Fire Emblem Echoes has seen alot of different changes and additions in Shadows of Valentia. There are quite a lot of different things that you should know. Concepts like promoting, villager’s fork, skills, magic, forging, and other minor things have all been discussed in this guide as we highlight all the new and welcome changes introduced to the game.
Class for Villagers
For Alm, try Gray Mercenary, Tobin Archer, Kliff Mage, & Faye Cleric. Faye acquires Physic & Rescue early that are good support skills. Alternatively, you can go with Archer Gray, Tobin Mage, Mercenary Tobin, Archer Kliff, and Mercenary Kliff. As for Celica, Mercenary or Archer is the way to go for Atlas.
Promoting Villagers & Understanding Villager’s Fork
You need to try to promote Villagers at Level 10. The only exception is Cleric Faye whom you can promote earlier if you feel like doing so. Again, this is only a suggestion & you can promote them whenever you see fit. Another thing you need to pay some attention to is the Villager’s Fork.
The Villager’s Fork is a DLC that re-classes any character except Alm/Celica to a Level 1 Villager. By using the Villager’s Fork, all your stats remain intact with the exception of Movement that remains fixed at 4.
This should allow you to remain strong but earn XP at a faster rate and further enhance your stats. I recommend using the Villager’s Fork on your favorite characters or units that show exceptional growth potential & high stats.
Understanding Promotion
All the promotions in the game take place at a Mila Statue when a unit reaches a certain level. You will receive a notification and a statue icon near a unit’s name. During promotion, any stat that is not at/above the base stat of the class you are promoting them to except RES.
For instance, let us assume that your Unit-A has 15 SPD & Unit-B has 20 SPD with you promoting them to Dread Fighter that has a base SPD of 18. In this case, Unit-A will receive +3 SPD but the SPD of Unit-B will remain at 20.
Inventory
In Fire Emblem Echoes, characters have only one inventory slot for a weapon or an item. You can learn more about inventory, changes made to the game’s inventory system, and managing inventory; check our Fire Emblem Echoes Inventory Guide.
Skills
None of the Battle Skills in the game can double-attack and you need to manually activate them on your turn. Most of the skills cost a minor amount of HP.
Skills in Fire Emblem Echoes are tied to weapons & shields in the game. Moreover, all the Rings have the Renewal Skill. In order to learn the skills, equip an item & engage in battles.
You should see a small bar under the gear that tracks how far along you are. Do note that if you un-equip the gear; you will lose the skill until you re-equip the item or another piece of gear associated with the same skill.
Moreover, each unit must learn his/her own skills. For instance, if Alm learns Steel Blow skill on an Iron Sword and pass it down to Tobin, Tobin will have to learn the skill himself.
Magic
Magic in Fire Emblem Echoes depletes the caster’s HP but only a small amount. Since there are many items that replenish 5 HP at the start of each turn, do not let it bother you. However, do note that Magic costs HP even when it is a counter-attack & costs HP for each attack in a double-attack.
It is also important to bear in mind that spells have fixed hit rates – Supports and Sages can still boost it though. Lastly, Magic tends to ignore the terrain boost due to which you need to careful against enemies who can take advantage of this.
Understanding Supports
Supports units within three spaces of each other receive bonuses to Hit, Avoid, Critical Chance, & Critical Evade. We also have a separate Guide on Support Units in game that you can see for more information.
What are Sacred Springs?
You can find Sacred Springs in the Holy Grounds and Dungeons. The statues in the area provide you with special bonuses and several boosts. However, do note that some of the statues have finite uses and some of them even share uses.
For instance, if you decide to blow away all of your uses on the SPD statue in the Thieves Shrine, the HP statue in the area will become useless. Once again, you can check out our Guide on Sacred Springs for more information.
What is Fatigue?
Fatigue in Fire Emblem Echoes only affect you in dungeons – after the completion of a battle. A fatigued character has its max HP reduced.
However, you can recover from fatigue by eating provisions or by offering a single provision to a Mila Statue. Since there is no shortage of provisions in Fire Emblem Echoes, there is no need to worry about fatigue in the game.
Mila’s Turnwheel – What is it?
Mila’s Turnwheel in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is a mystical artifact that allows players to tap into the future or the past. If you failed to acquire the Mila’s Turnwheel, you will automatically acquire it at the start of the third act.
You acquire Mila’s Turnwheel after the completion of the Thieves’ Shrine (for Alm) or from the start of the second Act (for Celica).
Forging
You get the forging done at the Blacksmith in villages that boosts a weapon’s stats but there are some changes. Firstly, the cost that you see is the cumulative to raise a weapon’s stats to the max. Secondly, you do not get to choose the stats, as they are set-bonuses.
Finally, you can forge most of the weapons in the game into new weapons for a price. This often requires you to upgrade a weapon to at least +1.
Another thing that you need to keep in mind is to forge a rusted piece of equipment into a new one for a small cost. Using this neat, little feature, you will often acquire a strong piece of equipment.
