns out better than his dad after 47 levels-up and two promotion bonuses. He's not a unit that I would use but were I to do so, I would avoid the fighter-warrior path because warrior is simply a lousy class. Pirate-berserker is a possibility but that puts him in competition with Colm (a genuinely useful unit) for the single ocean seal. If you've unlocked the path, journeyman-hero is not bad but super journeyman is terrible - the same critical hit bonus as berserker but with no improvement to constitution. 8 CON + axes = fail! The hero promotions allow for a direct like-for-like comparison with Gerik. No prizes for guessing which of the two makes my squad.
Dozla is a garbage unit plain and simple. Even his starting B-rank in axes is sub-par. The one good thing I might say about him is that at least he doesn't require any effort to turn out meh unlike his fellow axe users.
I'm not a big fan of the myrmidon-swordmaster class. They're fragile and because they are unable to switch weapon types they get mauled badly by enemy lance users. Promotion to swordmaster gives a +15% crit bonus. Promotion to assassin provides most of the utility of a thief and the silencer skill at the cost of a reduced strength cap. The silencer skill, which gives the possibility of an OHKO regardless of the damage actually done, sounds awesome. Unfortunately, it requires a critical hit to have a chance of kicking in and the recipient of a critical hit is likely to be dead anyway.
Joshua is OK: no weaknesses beyond the expected low DEF. I'd promote him to swordmaster since the assassin strength cap might be rather limiting. Because of his class, he tends not to have a permanent spot in my squad. He is a pain to recruit because he attacks your squad with a killing edge. I use a disarmed Seth to take the hit.
Marisa is objectively a terrible unit: late, badly underleveled with dreadful bases. Her saving grace is that she forms an easy support triangle (menage-a-trois?) with Gerik and Tethys. This will send the avoid of all three through the roof. It is quite satisfying to destroy hordes of enemies who have 0% chance to hit! Since she's unlikely to be affected by the reduced strength cap, assassin is her better promotion. Her high skill improves her crit chance which in turn improves the chance of silencer kicking in. Recruitment on Eirika's route isn't too bad but on Ephraim's route she's a real pain, particularly since she needs to be recruited by the godawful Ewan.
Gerik is the mercenary of the game and is carved from the same block of awesome as Raven from FE7. His excellent bases means that he's pretty much RNG proof and doesn't require many levels-up to get him endgame-fit. He can promote to an axe-wielding hero or mounted, bow-wielding ranger. Axes are much better than bows but a mounted unit is better than a foot soldier. I pick hero. Either way, he'll turn out great.
Assuming you like getting good stuff for free, Colm will have a reserved slot in your squad. As it happens he's a good unit in his own right and suprisingly combat-capable which means that he'll gain levels and promote. I'd promote him to rogue more often than assassin (despite the fugly sprite) because his low skill makes silencer less effective and there are a few things worth stealing after he promotes. Or you could just field Rennac when something needs nicking. Rennac is not a good unit but then you field him for his utility value not his combat skills. Just keep him out of the way of enemy mobs because he can't take much aggro.
Archer is not a good class and Neimi is not a good unit. From dismal bases, she's going to take an eternity of doing chip damage to reach a level where her decent growth rates start to make her useful (around lvl 10). Even when her stats start getting good, she's still an archer so not great. If you use her don't promote her to sniper. Snipers remain locked to 2-range but in compensation gain a perfectly useless skill, sureshot. Snipers should be hitting everything anyway so a small chance of 100% hit is really useless. Promote her to a ranger and she becomes moderately useful, although her horrible DEF score remains problematic.
Since sniper is a horrible class, Innes has no chance of being a good unit. His stats are OK - comparable to Neimi - but in a squad replete with good units he has a guaranteed spot on the bench.
Since they target RES, mages tend to be more damaging than your physical units. On the downside, they can't take much punishment during the enemy phase. Three units start off limited to staves. This makes them really hard to level up. A valid strategy is simply to drop them when your offensive mages promote since they gain D/C staves on promotion. C is immediately useful (for restore) while D requires a chapter of mend spam to get going. If you do promote your staff users you'll actually want them to stop using staves, particularly if you intend to play creature campaign, because S-ranking staves is useless and prevents them from S-ranking an offensive magic ability.
Lute is something of a mini-nuke without being a glass cannon. Her DEF is on the low side, but that is par for the course for mages. Her HP is also low so she may need an angelic robe to keep up. Her luck makes her avoid high and, coupled with terrain bonus, allows her to destroy entire armies on the enemy phase. For promotion mage knight provides a mount and a useful CON boost while sage gives the highest magic cap which she'll easily reach. I tend to go with sage for the higher magic. In many cases this just means five more points of overkill. However, it also makes her the best staff user in the game: increasing the range of physic by three squares is a good thing. 4 CON is dreadful, of course, but with 30 MAG a basic fire tome is sufficient to destroy everything. She forms an easy support pairing with Artur although her support with Vanessa is far more mutually beneficial if you can make it work.
Saleh is a sage with OK bases, good proficiencies and the worst growth rates of any unit. On Eirika's route you get him early enough for him to be useful. By the time you get him on Ephraim's route he'll have gained 3 (awful) level-ups, but your offensive mages will have promoted some time previously so that they can match him for proficiencies and, of course, will wipe the floor with his stats.
Artur is your offensive light mage. His offensive parameters are good but he's slightly squishier than Lute due to his low luck score. I would promote him to a bishop both for the better staff rank and the amazing slayer skill which gives light tomes triple might against monsters. If you promote him to sage then he's just a slightly worse sage than Lute.
Moulder and Natasha are restricted to staves prior to promotion which makes them slow to develop. Since he's acquired earlier and one level higher, Moulder will have a level lead over Natasha. She has a higher magic growth rate and will end up significantly more powerful. For a magic user Moulder is fairly tough with good HP and an exceptional CON score but dismal luck. Natasha is somewhat frailer but this is offset by her exceptional luck score. Her skill is dreadful so you may want to make her read a secret book. Both characters can promote to bishop which is the better choice.
In terms of 20/20 stats, L'Arachel is the best character in the game. Unfortunately, she arrives too late and too feeble to be worth investing in - even Natasha will have ten levels on her and being limited to staves means that she isn't catching up. Since L'Arachel is one of the main characters one wonders why the designers made her so unusable. She should have been a promoted unit. Instead she's useless. If you do use her, mage knight is the better promotion choice because anima magic is much better than light magic.
Knoll is another unit who is recruited late and horribly underleveled. He also uses dark magic, which is the worst of the magic schools since the tomes are heavy, expensive and inaccurate. He is by some margin the feeblest unit combining pathetic defence with horrendous luck. Although it improves, his base speed is kinda awful too. If you develop him, you have the choice of summoner or druid. Summoned phantoms will serve to distract enemies since the AI will always target them (the AI targets the lowest HP units and phantoms have 0 HP). However, I would rather attack than distract which makes druid the better promotion choice since that opens up the superior anima magic.
Ewan is the magic trainee and he's dreadful. He is recruited in chapter 12, which is past the halfway point in the game. This makes him even harder to train than Amelia. He'll eventually turn out slightly better than Lute and Artur but why you'd bother putting the time and effort in is beyond me. If you've unlocked the trainee career path, then super pupil has the unique ability to use all three magic types. Two of them will be at E-rank though, so maybe not. Curious fact: if you promote him to shaman, he'll forget how to use anima magic. That is pretty lame.
Tethys is a dancer. She can't attack but enables another unit to act again. She pairs up very easily with Gerik which means, pretty much, that she is as good as Gerik. Or Lute. Or Ephraim. Her growths are good in the areas that keep her alive: speed and luck are excellent, resistance is good and defence is sufficient. Better, she doesn't "steal" XP from any of your other units so there's little reason not to use her. To help her keep up and do her job, she's a good candidate for the Swiftsole.
Myrrh is a Manakete, a sort of half-dragon. She's like a trainee in a number of respects: horrible bases, but levels up every time she kills an enemy. However, while the trainees have lower growth rates than most other units, Myrrh's growth rates are huge. Since she can't promote, her caps will limit her development. Her dragonstone, the item with which she fights, provides an enormous boost to her stats: STR +12, SKL +12, DEF +15, RES +20. The drawback is that it has fifty uses and cannot be repaired with the Hammerne staff. That said, fifty uses should be enough to last until the end of the game if you use her sensibly. At level 20, she ends up extremely powerful. Getting her there is another matter. Because her dragonstone has limited uses, you'll be wanting her to kill enemies rather than merely injuring them. On hard mode, she won't be ORKO'ing many enemies until around level 15. Worse, despite having good defence, she is doubled by every enemy until level 12/13. Since the enemies you're fighting by her starting chapter have silver weapons and she has low HP and no avoid, you have a problem: one enemy will maul her badly, two will kill her. Add a fatal weakness to enemy archers and she's looking shaky particularly since better units than Myrrh have bagsies on the Fili Shield. The fact that any other unit that you've not benched kills enemies more efficiently with less risk means that she's not worth the effort required to develop her. Curious fact: she is the only unit threatened by Luna. Most units will dodge it easily and will have the HP to survive it if they're unlucky. Myrrh, on the other hand, is liable be OHKO'd.
You can't unlock or use the secret characters during the campaign. They consist of NPCs from the main game, mostly bosses but some incidental characters as well. You unlock them by clearing the Tower Of Valni or the Lagdou Ruins in Creature Campaign. The conditions for unlocking are: Caellach, clear the third floor of the Tower; Orson, clear the sixth floor; Riev defeat 200 enemies in the Tower in a single run; Ismaire, clear the Tower once; Selena, clear the Tower three times; Glen, clear the fifth floor of the Ruins; Valter, clear the seventh floor; Hayden, defeat 200 enemies in the Ruins in a single run; Fado, clear the Ruins once; Lyon, clear the Ruins three times. By and large, they're not very good. In particular, they tend to have poor speed and luck scores. On the plus side, they have good proficiency scores and high quality inventories including items like a second Fili Shield, the unique Wind Sword and Lyon's infinite duration S-rank dark tome, Naglfar. Unfortunately, by the time you unlock Lyon you really have seen enough of the game to last you a lifetime.
These are mathematically average stats based upon starting stats, growth rates and number of levels gained. Values in bold mean that the unit hits the class upper limit for a stat. Values may well be higher overall since, if you're anything like me, two one-point levels up will cause you to restart a mission (or you'll use BEXP back at base) so that characters will end up better than average. Remember that values can go down as well as up so that, for example, Boyd's questionable defence or Mia's iffy strength can end up distinctly sub-par. Second and subsequent playthroughs allow you to choose fixed growths meaning that units will end up with stats listed above, ignoring use of stat boosting items. Path of Radiance is a big game so that your favourite units can max out their levels or come close.
The CON stat is barely used in this game - it is used when determining whether the Colossus skill activates. If a unit's WT stat exceeds another unit's WT by 2 or more, they are able to effect a rescue or give their colleague a shove.
The PRF column follows the weapon / magic triangles and should be read off as Lance, Sword, Axe, Bow, Staves for physical units and Staves, Fire, Wind, Thunder, Light for magical ones. These are the starting proficiencies when you first recruit them and / or immediately after promotion.
Although the raw stats provide an easy way to compare characters, they don't tell the whole story. They show the destination but say nothing about the journey; Marcia may be an an easy character to level up but the same can't be said of Mist or Tormod. For ranking purposes, consider the overall utility of the unit. Mounted units are useful not only for their extended movement range but also for the ability to move after attacking. Flying units additionally have the ability to cross otherwise impassable terrain and are more useful still. Units who can wield multiple weapon types are more useful than units who can only wield one. Units that can fight at 1 and 2 range are more useful than units who are limited to 1 or 2 range. Units who are available for most of the game are more useful than units who are recruited towards the end. Units who are recruited late in the game are more useful if they're already promoted, particularly if they also come with good weapon proficiencies.
Ike is the only Lord character. He has excellent stats across the board, although his level 1 bases are garbage and his RES stat takes a while to get going. He is restricted to swords throughout the game which diminishes him a little and you'll probably want to give him the Boots and Knight Ring so that he can keep up with the rest of his army. His Earth affinity means that all his supports (up to 7!) give a big boost to avoid.
There are a lot of cavalier characters and they're all good. On promotion, paladins gain proficiency in a weapon class of choice so that, for example, Oscar can choose between swords, axes and bows while Astrid would choose between lances, swords and axes. Oscar is available from the very start, has decent bases and good growths. If you train him in bows and have both Boyd and Rolf promoted, the three brothers can perform a triangle attack. This can be an amusing way of defeating Naesala when you encounter him as enemy but the opportunity cost of leveling up Rolf makes this a marginal ability. His Earth affinity makes him an excellent support partner. Kieran is recruited reasonably early and is another all-round solid unit. Train him in lances on promotion. Astrid is recruited a couple of chapters after Kieran (assuming she manages to survive the level where you meet her). She is badly underleveled at this point in the game and her low base stats means that she's going to require quite a lot of babying to git gud. Her saving grace is the Paragon skill that doubles experience gain so that she'll catch up fairly quickly. Makalov is encountered as an enemy close to the halfway point of the game. You need to talk to him with Marcia. Since she is one of the best units in the game and dominates him in the weapon triangle, there's a distinct possibility that he'll kill himself. Assuming you avoid this, Makalov is another solid unit, being both strong and fast with good DEF. His RES is rather low, however, so be careful around enemy mages. You'll also want to get rid of his Tempest skill (doubles biorhythm effects) as soon as you can. Titania is a pre-promoted paladin, available right from the start. She has decent bases, excellent weapon proficiency and remains fully useful throughout the game. Your other cavalier units will surpass her eventually but that won't happen until the end of the game. Geoffrey is all-round decent but only available in the final few chapters which limits his usefulness, Paragon skill notwithstanding. A C-rank in bows is rather sub-optimal at this point as well.
All flying units have a fatal weakness to archery so you'll want to give one of them the Full Guard when you acquire it. They are also vulnerable to Wind magic but, for pegasus knights at least, this is offset by a high RES score. Marcia is available for most of the game, has great bases, excellent growths and flying utility. This places her in the topmost tier and she is consistently my MVP. Tanith joins for the final third of the game and is fully useful, apart from a lowish STR stat. She has excellent weapon proficiencies, Earth affinity and comes with the Reinforce skill that summons NPC pegasus knights to distract and weaken enemies. Jill rides a wyvern and gets axes on promotion but is otherwise comparable to Marcia. She has better DEF and slightly higher STR while Marcia has her beaten on SPD and RES. The low RES can be slightly problematic but not enough to bench her. Something to be aware of: if you don't build up her supports, it is possible for her to defect. Haar is a recruitable enemy encountered a few chapters before the end. He has great STR and DEF but his SPD will be slower than most of the units you'll actually want to use and his RES is problematic. If you can fit him in, he's decent but the other flying units are better.
Boyd is available right from the start of the game. He has the joint highest HP and STR of the humans in your squad and, unlike your typical Fire Emblem axe wielder, has excellent SKL and serviceable SPD so that he can reliably plant his axe in enemies' skulls. On the downside, he has poor DEF and RES and his supports are no more than OK. Nevertheless, he's a decent unit. Largo is recruited close to the end of the game which doesn't give him a lot of time to develop. Although his offensive stats are up there with the best, his defensive stats are the lowest of any unit so there's no compelling reason to use him.
The Knight class gains axe proficiency on promotion but suffer from poor MOV (joint lowest with Mages). Halberdiers have the same MOV stat as other foot units but remain restricted to lances. Neither class is actually good, but knights are slightly worse because they struggle to reach enemies before your zerg-rush of cavaliers trample them into the dust. Gatrie joins early but then leaves for a bunch of levels, rejoining in the same chapter that you acquire Astrid. Brom is recruited a couple of chapters earlier alongside Kieran and Nephenee. They're pretty much interchangeable: Gatrie is a bit stronger while Brom is a little less slow; note that "less slow" does not mean quick! I'm not really inclined to use either. Tauroneo is another late game recruitable enemy unit. His excellent weapon proficiencies means that he doesn't require a lot of investment to become meh, but he's still not a unit that I care to field. Nephenee has great stats and comes with a good skill, Wrath, that raises critical hit rate when HP is less than half. However, to put her in perspective, her stats are comparable to Marcia's but Marcia flies and has an extra weapon proficiency. She's a decent unit, for sure, but not top tier. Devdan is another recruitable enemy, encountered just after the halfway point, and I can't quite see the point of him: being a halberdier who is much worse than Nephenee makes him utterly redundant.
I'm not a great fan of the Swordmaster class: they're way too squishy for my liking and enemy armour knights are extremely problematic for them. Mia is not a particularly good unit: she struggles with low STR throughout the game. Zihark has somewhat better STR and a useful Earth affinity, but is still a long way from top tier. Good luck recruiting Stefan without a guide: Lethe or Mordecai must step on a specific square to make him appear. His stats are comparable to Zihark's at the same level but his level will be way ahead and his S-rank in swords is excellent. His affinity is not the best for supports, but Stefan is a swordmaster who is actually good. Unlike Lucia, who is a bad unit in a bad class, with a terrible skill (Parity) and only available for the last few chapters. Next!
Thieves are restricted to knives which do not have proficiency levels and which cannot be upgraded at the forge. This limits their usefulness in combat, but you don't employ thieves for their combat chops. Their role is opening chests and doors, stealing items from enemies and finding buried treasure in desert levels. Volke charges you money for his services and promotes to Assassin. You can use an Occult scroll to give him the Lethality skill which can instantly kill most enemies. However, since he's not actually that good in combat even with an instakill chance, you may not want to bother leveling him. Sothe comes with the Blossom skill. This slows his experience gain but provides greatly enhanced growths. On the downside, he cannot promote which really only makes him worth using for his thief skills. He'll cap loads of stats but his caps are low. Choosing the fixed growth option nerfs Blossom hard, resulting in lower stats across the board.
Archers aren't great in most Fire Emblem games and Rolf is not an exception to the rule. He joins very late for a level 1 unit and you'll struggle to get much in the way of utility out of him. You can use bonus experience to gift him a few levels, but that is better invested in genuinely good units like Marcia, Jill and even Mist. His bases are terrible, which means that he won't be doing more than chip damage for at least five chapters, and archers are really difficult to level up. Shinon is worse. He's a prepromoted sniper who's around for a few levels at the start and then becomes a recruitable enemy two thirds of the way through. Rolf is required to recruit him (which carries an opportunity cost in itself) and he has dreadful base stats. He does have good growths but he's not worthy of a place in your squad. If you want archers, Astrid, Boyd and any paladin you choose to give bows to will be way better.
As the only healer for the first part of the game, Rhys is undoubtedly useful. On promotion, he gains the ability to use Light magic with a starting proficiency equal to his staff level. On the plus side, he has a terrific MAG stat. On the minus side, his STR is pathetic and Light magic is, ironically, very heavy meaning that his effective speed with tomes is rather low. As a consequence, most enemies will be able to double him. You may want to retire him when your other mages promote, since they can gain the ability to use staves and don't have the same problems using offensive magic. Mist requires an awful lot of investment in terms of BEXP to git gud, since the XP gain from staff use alone is not very high and she starts late at level 1. Gaining a mount on promotion brings her up to fully useful. Her E-rank in swords will require some additional work, since you want her to be at a proficiency where she can make use of magic swords, allowing her to take full advantage of her high MAG stat. She remains rather squishy whatever you do with her but being the best healer in the game should give her a strong claim on a place in your squad. Elincia is available for the final three-or-so chapters and joins badly underleveled with horrible base stats. Flight and an A-rank in staves means that she's far from useless, but she'll require a lot of work to catch up with the rest of your army.
All mages have two things in common: low MOV and really low DEF. This means that they may struggle to reach enemies and you need to avoid positioning them in such a way that they attract too much enemy aggro. They have a STR stat which is used to offset the weight of magical tomes and isn't always sufficient to do so. Each of the three unpromoted mages has greater proficiency in one magic school than the others, but all mages can use all magic types (besides Light). On promotion, you can chose staff proficiency or knives. Choosing the latter is a really dumb idea because even the relatively hench Bastian has no more than 19 attack strength with a dagger. Soren is your first mage and joins you near the start of the game. He has an edge in Wind magic, which is the least powerful variety but with the benefit of relatively light tomes. He'll still suffer a hit to his attack speed because of his low STR stat. To make up for it, he comes with the Adept skill that occasionally allows him to attack twice. His MAG stat is the highest of any character and he has excellent SKL and decent SPD. Overall, a decent unit. Ilyana is the first recruitable enemy you'll meet. She's stronger than Soren but also slower with a slightly lower MAG stat. She has an edge in Lightning which is the most powerful school of magic with the heaviest tomes. Overall, she'll be doing about the same damage as Soren, although his Adept skill gives him the edge. In return, Ilyana has Shade, which makes enemies less inclined to target her. Given her low DEF, this is not a bad thing. Tormod is recruited just after the halfway point and is one of those annoying kid characters who need a ton of babying to develop. His Celerity skill (+2 MOV) is pretty good, however. Calill arrives at the two thirds mark and she's all-round decent without needing any effort to become useful. Knives rather than staves is a bit of a bummer, though. Bastian is not so good, having poor bases and only a handful of chapters in which to develop. An inability to use staves means that you have no reason to use him.
Laguz are shape shifting humans. There are two sets of stats for each unit, one untransformed and the other transformed, where they become significantly more powerful. Transformation is governed by the transformation gauge. When it is full, the unit can transform and fight. When it empties, they return to human form again. Some units begin a fight with a full gauge while others must wait a few turns for it to fill. Although they are extremely powerful, they have a couple of things going against them besides being useful only to draw aggro while in an untransformed state. The first is that they are effectively prepromotes and gain levels accordingly slowly. The other is that they're restricted to their natural weapons which have the MT of steel weapons. This means that Jill with a silver axe has pretty much the same attack strength as Mordecai the Tiger Laguz, and that's without forging bonuses. Therefore, eventually, Laguz will be surpassed by human units. That doesn't necessarily make them useless, because that won't happen for a long time and they can be good in other ways, but it does put their ungodly stats into perspective.
The Beast Laguz are represented by big cats in this game. Beware that they are all weak to fire, so take care around enemy mages. They are all strong (the tigers extremely so) and the cat laguz are fast. Even untransformed, their MOV stat is decent and once transformed they can keep pace with your paladins. One aspect that is easy to overlook is their high WT stat which allows them to shove pretty much any other unit. Lethe and Mordecai are the first two laguz units that you can recruit. Lethe starts battles with a full gauge which means she can get down to killing right away, although she's liable to revert at the least convenient moments. Mordecai starts with an empty gauge which means that it takes him four turns to get going. Besides having the highest STR of any unit who isn't a Laguz Royal, he comes with the Smite ability which allows him to shove other units two spaces. This ability alone keeps him useful for pretty much the entire game. Muarim is recruited around the halfway mark. He's another decent unit who requires little investment to stay good. He transforms after 3 turns and comes with the Demi Band which allows laguz units to stay transformed at the cost of half their transformation bonuses. Ranulf is recruited towards the end. His gauge starts half full and he has the all-round best stats of any non-royal laguz. Unfortunately, by the point you get him, your human units are starting to surpass their laguz counterparts. That said, if there's a paladin you've not bothered to train (Makalov, perhaps), he can fill a slot without disgracing himself in the slightest.
Bird Laguz are weak to arrows and wind magic. Ulki, Janaff and Reyson are recruited at the same time, a few chapters after the halfway mark. Ulki and Janff aren't very good. Ulki is stronger and tougher and starts with a near empty gauge , while Janaff is faster and luckier and starts with a full gauge. Janaff also comes with a skill that gives him +20 avoid, while Ulki has one that gives him +20 hit. Despite these, being weaker than the cats in practically every way (including their natural weapons) makes Ulki and Janaff eminently benchable. Reyson is the dancer of the game, allowing other units to take another move. Untransformed, his chant allows a single adjacent unit to move again. Transformed, he can reinvigorate four. The ability of paladin and flying units to move after attacking allows you to get them back into a position where you can take advantage of this outstanding ability. Do note that even transformed, Reyson is kitten-weak, so make sure not to leave him in range of enemy attackers. He also starts with an empty transformation gauge.
You recruit one Dragon Laguz unit after a lategame battle against the Black Knight. If you win, you get Nasir; if you lose or flee, you get Ena. They're both dreadful with Ena just edging out Nasir as worst unit in the game. On the plus side, they can do scratch damage to the game's final boss (which is more than can be said for Marcia) and have good DEF, even untransformed. On the minus side, neither are strong enough or fast enough to be actually useful in the two chapters that you can use them for, both start with near-empty transformation gauges and they have pathetic MOV, being even slower than Brom and Gatrie.
If you're playing on normal difficulty you can enjoy watching a Laguz Royal slaughter the enemy army single-handed. If you're on hard difficulty, one arrives after the final boss is defeated for the first time, meaning that you don't really get much use out of them. You can choose just the one. The royals don't have a transformation gauge so can transform at will. Naesala, although weaker than the other two, is the only unit who can double attack the final boss. Giffca is so strong that he may do more damage with a single attack than Naesala does with two. He lacks flight utility but is still the best choice of the three. Tibarn is not as strong as Giffca or as fast as Naesala, but he's still no slouch.
These are mathematically average stats based upon starting stats, growth rates and number of levels gained. Values in bold mean that the unit hits its upper limit for a stat. Values may well be higher overall since, if you're anything like me, you'll use Mila's Turnwheel to avoid single point levels up so that characters will end up better than average. Remember that values can go down as well as up so that, for example, Tobin's questionable speed or Gray's iffy defence can end up distinctly sub-par.
Certain character classes can promote twice. However, you almost certainly won't be able to get your core squad members up to level 20/20/20 (or even 20/20 for those classes with just a single promotion). That said, Shadows of Valentia allows for unlimited grinding so depending on how patient you are, you can max out as many characters as you like. Classes with three tiers allow promotion to the second tier at level 7 and then to the third tier at level 10. Classes with only two tiers have different promotion requirements: level 12 for pegasus knights, male mages and clerics and level 14 for female mages.
There are minimum stats for a given tier of a character class and stats below the class minimum will be increased when a character promotes. If a character already has the minimum stats, promotion will grant 1HP instead. In addition to any other promotion bonuses, the Dread Fighter class receives +5 RES as a passive ability. You can acquire access to additional class tiers by purchasing DLC. I am not showing these classes since a fifth tier seems like something you're unlikely to reach without an obnoxious amount of grinding.
Five characters are "villagers", raw units with horrible starting stats who can promote into one of several base classes (with Faye having a different choice of paths to the male characters). This can allow for a potential (and unlikely) 80 levels of growth. You can promote them when they reach level 3 and shouldn't wait much past the point where XP gain starts to slow. The Dread Fighter class may demote to Villager upon reaching level 10. This allows for a period of rapid stat growth at the cost of losing learned abilities (including the +5 RES passive). A pitchfork item, which allows demotion for other classes, is available via free DLC. Reclassing Lukas as a Mercenary, for example, improves him greatly while reclassing Mathilda as a Pegasus Knight will make her even better.
The PRF column should be read off as Lance, Sword, Bow, Black Magic and White Magic. As a remake of an early entry in the series, Shadows of Valentia does not feature the weapon / magic triangle or proficiency levels.
There are two separate story paths in the game involving different parties. The units up to Celica are used in Alm's story arc while the remainder are used in Celica's chapters. Both parties unite at the very end of the game.
Although the raw stats provide an easy way to compare characters, they don't tell the whole story. They show the destination but say nothing about the journey; Mathilda may be an an easy character to level up but the same can't be said of Est. For ranking purposes, consider the overall utility of the unit. All else being equal, units with a higher movement stat are more useful than slower units. Pegasus knights are particularly useful for their ability to ignore most terrain effects. Units who are available for most of the game are more useful than units who are recruited towards the end. A unit recruited at a low level towards the end of the game is less useful than one who is fully promoted.
The usefulness of magic using characters is also determined by their spell selections. A character may learn a maximum of 6 spells. The spells available to a given character and the level at which they are acquired is shown in the following table:
Name | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Luthier | Fire | Excalibur | Thunder (Mage 10) | Sagittae (Mage 15) | Recover (Sage 1) | - |
Delthea | Fire | Aura | Seraphim (Mage 11) | Ragnarok (Mage 16) | Recover (Priestess 1) | Rewarp (Priestess 10) |
Silque | Recover | Nosferatu | Warp (Cleric 7) | Expel (Cleric 14) | Invoke Dread Fighter (Cleric 18) | Seraphim (Saint 1) |
Tatiana | Physic | Nosferatu | Seraphim | Fortify (Saint 4) | Invoke Pegasus Knight (Saint 7) | Warp (Saint 8) |
Faye | Fire | Seraphim (Mage 8) | Sagittae (Mage 12) | Recover (Priestess 1) | Freeze (Priestess 6) | - |
Recover | Nosferatu | Physic (Cleric 6) | Rescue (Cleric 10) | Seraphim (Saint 1) | Anew (Saint 14) | |
Kliff | Fire | Thunder (Mage 4) | Excalibur (Mage 9) | Sagittae (Mage 15) | Recover (Sage 1) | Aura (Sage 5) |
Tobin | Fire | Excalibur (Mage 6) | Recover (Sage 1) | Physic (Sage 6) | - | - |
Gray | Fire | Sagittae (Mage 9) | Thunder (Mage 10) | Recover (Sage 1) | - | - |
Celica | Fire | Seraphim (Priestess 5) | Thunder (Priestess 8) | Recover (Priestess 9) | Excalibur (Priestess 15) | Ragnarok (Priestess 20) |
Mae | Fire | Thunder | Aura (Mage 9) | Seraphim (Mage 14) | Recover (Priestess 1) | Silence (Priestess 6) |
Boey | Fire | Thunder (Mage 3) | Sagittae (Mage 12) | Excalibur (Mage 18) | Recover (Sage 1) | - |
Sonya | Fire | Thunder | Excalibur | Recover (Priestess 1) | Rewarp (Priestess 5) | Entrap (Priestess 10) |
Nomah | Fire | Thunder | Excalibur | Sagittae | Recover | - |
Genny | Recover | Nosferatu | Invoke Soldier (Cleric 4) | Physic (Cleric 8) | Expel (Cleric 12) | Seraphim (Saint 1) |
Atlas | Fire | Sagittae (Mage 8) | Recover (Sage 1) | Rescue (Sage 4) | - | - |
Note that other characters may acquire magic abilities via demotion to villager and then choosing a magic using class. I am not bothering to list them here.
As befits their status, both leaders are among the top tier of the game's units. Alm starts off with excellent bases and high growths in all stats. On promotion he gains the ability to use bows and, since he has access to the convoy, is able to switch between swords and bows as required. Note that he does not gain the extended range archer abilities. His one weakness is a low RES score which you should probably boost as opportunity arises since there is no-one in his army with a better claim. Celica's bases are not quite as good as Alm's but her growths are just as high and since her chapters have more XP, she will end up as strong or stronger. Her spell selection is excellent with early access to Seraphim. Her DEF stat can end up on the low side so you'll want to boost this when you can while her 4 MOV makes her the best candidate for the Boots item.
The outstanding characteristic of Cavalier characters is their high MOV stat but they don't gain any other special abilities. Clive is the first Cavalier you gain access to and he's fairly average in all respects - no crippling weaknesses besides RES but no towering strengths either. Mathilda is the second Cavalier you recruit and she is a candidate for the best unit in the game with excellent bases and good growths across the board. If you fork her after promotion to Gold Knight and develop her as a Pegasus Knight, she becomes the best unit hands down. Zeke is acquired towards the end of the game and is all-round solid unit, coming fully promoted with good bases, decent growths and zero weaknesses. To recruit Zeke, you must divert from the critical path to rescue Titania first. Mycen is automatically recruited at the start of the final chapter and is not a good unit. Not only does his sucky SPD mean that he will be unable to ORKO any enemies, but he doesn't get any better, having the lowest growths of any unit. The support bonuses that he provides to Alm prevent him from being completely useless, but otherwise he has little to recommend him. Conrad is the sole Cavalier unit in Celica's squad and is acquired halfway through the penultimate chapter, by which point, the rest of your units will be in their final tier. However, his great base stats and good growths make him an all-round decent unit.
These are the armour knights of the game, slow, physically tanky but weak to magic. Being restricted to 4 MOV makes them more obsolete the further into the game you get since other classes gain movement and / or attack range on promotion. Their third tier skill, which halves arrow damage, is kinda useless - half of 1HP damage still results in the loss of 1HP! As a bad unit in a bad class, Lukas is pretty terrible and his extremely low SPD and RES stats make him vulnerable to being KO'd by magic-using enemies. Forsyth is better than Lukas in every way apart from DEF, which is more than adequate nonetheless. One possibility is to use a pitchfork item and send him down the Mercenary line. Valbar has a certain amount of utility in Celica's opening chapter where his tankiness is useful on a number of maps. You can safely bench him after this, however, because he won't be seeing any action in the many desert and swamp levels and his 0 RES makes him a danger to himself.
The ability to fly across otherwise impassable terrain and the ability to fly over walls and target enemies hiding behind them means that Pegasus Knights are among the most useful units in either army. Bonus damage to enemy monsters is icing on the cake. Towards the end of the game, enemy archers gain bonus damage against Pegasus Knights, but not to the lethal degree of other Fire Emblem games. Clair is an excellent unit. Her ATK and DEF may need a little boost but every other stat is good to excellent. The Rhomphaia lance has a special attack that adds the wielder's SPD to effective might and kinda has Clair's name written all over it. Celica gets a full squad of Pegasus Knights. Palla and Catria join in the second chapter, Est in the third. Palla is rather slow, particularly for a Pegasus Knight, and somewhat vulnerable to magic which limits her long term potential somewhat. Nonetheless, she is still an extremely useful unit due to the number of desert and swamp maps in Celica's path. Catria is an all-round good unit. Like Clair, a boost to ATK and DEF would be a good investment when opportunity arises. Est, on the other hand, lends her name to one of Fire Emblem's archetypes: the unit who arrives late and badly underleveled. She requires a lot of babying to be used at all. No matter how many kills you spoonfeed her, she's always going to be miles behind her sisters. Opening up the triangle attack, which is good but not gr8mazing, is not enough to repay the opportunity cost of using her.
The high base SKL and SPD stats of the various Mercenary tiers pretty much guarantee a decent unit. The Dread Fighter tier is particularly powerful, combining a high MOV stat with powerful anti-magic passives. The ability to demote to Villager allows for unlimited leveling as well. Saber and Kamui are pretty much interchangeable: Kamui has slightly better offensive stats while Saber has better defence. Give them Brave Swords and they'll lay waste to enemies regardless. Jesse has the potential to be great but by the time you recruit him, Saber and Kamui will be miles ahead, so you may struggle to fit him in, particularly since Celica's maps at this time are all desert and swamp maps that prevent foot units from reaching enemies. Deen is also good, but his recruitment comes at the opportunity cost of not recruiting Sonya.
The ability to target enemies anywhere from 1-5 squares away and excellent mobility makes the Archer an excellent character class. On the downside, all bow weapons apart from the default reduce effective SPD and both dedicated Archer units suck. Python looks like he has potential but his utterly horrible base stats means that he is plain bad for the time you actually use him. Even with a SPD growth of 0.55, it will take him 20 level gains (approximately the entire game) to acquire an indifferent SPD stat of 15. Leon has slightly better bases and slightly poorer growths than Python which allows him to suck slightly less at first but more the further into the game you go. He also has a disastrously bad RES score so that magic using enemies are a real threat.
Magic is extremely powerful in this game because it targets RES and most enemies have low RES stats. On promotion mages gain access to white magic. Male mages also gain a to-hit bonus while females gain the ability to use swords, allowing them to target the DEF stat of magic-resistant enemies. On the minus side, most magic is heavy, reducing effective SPD and all magic consumes HP to cast. Mage characters are also limited to 4 MOV. Luthier is available to recruit in the second chapter of Alm's character arc. He's an option if, for some reason, you failed to promote one of your villagers into a Mage but is otherwise pretty average, apart from SKL which is not a particularly useful stat for a magic using character. Delthea has a recruitment requirement of not killing her which means that you have to keep anyone with a counter well away from her. She's recruited very late, at a horrible level and is extremely squishy. I didn't like Nino in Fire Emblem 7 and I don't care to use Delthea either. As an aside, what's with putting children in Fire Emblem games? Not only are Fire Emblem games rather grown-up in other respects, but the idea of child soldiers is abhorrent. Mae and Boey are available throughout Celica's story arc. Mae has great offensive stats while Boey is somewhat more robust. Note that "more robust than Mae" doesn't mean actually robust since Mae is very squishy. In addition, Boey's SPD is downright sucky. This means enemies start doubling him before the first chapter is done while Mae remains useful throughout the game. Recruiting Sonya comes with an opportunity cost of not recruiting Deen but seeing as how Celica has access to three other good Mercenary units but only one other good Mage unit, I prefer to recruit Sonya. Her starting stats are are good enough to make her immediately useful, she eventually surpasses Mae in every stat apart from LUC and the spells she gains as a Priestess are rather better. Nomah, who is recruited during the penultimate chapter, has a reputation as a great sage but he must have gone senile because he's the worst unit in the game by a margin with the worst ATK stat and one of the worst SPD stats.
At least one Cleric is essential in each squad if only to keep other magic using characters fighting fit. This also makes them comparatively easy to level up because they always have something to do, even if it is heal another character for 1HP. On promotion, Clerics gain a useful 1 MOV and the ability to automatically heal surrounding units. Silque is the first Cleric you gain access to and despite being limited to immediate-range healing for the entire game she is essential throughout Alm's story arc for her Warp ability. She also has the best summon spell of any Cleric. Tatiana is recruited during the penultimate chapter and takes little time to develop into the best healing unit in the game - Fortify is so good it's almost unfair. When she eventually gains access to Warp, you can start to think about retiring Silque. Genny is the medic for Team Celica and is another good character, with access to long-range healing. Unfortunately, she does not get Warp or its variants and her summon spell stinks.
Since all the Villager units start out with terrible bases, they are more subject to the whims of the RNG gods than other units. Unlike, say, the recruit characters in 'Sacred Stones', developing your Villagers isn't too annoying: not only are you able to level them into a base class fairly quickly, you don't have many other choices at the start of the game. Faye is best developed as a Cleric since Alm's squad won't have access to long-range healing otherwise and the Cleric class minimizes the disadvantages of her dodgy SPD stat. Her Rescue spell is extremely useful, allowing you to use Clair for hit-and-run attacks without risking her life on the enemy phase. With a modest amount of grinding, you may gain access to Anew which allows another unit to take its turn again. Unfortunately, this comes as a cost 24HP which makes it too awesome to actually use. She has an interesting support with Alm, increasing her hit chance at the cost of an evasion penalty. Since Nosferatu is inaccurate but heals its caster, this combo works well with Cleric Faye. Pegasus Knight is a possible alternative, but her low SPD would be rather disadvantageous. Not having access to Excalibur makes Mage a comparatively poor choice and Cavalier would be downright lousy. Whichever class you choose, Faye should end up with great ATK and decent DEF, although her RES is only so-so for a caster. Kliff has the right bases and growths to work as any character class. That said, his spell selection, which is one of the best of any Mage, suggests that career choice. Archer is a good alternative, allowing you to bench the godawful Python. Tobin is a bit more difficult. Any choice other than Mercenary results in a rather sub-par unit due to his lousy SPD stat. As a Mercenary he will lag behind Gray. Mage is a possibility - he'll be comparable to Luthier with the advantage of (eventual) access to Physic. Another possibility is a spot on the bench. Like Tobin, Gray only really works as Mercenary and has the advantage of a considerable level lead over his colleague. Atlas is the sole Villager in Celica's arc (unless you refuse to recruit Faye and Kliff in chapter 1). He has very high HP and ATK stats but lousy everything else which is a typical axe fighter profile in a game without axes. The only way for him to not suck is to follow the Mercenary path but since Celica's squad is already flush with better Mercenary characters, you may simply want to bench him instead.