=============================================================================== ------------------------- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Skills FAQ by polki90 qwedsa@ymail.com ------------------------- =============================================================================== This guide is generally spoiler free. Your eye might wander over some small bits of info like recruitable characters, but the big stuff like plot events isn't going to be discussed here. If you want to be safe, I recommend reading this FAQ after you've beaten the game at least once. That way, there won't be any surprises lurking around. ============================================= | ~Table of Contents~ |[\TOC] ============================================= |I. Version History |[\VRHI] --------------------------------------------- |II. About Me/ Contact Information |[\AMCI] --------------------------------------------- |III. About This FAQ |[\AFAQ] --------------------------------------------- |IV. Introducton to Skills in FE: RD |[\INTR] | A. Skills |[\SKIL] | B. Capacity |[\CAPA] | C. Scrolls |[\SCRL] | D. Activation |[\ACTI] --------------------------------------------- |V. List of Skills (alphabetized) |[\LIST] | A. Inherent Skills |[\INHS] | B. Personal Skills |[\PERS] | C. Mastery Skills |[\MASS] --------------------------------------------- |VI. Frequently Asked Questions |[\FAQS] --------------------------------------------- |VII. Credits and Legal Info |[\CALI] --------------------------------------------- Use Ctrl + F and enter the shortcut (in brackets above) to find things quickly. =============================================================================== ~I. Version History~ [\VRHI] =============================================================================== Version 1.09 - 7/2/11 -Corrected some mistakes, clarified some sentences. Just general cleanup. -Changed a couple of ratings based on my most recent playthrough. Version 1.08 - 1/19/09 -Updated FAQ based on some subissions from readers. Version 1.07 - 11/21/08 -Finished minor edits. Adjusted some priorities. Version 1.06 - 11/14/08 -Updated FAQ based on some submissions from readers. Version 1.05 - 10/14/08 -Finished minor edits. -Updated FAQ based on some submissions from readers. Version 1.04 - 8/18/08 -Updated FAQ based on some submissions from readers. -Permitted more sites to use the FAQ. Version 1.03 - 8/2/08 -Updated FAQ based on some submissions from readers. Version 1.02 - 7/27/08 -Updated FAQ based on some submissions from readers. Keep 'em coming! Version 1.01 - 7/15/08 -FAQ accepted! -Permitted more sites to use the FAQ. Version 1.00 - 7/11/08 -Finished final editing. -FAQ submitted for approval. Version 0.95 - 7/10/08 -Finished Credits and Legal Info section. -Finished Mastery Skills section. -Started final editing. Version 0.90 - 7/9/08 -Continued Mastery Skills section. Version 0.80 - 7/8/08 -Finished Frequently Asked Questions section. -Continued Mastery Skills section. Version 0.70 - 7/7/08 -Finished About This FAQ section. -Continued Frequently Asked Questions section. -Continued Personal Skills section. -Started Mastery Skills section. -Started and finished Capacity section. -Started and finished Scrolls section. -Started and finished Activation section. -Started and finished guide shortcuts. Version 0.50 - 7/6/08 -Continued Personal Skills section. -Continued Frequently Asked Questions section. -Started and Finished About Me/Contact Information section. -Started Skills section. -Started Credits and Legal Info section. Version 0.30 - 7/5/08 -Started and finished Inherent Skills section. -Started Personal Skills section. -Started Frequently Asked Questions section. Version 0.10 - 7/4/08 -Finished the outline and table of contents for the FAQ. -Started and finished About This FAQ section. =============================================================================== ~II. About Me/ Contact Information~ [\AMCI] =============================================================================== Leroy Jia aka polki90 qwedsa@ymail.com If you e-mail me, please put something about FE: RD in the subject so I don't delete your message without opening it like I do 90% of my new messages. =D In addition, and this is just a personal request, but please make your e-mail legible. Oh, and hate mail and stuff like that is going to be ignored. I've been a big Fire Emblem fan since FE7 came out in the US (2003, I believe). This game is my favorite in the series so far. I didn't see a Skills FAQ for this game, so I hope this one will help some players out. It was lots of fun to write! =============================================================================== ~III. About This FAQ~ [\AFAQ] =============================================================================== The FAQ has the following format: ~~~~~~~~~~ SKILL NAME (listed alphabetically) ~~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: Amount of capacity necessary to equip the skill. Characters: Recruitable characters who already know the skill. In the Mastery skills section, I'll list the classes that learn the skill instead. Found: Ways to obtain the scroll (excluding characters who start with it). Restrictions: Sometimes, only certain characters can learn a skill. If that is the case, I'll note that here. Effect: A brief description of what the skill does. Activation: How to get the skill to work. Advice: The kinds of characters I think should learn the skill. Naturally, this is going to be a bit subjective, but you don't have to listen to me. Priority: My condensed opinion of how necessary these skills are. I'm only going to include this part for the Personal skills section because they're the only kind that can be removed. You can kind of think of it as a rating from 1 to 5. VERY HIGH (5): A great skill. Should always be assigned to a unit. HIGH (4): A good skill. Try to make room for it if you can. MEDIUM (3): Not too bad. A good filler skill if you have free space. LOW (2): Lame. Don't equip it unless you really have nothing better. VERY LOW (1): Not worth your time. Probably better off selling it. Additional: Based on e-mail submissions readers like you send me, I'll put this section as a second opinion sort of thing. Each of the three sections are alphabetized. You can also use Ctrl+F to skip to a certain section without having to look for it. The shortcuts are next to the corresponding entries in the table of contents. I'm going to reiterate this: the "Advice" sections are my opinion. Feel free to disagree. You can e-mail me if you think I need to include a different point in this FAQ. Just make sure your e-mail is polite and legible. And put something about FE: RD in the subject. =============================================================================== ~IV. Introduction to Skills in FE: RD~ [\INTR] =============================================================================== Skills are a vital part of FE: RD play. They give your characters special abilities that help them out both in battle and outside of it. This FAQ is a list of all the skills in the game, where to find them, and my advice about using them. ============ ~IV.A. Skills~ [\SKIL] ============ Press Y (GameCube controller) or B+1 (Wiimote) to pull up data about a unit. Scroll over a couple of times until you see a big circle. This is where a character's skills are listed. Skills with a lock next to them are permanent and cannot be removed. All the other skills, however, can be removed and placed on another character if you want. With some exceptions of course... ============== ~IV.B. Capacity~ [\CAPA] ============== Almost every skill takes a certain capacity to equip. The capacity is a number that is a multiple of 5. In order to equip a skill, the unit must have as much free capacity as the skill calls for. 1st tier Beorc units have 15 capacity. They gain 15 capacity upon promotion for a total of 30. When a second tier beorc unit promotes, he or she gains 30 more capacity (and a mastery skill) for a total of 60. Laguz start with 20 capacity. They gain 15 more when they reach level 15 for a total of 35, and they gain another 35 upon reaching level 30 for a total of 70. To sum up: Beorc (first tier) 15 Beorc (second tier) 30 Beorc (third tier) 60 ----- Laguz (level 1-14) 20 Laguz (level 15-29) 35 Laguz (level 30-40) 70 Laguz royals (Kurthnaga, Dheginsea, Giffca, Caineghis, Skrimir, Tibarn, Nailah, and Naesala) get an extra 30 capacity, bringing their final total up to a whopping 100 capacity. Now remember, units with Shove and Canto, aren't really going to have that as much capacity as I listed above. Also, that extra 30 skill that third tier beorc get is automatically taken up by a mastery skill (although some only cost 25 capacity). So, plan accordingly! If a character comes with a skill, it takes up no capacity. On the other hand, if you remove that skill to give to someone else, it takes space to learn. Even if you remove a skill a character came with and try to teach it to him or her again, it will take up space the second time. One more thing...a unit can only have a total of six assigned skills max, regardless of capacity. ============= ~IV.C. Scrolls~ [\SCRL] ============= Throughout the game, you'll find scrolls. These scrolls can be used at a base to teach the skill whose name is on the scroll. To make a character learn a skill, go to Manage and then Skills when you are at a base. This will pull up a list of all the characters you currently have recruited. Select a character to assign or remove a skill. If you remove a skill from a character, that skill reverts back to a scroll that can be given to another character. So, if you're not planning on using certain characters, go ahead and strip them of their removable skills. ================ ~IV.D. Activation~ [\ACTI] ================ So, how are skills actually put to use? It depends which one you're talking about. Some of them give effects that are always active. Others are only active in battle and have a set %chance of activating. I've included the activation rates of all the abilities in the list below. However, there's one more key to getting a skill to activate more or less often: biorhythm. Skills will activate more often if your biorhythm is at best or good. On the other hand, skills will activate less often if biorhythm is at bad or worst. Other than that, I don't think there are any ways to change how often a skill activates. Specifically, biorhythm impacts skill activation in the following ways: BEST: +10% chance GOOD: +5% chance NORMAL: +0% chance BAD: -5% chance WORST: -10% chance So, if you really want a skill to activate, you should try getting a Heron to sing Bliss for your unit or something. =============================================================================== ~V. List of Skills~ [\LIST] =============================================================================== And now, the meat of this FAQ. I've classified the skills into 3 kinds: Inherent, Personal, and Mastery skills. Each section is alphabetized for your convenience. ==================== ~V.A. Inherent Skills~ [\INHS] ==================== Inherent skills are class- or character-specific skills that are locked. You won't find them in scroll form anywhere. ~~~~~ CANTO ~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: All mounted units (horses, pegasi, wyverns) as well as laguz that fly (Ravens, Hawks, Herons excluding Rafiel). Black dragons fly, but they don't have Canto. Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: The unit can use any leftover movement to move again after it performs an action such as attacking. Activation: After performing an action, you will be prompted to move the character again. Advice: You really can't do anything after moving away. You can't use an item, you can't trade, and you sure as heck can't go for a second attack. All you can really do is move your unit into a better position if possible. For example, after attacking, if your unit took lots of damage, you can move him or her back to be healed. Or, you can attack someone and then move your unit to plug up holes in your formation to prevent enemies from breaking through your frontlines. Maybe you can move someone into support range and give your unit a boost. All units with Canto have high movement ranges, so that's good. ~~~~~~~~~~~ CRITICAL +X ~~~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 0 Characters: Certain classes have certain critical boosts. They are as follows: CRITICAL +5: Myrmidons, Halberdiers, Reavers CRITICAL +10: Swordmasters, Sentinels, Snipers CRITICAL +15: Marksmen CRITICAL +20: Trueblades CRITICAL +25: Assassins Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Adds "X" to the character's critical hit rate. Activation: The extra critical is automatically factored in whenever a battle occurs. Advice: I tend to view critical bonuses as compensation for not being able to use more than one weapon. Anyway, this skill comes free, so no complaints, right? Free extra critical can't be a bad thing. If you give theses classes Killer weapons or Wrath or put a bond support right next to them, they'll score even more critical hits. Nice. ~~~~~~~~~ FORMSHIFT ~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 0 Characters: Tibarn, Naesala, Nailah, Caineghis Found: Chapter IV-F(3) => The boss leaves this skill behind...but only Kurthnaga can learn it. Restrictions: Laguz kings and queens only Effect: Keeps the transformation gauge at maximum, enabling the user to transform at will. Activation: Use the Shift or Revert commands whenever. Advice: Formshift is just one of the many reasons I think Laguz Royals are better than ordinary laguz. It's a very useful ability that lets the unit stay transformed indefinitely without worrying about the transformation gauge. Formshift can't be removed, so your other laguz can't attain it-- with the sole exception of Kurthnaga who gains the ability in a plot event. ~~~~~~~ GALDRAR ~~~~~~~ Capacity: 0 Characters: Herons Found: N/A Restrictions: Herons only Effect: Allows Herons to sing to aid other units. The different songs are: VIGOR: Allows an ally that has moved to move again. BLISS: Moves an ally's biorhythm to best. Learned at level 15. SORROW: Moves an enemy's biorhythm to worst. Learned at level 15. VALOR: Completely fills an ally's transformation gauge (laguz). Learned at level 30. RECOVERY: Completely heals an ally's HP and resturns him or her to normal condition. Learned at level 40. Activation: A command appears if you can sing to an adjacent unit(s). Advice: Using Galdrar is the only way Herons can level up...unless you want to put them in combat or feed them bonus EXP. So, be sure to do lots of singing! I'm going to break this section up based on the different songs. VIGOR: Vigor is pretty useful in situations where you need a unit to perform two tasks. For example, if you need Micaiah to knock out an enemy and heal an ally, Vigor will make that possible. And when you chant to more than one ally, Vigor's usefulness is multiplied. Just be sure to keep your Heron away from the frontlines. That almost always spells trouble. And watch out for long-range magic, too. It's how my herons get killed 90% of the time. BLISS: Biorhythm is sorta important to your characters in this game. It boosts Accuracy, Avoid, and skill activation chances when at good or best just to name a few things. On the other hand, it decreases those stats when at bad or worst. So, Bliss comes in handy when your character's biorhythm isn't at best. Just be wary: the effect is temporary, and after your unit is at best, there's nowhere to go but down... SORROW: This is kind of risky to use, seeing as it involves moving up next to an enemy. It's also not that great of a deal because using Bliss on an ally will give you similar advantages in battle. You don't need to use this song too much. VALOR: Well, if you use lots of laguz, Valor will come in handy. If you don't, you'll probably feel ripped off by this ability. It's a nice substitute for Olivi grasses and Laguz stones. The only difficult part is you have to get your laguz and Heron together. But then again, that's not that hard because laguz have lots of Movement. RECOVERY: By the time your Heron learns Recovery, you'll probably have a few units who can heal. And chances are, you'll want to use those units instead (for the EXP). Still, if there's some situation where you need to heal more than one person at once, Recovery might do the trick. ~~~~~ GLARE ~~~~~ Capacity: 30 Characters: Nailah Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Immobilizes an enemy for the rest of the chapter. Activation: A command appears if it can be used. Advice: Well, Glare seems like a pretty good ability at first. The problem, however, is that it misses a lot more than it hits. I'm not sure how the hit rate for Glare is calculated, but I've only been able to use it successfully a couple of times. Nailah is a very powerful unit, so she's probably better off in battle or doing something besides Glaring at enemies (her turn ends ater she uses it). Additional: [furryjenny] There seems to be some sort of defense boost when a unit is petrified...although I don't know why. Also, Glare has a lower chance of hitting when Nailah is untransformed, and enemy Avoid and Dodge have no effect on the hit rate. ~~~~~~~ INSIGHT ~~~~~~~ Capacity: 0 Characters: Janaff Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Increases accuracy by 20 and increses vision in fog of war by 5 spaces. Activation: Always active. Advice: It's basically a free bonus for using Janaff. However, +20 accuracy doesn't help too much when Janaff already has excellent skill. And the extra sight in fog of war doesn't help when there aren't any chapters to use it in! So, don't use Janaff just for this ability because it's not that much of a help. (That doesn't mean Janaff is a bad unit, though.) Additional: [furryjenny] "If you don't care about Shriek (unless you're using a lot of laguz, you don't) and have extra space, put Janaff in Ike's group. In 4-1, fly him into the squares directly west of the southern entrance, where ground units can't reach him, and since he's on a cliff, he'll never be hit. You'll get a decent view and, if you're lucky, a Coin." (Quoted directly) ~~~~~~~~~ SACRIFICE ~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 0 Characters: Micaiah Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Heals ally's HP and hurts user's HP by the same amount. Also cures the ally's status. Activation: A command appears if Micaiah is next to someone without full HP. Advice: Sacrifice is an ability that you want to use sparingly. After all, Micaiah probably isn't your strongest character, and continually reducing her HP isn't a very good idea. In the beginning chapters, it's good for healing someone and getting cheap EXP. For example, if an ally levels up and gets a +1 to max HP, you might want to get Micaiah to use Sacrifice. Of course, if you decide to train Laura, she and Micaiah are going to be competing for EXP, so be wary of that. I guess if you wanted to, you could Sacrifice with Micaiah and then heal her with Laura. But eh...that's a lot of work. If you're going to use Sacrifice on larger wounds, make sure no one's going to attack Micaiah. Later on in the game (after part I), Sacrifice essentially becomes obselete since Micaiah promotes and learns how to use staves. Additional: [furryjenny] Sacrifice also cures status effects, so that's one advantage over the traditional staff. But, if you're trying to get EXP from a poisoned character multiple times, don't use Sacrifice. Also, giving Micaiah a staff to hold after using Sacrifice will help her regain lost HP next turn. ~~~~~ SHOVE ~~~~~ Capacity: 5 Characters: All characters who are not mounted. Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Moves an adjacent unit one space away. Activation: If a shove is possible, there will be a command. The command will appear if the character you are moving is next to someone whose Build (Bld) is at least 2 less than the shover's weight (Wt). Advice: There are many, many strategic uses for Shove. I can't possibly list them all, but as you play, you will see opportunities for shoving open up. Basically, you can shove an ally to give him or her extra movement. You can also shove the ally out of the range of an enemy if you sense trouble brewing. Note that you can shove enemies, allies, partners, and other units alike as long as the Build reqirement is satisfied. The more you play the game, the better you will be at using Shove in strategic ways. ~~~~~ STEAL ~~~~~ Capacity: 0 Characters: Thieves, Rogues, and Whispers. Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Steals an unequipped item from an enemy. Activation: A command will promppt you to steal if you can. In order to steal an item, your strength must be greater than the item's weight and your attack speed must be greater than the enemy's. Advice: Hello, free items?!?! Of course you want this ability! It's good to have a unit who knows Steal in your party at all times so you can get lots of stuff whenever the opportunity presents itself. If you Disarm an enemy, he or she unequips that item, leaving it for the taking. That's a pretty nifty trick, I think. Without Disarming, you can get lots of free staves from enemy Bishops, if that tickles your fancy. You can also steal secondary weapons from bosses (since those tend to be better) or healing items from random enemies. Heh, I don't know...but if you happen to Steal something you don't want, you can just sell it. ~~~~~~~~~ VIGILANCE ~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 0 Characters: Ulki Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Increases Dodge and Avoid by 20. Activation: Always active. Advice: It's like some incentive to use Ulki, only it's better than Janaff's Insight. I still maintain that Tibarn is the best Hawk, but this would be the wrong FAQ to argue that. Anyway, it's a decent skill that comes free with Ulki. Yay. Whether or not you want to use him is up to you. ==================== ~V.B. Personal Skills~ [\PERS] ==================== Most of these skills can be found in the form of scrolls throughout the game and can be transferred to other characters. Many of these skills appear on recruitable characters for free (they take up no capacity). If that's the case, I suggest leaving them where they are if you plan on using the unit. Otherwise, remove it and give it to a character you actually use. ~~~~~ ADEPT ~~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: Zihark, Soren Found: Chapter III-9 => Aimee's bargains for 6000 gold Restrictions: None Effect: Allows unit to attack twice consecutively. Activation: (Speed)% Advice: Adept is a very useful ability. That double attack comes in handy in many situations. Try pairing it up with a different ability like Vantage or Wrath for better results. You don't have to give it to a frontliner; Snipers and Sages will also benefit from Adept. Give it to whomever you see fit; just make sure you use that unit to attack often. Don't forget to buy the skill when it shows up in Chapter III-9. Priority: Very High ~~~~~~ AURORA ~~~~~~ Capacity: 0 Characters: The aura surrounding the final boss...who shall remain nameless... Found: Nowhere Restrictions: Enemy only Effect: Upon taking damage, half of the damage is reflected back to the attacker. Kind of like Counter, except Aurora works all the time. Activation: Whenever damage is taken. Advice: This is a kind of annoying ability to deal with. The only way around it (as far as I know) is using a unit with Nihil or Parity to attack. If Aurora activates and damages your unit, you may want to think about healing him or her. Priority: N/A ~~~~~~~~ BEASTFOE ~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: None Found: Chapter I-4 => Hidden treasure (from the top left space, move the cursor down 4 spaces) Restrictions: None Effect: Attacks against beast tribe laguz become effective. Activation: Always active. Advice: This is a must for chapter III-6, where all of your enemies are beast laguz and you're playing as the underleveled Dawn Brigade. There are other chapters where Beastfoe will come in handy (like IV-5), too, so be prepared for those. Howeever, you should remove Beastfoe for chapters where beast laguz don't appear. That way, you can conserve capacity. Just remember to reassign it when you need to. Priority: Very High for chapters with beast laguz, Very Low for the rest ~~~~~~~ BIRDFOE ~~~~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: None Found: Chapter IV-5 => Aimee's bargains for 1000 gold Restrictions: None Effect: Attacks against bird tribe laguz become effective. Activation: Always active. Advice: You know, it might just be me, but I don't recall seeing many enemy bird laguz in this game. So, Birdfoe isn't as essential as Beastfoe and Dragonfoe are. In fact, you'll only be using it for one chapter max: chapter IV-5, where all your enemies are laguz, birds incuded. I'd still say go ahead and buy it; it's not that expensive. You can remove Birdfoe and sell it after chapter IV-5 because bird laguz don't appear in the game after that. Oh, and stick it on a strong unit so that it does lots of damage. And if you don't have it, don't feel bad. Just use bows and wind magic. Priority: Medium for Chapter IV-5, Very Low for the rest ~~~~~~~~ BLESSING ~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: Reyson, Rafiel, Leanne Found: Nowhere Restrictions: Herons only Effect: Heals adjacent allies equal to unit's Magic. Activation: Heals at the beginning of the player phase if hurt allies are standing on adjacent squares. Advice: The scroll of this skill is actually called "Sky Boon," but that's not important. All three of your Herons already know this skill, so I suggest leaving it there because no one else can learn it. This is best used for healing small wounds if your Herons aren't at a high level. Just don't go out of your way and place your Herons in danger to get free healing. Priority: Medium, but it's free so don't remove it ~~~~~~~~~~ BLOOD TIDE ~~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: Ena, Gareth Found: Nowhere Restrictions: Red Dragons only Effect: Increases Strength and Skill of adjacent allies by 5. Activation: Always active when an ally is standing next to the Red Dragon. Advice: You have to put your dragon near the frontlines in order for this skill to be effective at all since a +5 bonus to strength and skill aren't going to help units who don't attack. Of course, it'll take some training to get your Red Dragon(s) to be strong enough. If you're up to the challenge, Paragon and bonus EXP will help speed up the process. Blood Tide is a good ability to help take down the bosses of the final chapter. Priority: High, but it's free so don't remove it ~~~~~~~ BLOSSOM ~~~~~~~ Capacity: 20 Characters: None Found: Chapter III-3 => Visit the tent on the left near the beginning. Restrictions: None Effect: Halves EXP but increases stat gains when leveling up. Activation: Always active. Advice: It's an interesting tradeoff...if you do give a character Blossom, be sure he or she doesn't become underleveled. You may want to keep this ability for only a couple of chapters at a time. Maybe if your unit is close to leveling up when a chapter begins, you can stick it on and get (hopefully) better stats than you would've. In the end...based on how much capacity it takes up and how much it holds your unit back, I don't think it's worth it to keep it on long term, but you may disagree. Anyway, definitely don't keep it on a unit who's done leveling up; that just wastes space. Priority: Low Additional: [strategyfreak90] Blossom does NOT affect bonus EXP gain. I had originally written that it halves BEXP gain. My bad. This is why I need you to send me corrections! [henryshaw1993] Blossom is also good for leveling up units if you are abusing experience somewhere. I forgot about that. =D ~~~~ BOON ~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: Ena, Nasir Found: Nowhere Restrictions: Dragon laguz only Effect: Restores adjacent units to normal condition. Activation: Restores allies' conditions at the beginning of the player phase. Advice: The scroll form of this skill is titled "Earth Bounty." Anyway, you can just leave the scrolls on Ena and Nasir because there are some attacks in the final chapter that put status effects on your entire party. Boon will help counteract that. Other than that, it's not very useful. But, it comes free, so yay. Priority: Medium, but it's free so don't remove it ~~~~~~ CANCEL ~~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: Leonardo, Haar Found: Nowhere Restrictions: None Effect: Precludes the enemy from counterattacking. Activation: (Speed)% Advice: Cancel is a useful ability. Don't give it to a Sniper or Marksman or someone who does a lot of indirect attacking because they probably don't get counterattacked that often. Instead, maybe give it to an offensive character who initiates attacks rather than counterattacks. That way, you attack first and have a chance at Cancelling your enemy. Otherwise, the enemy would already have attacked, and you'd be Cancelling nothing. Priority: High ~~~~~~~~ CELERITY ~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: Tormod Found: Nowhere Restrictions: None Effect: Increases Movement by 2 as long as it's equipped. Activation: Always active. Advice: This is a very useful ability for anyone with enough capacity. I don't think I need to prattle on about how useful +2 Movement is. However, there's one problem: only Tormod has it. So, if you don't plan on using him, it is HIGHLY recommended that you take Celerity from him before he disappears from your party (when part I ends). It's a good deal for 15 capacity, and it's not like Tormod will miss it. In case you didn't get it before part I ended, you can still take it from him when he reappears in part IV. But that's a long time to wait. Priority: High ~~~~~~~~~ CORROSION ~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: Bastian Found: Chapter III-5 => Base conversation with Haar Restrictions: Beorc only Effect: Reduces enemy's weapon's durability based on the level of the user. Activation: (Skill/2)% Advice: Corrosion in this game is much more useful than in the last. This time, it has a considerably better chance of breaking a weapon instead of just wasting the durability a little. Use Corrosion on enemies that you can't kill in one turn. That way, if it activates, the enemy is helpless and you can worry about other ones. While it's not an amazing ability, it can still help you out a little. Oh yeah...if an enemy is going to drop a weapon you want, don't use someone with Corrosion to attack...no brainer... Priority: Medium ~~~~~~~ COUNTER ~~~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: Titania Found: Nowhere Restrictions: None Effect: Upon taking damage, half of the damage is reflected back to the attacker. Activation: (Skill)% Advice: Gee, what's wrong with this picture? Oh yeah! Your unit has to take damage to deal damage! And unless that unit is taking a lot of damage, Counter is barely going to hurt the enemy. If you really want to assign this to someone, give it to a unit who gets hurt a lot. Frankly, this skill is just going to take up space (although I concede that 10 capacity isn't THAT much space). Priority: Low Additional: [furryjenny] Pairing Counter with a healing ability like Imbue or Sol helps. But, Counter + another ability = too much space to waste. Hence, you might just want to keep it on Titania. And I agree. ~~~~~ DAUNT ~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: None Found: Chapter III-8 => Base conversation (entitled "Siblings") Restrictions: None Effect: Reduces the hit rates and critical hit rates of enemies up to 3 squares away by 5. Activation: Always active. Advice: Daunt doesn't do that much, but every little bit helps. It's got a pretty good range, so give it to a frontliner who sees lots of combat. Try to get as many of your enemies as possible into the range so they can feel the effects and suffer. Uwee hee hee!! Oops, did I steal someone's line? Priority: Medium ~~~~~~ DISARM ~~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: Brom Found: Nowhere Restrictions: Beorc only Effect: Makes enemy unequip current weapon, leaving him or her vulnerable. Activation: (Skill/2)% Advice: If you Disarm an enemy, I suggest one of two things. Either seize the moment and kill the enemy or steal his or her weapon. Or, better yet, do both. The downside is that Disarm doesn't activate very often, so it'll probably happen by chance when it does. If you have Flourish, you can activate that so you have more attacks and therefore more chances to Disarm. Priority: High ~~~~~~~~~~ DISCIPLINE ~~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: None Found: Chapter I-3 => Steal it from the boss Chapter II-2 => Hidden treasure in the bottom right corner Restrictions: Beorc only Effect: Doubles rate of gain for weapon EXP. Activation: Always active. Advice: Don't give it to a unit who only uses one kind of weapon. They can gain weapon EXP fine, assuming you use them enough. It's probably best given to a newly promoted unit who starts off with a low weapon level in something. This is a pretty low priority skill meaning that you should only assign this if you've got nothing better to assign or you desperately need to increase weapon levels. There are Arms Scrolls for that, though. Priority: Low Additional: [furryjenny] Sages are a good idea since it's tough to max out all of their weapon levels and they don't double attack frequently (less chances to raise weapon levels). Hmm...maybe Marshalls are a good choice too (for the same reasons). Of course, I would assign combat related skills to Marshalls first. ~~~~~~~~~ DRAGONFOE ~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: None Found: Chapter IV-3 => Hidden treasure (starting from the top left corner, move the cursor to the right 11 spaces and down 8 spaces so that it's next to that big lump of dirt) Restrictions: None Effect: Attacks against dragon tribe laguz become effective. Activation: Always active. Advice: Dragonfoe belongs on a strong unit who can do lots of damage and take lots of damage because you need both to take down enemy dragon laguz. This ability is really going to shine in Chapter IV-F(3) and even more so if you happen to be playing that chapter on hard difficulty. Make absolutely sure you give it to someone, even if only for that chapter. There are a few dragons in IV-5, so you may want to assign it at that point. You can remove this skill for any chapters where dragons don't appear. That way, you save some capacity. Priority: Very High for chapters with dragon laguz, Very Low for the rest ~~~~~~~~ FLOURISH ~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: None Found: Chapter 3-3 => Aimee's bargains for 3000 gold Restrictions: None Effect: Halves attack power (before factoring in enemy defense/ resistance). Activation: A "Flourish" command appears when the unit can attack. Advice: The only use for Flourish I can think of is to soften an enemy up so a different, perhaps underleveled character, can get most of the EXP. But honestly, I don't think you need Flourish to do that. If you have many units, you can probably figure out a way to weaken an enemy without killing it. I guess you could also use Flourish to increase your weapon level faster by scoring more hits. But there's Discipline for that... Oh, wait. You can use it in conjunction with Disarm so that you can get more chances to Disarm an opponent and steal something. But that's only if you want that item really badly...so, overall, I see no real need for this ability. But hey, maybe I'm wrong. Send me some suggestions if you've got 'em. Priority: Very Low Additional: [furryjenny] Half power is really not much damage at all. This means that Flourish even fails at weakening enemies significantly. So...useless. ~~~~~~~ FORTUNE ~~~~~~~ Capacity: 20 Characters: Meg, Caineghis Found: Nowhere Restrictions: None Effect: Completely prevents enemy from getting critical hits. Activation: Always active. Advice: This skill takes up a bunch of space. Anyway, it's best to give it to someone with low Luck, as that's what makes a character more vulnerable to critical attacks. Also, give it to someone who will see lots of combat and Killer weapons. But since enemy criticals don't occur that often, Fortune isn't really worth the space it takes up. Something like Pavise might be a better choice for 20 capacity. Priority: Low ~~~~~~ GAMBLE ~~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: Kieran Found: Nowhere Restrictions: None Effect: Halves Accuracy and double critical hit rate. Activation: A "Gamble" command will appear if you unit can attack. Advice: Well, since critical hit rate and Accuracy both depend on Skill, you want to make sure your Gambler has lots of skill. Normally, you'll also want to use other means to increase the critical hit rate such as using a Killer weapon or giving the scroll to a character who gets an inherent critical hit rate boost. Furthermore, you may want to bolster Accuracy by placing a support buddy who increases hit rate nearby or by getting a Heron to chant Bliss. And of course, look at the percent hit and crit before you finalize the attack. All of these small things are tips to using Gamble effectively. Otherwise, it's difficult to get it to work when you want it to. I doubt Kieran can Gamble well because he wields axes primarily, so consider reassigning it. If you really want to use it, that is. Priority: Low ~~~~~ GUARD ~~~~~ Capacity: 20 Characters: Sothe, Nailah Found: Chapter IV-F(3) => "Base" conversation with the Heron you brought Restrictions: None Effect: Unit takes damage for his or her adjacent support buddy. Activation: Not sure, but it's supposed to depend on support level. Advice: In the last Fire Emblem, this skill was different. It had the same effect as Cancel, so don't get confused. Anyway, I've never really seen Guard activate very often. Not sure why. In order for it to activate, two support buddies have to be right next to each other. So, if you want this skill to activate, you're going to have to kind of restrict your units' movement so that they stay adjacent a lot. Also, make sure the unit with Guard is relatively strong. Having a unit take damage for a buddy doesn't help if the unit is going to die. Honestly, I think your units will be fine in combat without Guard hogging up capacity. Priority: Very Low ~~~~ HOWL ~~~~ Capacity: 20 Characters: Volug Found: Chapter III-7 => Base conversation (entitled "Catfight") Restrictions: Beast laguz only Effect: Enemies that attack indirecly are immobilized for a turn. Activation: (Strength)% Advice: This is a semi-useful ability for a beast laguz. If it activates, you can run away or heal or something. It's only worth having if your laguz gets attacked indirectly a lot. I'd suggest this or Quickclaw but probably not both. Priority: Medium ~~~~~ IMBUE ~~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: Fiona, Black Knight Found: Chapter III-11 => Base conversation (entitled "Rivals") Restrictions: Non-magic users only Effect: Heals unit's HP equal to Magic. Activation: Automatically at the beginning of the player phase if the unit is not at full HP. Advice: This is a great ability for a frontliner, especially one who's too far away to be healed. But make sure that the unit you give it to has lots of magic. I'd say around 10 or even more is good. Priority: Very High ~~~~~~~~~ MAELSTROM ~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 20 Characters: Naesala Found: Chapter IV-4 => Hidden treasure (starting from the top left corner, move the cursor to the right 1 space and down 7 spaces. It's tucked in the corner of that wall) Restrictions: Ravens and Hawks only Effect: Damages an enemy that attacks indirectly equal to unit's strength. Activation: (Skill)% Advice: It depends how often your birds get attacked indirectly. I know Snipers and Wind Sages tend to attack birds first, but if that's the case, wouldn't Nullify make a better ability? But then again, you might have different experiences. If you think doing extra damage to indirectly attcking enemies is going to make a significant difference in your game, then go for Maelstrom, I guess. Priority: Medium ~~~~~~ MANTLE ~~~~~~ Capacity: 0 Characters: Lehran, bosses of Chapters IV-F(3,4,5) Found: Nowhere Restrictions: Enemy only Effect: Nullifies attacks from weapons not blessed by Yune, ignores enemy's skills, reduces enemy critical hit rate to 0, and heals HP equal to Luck. Activation: Always active. Healing occurs at the beginning of the enemy phase. Advice: It's a lot to deal with, and it makes the last few bosses of the game pretty painful. You just have to hit hard and fast with your strongest weapons (which you hopefully chose to bless) and heal accordingly. Priority: N/A ~~~~~ MERCY ~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: Elincia (in part IV) Found: Nowhere Restrictions: Elincia only Effect: Potentially fatal attacks leave the enemy with 1 HP. Activation: Whenever Elincia's attack would kill the enemy. Advice: Mercy is kind of proof of how...uh, merciful...Elincia is and expresses her desire to avoid bloodshed. Unfortunately, it doesn't make for a very useful ability. The best use I can think of for Mercy is to let an underleveled unit pick off the enemy for lots of EXP. With Amiti and Stun, Elincia should be able to heavily damage enemies, so if you keep Mercy on her, she won't kill them, and someone else can deliver the finishing blow. If you don't have any characters who need more training like that or if you plan on using Elincia for the final chapter, I suggest that you remove Mercy to unleash her full potential. Priority: Very Low Additional: [MrSlateGray] Again, this hinges on Elincia's ability to survive. If you feel she is a very good unit, you can stick a Provoke and a Miracle on her, then get weaker units to pick the enemies off. Not a bad idea if you've got a particularly strong Elincia. Be aware of all the capacity it takes up though. ~~~~~~~ MIRACLE ~~~~~~~ Capacity: 5 Characters: Mist, Ena, Pelleas Found: Nowhere Restrictions: None Effect: Potentially fatal attacks only halve the unit's HP. Activation: (Luck)% Advice: Don't equip this on a tank character. Leave it for someone who is more likely to die. Those fragile herons would be good choices, especially since they have lots of Luck. It's a pretty cheap skill to equip, so I'm sure you'll find room for it somewhere. You never know when it'll save your butt. Priority: High ~~~~~~~~~~ NIGHT TIDE ~~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: Kurthnaga Found: Nowhere Restrictions: Black Dragons only Effect: Increases Defense and Resistance of adjacent allies by 5. Activation: Always active when an ally is standing next to the Black Dragon. Advice: This will probably require training Kurthnaga up a little bit. That way, he doesn't get slaughtered in battle. After all, Night Tide requires your dragon to be next to allies. And to maximize Night Tide's usefulness, Kurthnaga has to be next to your frontliners. So, train him by using Paragon and bonus EXP. I don't think Night Tide is quite as good as Blood Tide and White Pool are, but I'm probably just being narrow-minded. Priority: High, but it's free so don't remove it ~~~~~ NIHIL ~~~~~ Capacity: 20 Characters: Nolan, Callil, Nasir, Ike (upon promotion) Found: Nowhere Restrictions: None Effect: Ignores enemy's battle skills. Activation: Activates if the enemy has a skill. Advice: Nihil is pretty key in the last chapter where the bosses have some really strong abilities. You should probably toss the scrolls to your most powerful units. I mean, Nihil for Ike is almost a must. But he gets a free one upon promotion, so it's all good. Umm...otherwise, Nihil might be of help against some other bosses with abilities throughout the game. I mean, they have low chances of activating, but if you're a take-no-risks kind of person, maybe you'll want to use a character with Nihil. But it's mostly useful in the last couple of chapters, so if you want, you can hold off on reassigning the Nihils until then because they take up quite a bit of capacity. Priority: High for final chapter, Low otherwise ~~~~~~ NULLFY ~~~~~~ Capacity: 20 Characters: Giffca Found: Chapter II-F => I believe one of the generals at the bottom drops it Restrictions: None Effect: Any effective damage is treated normally. Activation: Always active Advice: Obviously, this skill should go on a unit who's going to take effective damage. By "effecive damage," I mean attacks like fire magic to beast laguz or arrows to Pegasus Knights. Look through your party members and see who needs it most. Or, you can set it aside if you don't think you have units who take effective damage very much. After all, you might have a better skill to assign for that much capacity. Typically, I give it to a flying unit just because they have multiple weaknesses. Except Dracoknights who are only weak against Thunder magic. Priority: Medium Additional: [henryshaw1993] Haar is a good unit to assign Nullify to. It gets rid of his debilitating weakness to Thunder magic. ~~~~~~~ PARAGON ~~~~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: Astrid, Geoffrey Found: Chapter I-6(2) => The boss drops it Restrictions: None Effect: Doubles EXP gained. Activation: Always active. Advice: This is a must for any underleveled units you plan on using. Otherwise, you can give it to any other unit to increase EXP gain. Don't keep Paragon on a third tier beorc at level 20 or a level 40 laguz. That's just a waste of capacity (obviously). If you have no one you think who needs Paragon, assign it to one of your Herons so they can level up much faster. When you get to the final chapter, you should stick it on any dragons you want to level up. Priority: Very High for underleveled units, Very Low for max level units, High for others Additional: [furryjenny] Paragon doesn't affect bonus EXP gain. ~~~~~~ PARITY ~~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: Lucia Found: Chapter I-F => One of the chests on the map Restrictions: None Effect: Ignores both unit's and enemy's skills, terrain bonuses, and support bonuses. Activation: A "Parity" command appears when the unit can attack an enemy. Advice: Parity isn't terribly useful. You want to use it to get an edge over an enemy, but that's not going to happen if you have to forsake your own skills and bonuses. And really, how often do enemies have useful skills or bonuses? The only decent thing about Parity might be the fact that it can be used as a Nihil against the final boss to avoid Aurora. And it can also eliminate terrain bonuses coming from those tiles... maybe Parity isn't so bad for the final chapter. But there's no real need to keep Parity on until then. Priority: High for final chapter, Low for flyers, Very Low otherwise Additional: [furryjenny] Parity is more useful on flying units since they don't receive terrain bonuses, and they probably won't be in support range of non-fliers. Ike might also benefit from this skill more than from Nihil because it can negate the terrain bonuses of some of the final chapter's bosses. (Laguz royals can get Nihil.) I'm really glad furryjenny brought this to my attention...heh. ~~~~ PASS ~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: Heather Found: Chapter I-9 => Base conversation with Jill Restrictions: None Effect: Allows unit to pass through enemies when moving. Activation: Always active. Advice: Moving directly through your enemies can be kind of useful, I guess. You can use it to get through places your enemies have blocked up. Or, you could use it to get your troops in a better position on a map. But sometimes, when you do, you isolate your unit from the rest of the group. That's okay for a strong unit, though. I don't really know what to say about Pass...sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. I'd assume Pass should go on a frontliner. Priority: Medium ~~~~~~ PAVISE ~~~~~~ Capacity: 20 Characters: Tibarn Found: Chapter IV-F(3) => "Base" conversation with Sanaki Restrictions: None Effect: Nullifies damage completely. Activation: (Skill)% Advice: Pavise is a pretty good skill, but it takes up quite a bit of capacity. Give it to a unit who gets hurt a lot or someone who's in combat a lot. Or, you could give it to someone weaker and hope that it activates when he or she gets attacked. I prefer the first idea, though. Priority: Medium ~~~~~~~ PROVOKE ~~~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: Shinon, Skrimir Found: Nowhere Restrictions: None Effect: Enemies are more likely to attack unit. Activation: Always active. Advice: Give it to a unit who can take a lot of hits or a unit with really good Avoid. Provoke helps get those ballistae and long-range magic attacks away from your weaker units. Of course, Provoke fails some of the time, so you still want to be careful when moving your units. Have a backup plan. You may want to stick Renewal or Imbue on a unit with Provoke to heal him or her. Oh, and watch out because a unit with Provoke tends to hog lots of enemies and therefore lots of EXP. If you can give it to a character who heavily damages enemies but doesn't kill them, that'd be perfect. Choosing the right unit to assign it to is the key to success, basically. Priority: Medium ~~~~~~~~~ QUICKCLAW ~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 20 Characters: Kyza Found: Chapter III-7 => Aimee's bargains for 2000 gold Restrictions: Beast laguz only Effect: Damages an enemy that attacks indirectly equal to unit's strength. Activation: (Speed)% Advice: It's okay. It'll punish units who attack indirectly, and you can just take them down next turn. But it doesn't do anything amazing for 20 capacity. If you feel like your unit gets nailed by indirect attacks a lot, you can give it either this or Howl. Assigning both is redundant. Priority: Medium ~~~~~~~ RENEWAL ~~~~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: Elincia, Ena Found: Chapter I-6 => Base conversation with Kurth Restrictions: None Effect: Heals a character 10% of his or her maximum HP (rounded down) each turn. Activation: Activates at the beginning of the player phase if the unit doesn't have full HP. Advice: Well...it's not that bad. But if your unit has any magic at all, Imbue is probably a better choice. Of course, Imbue doesn't work with magic users, so you might want to assign Renewal to one of them. Laguz can probably make the best of this skill becuase their max HP is higher than that of beorc. Since Renewal doesn't heal that much HP, give it to someone who doesn't take that much damage. Generals and Marshalls might be a good idea, but there are better skills for them. It's okay for the early part of the game where you don't have many skills, but it's easily replaced when you gain access to better ones. Priority: Low Additions: [furryjenny] I had originally said that Renewal heals 10% rounded up, but I turned out to be wrong. ~~~~~~~ RESOLVE ~~~~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: Skrimir, Tauroneo Found: Nowhere Restrictions: None Effect: Multiplies Skill and Speed by 1.5 when under 50% max HP. (The game erroneously says 20% of max HP.) Activation: Always active when unit has less than 50% max HP. Advice: Resolve pretty much makes your character a beast-- not the laguz ;]-- at half health. Unfortunately, Resolve does not increase Defense or Resistance, so make sure your unit has plenty of that (although the speed bonus will help Avoid slightly). Bring a support buddy just in case (preferably one that boosts Defense or Avoid). Also, don't stick recovery skills like Imbue or Renewal on a unit with Resolve. If you do, your unit might accidentally recover past the 50% mark, but only barely...and that would leave your unit in a weaker state but not with Resolve. Alternatively, your unit would keep healing every turn and never fall below 50% HP, making Resolve pointless. So, yeah, bad combo. One more thing...a unit with Resolve should carry a Concoction or Elixir or something of the like so that in the event that he or she is almost killed, you will have a backup plan. Give Resolve to a character who is strong enough to survive at 50% max HP but also weak enough to get to that point. Giving it to a high level laguz isn't a bad idea. And always keep an eye on nearby enemies. Priority: High Additional: [sangdrako] You can add Miracle to a unit to keep him or her alive longer (hopefully). Good idea. ~~~~~~ SAVIOR ~~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: Tibarn, Fiona Found: Nowhere Restrictions: None Effect: Prevents unit's stats from being penalized when rescuing another unit. Activation: Active whenver rescuing another character. Advice: Usually, when a unit rescues another character, the unit's speed and skill are halved. As you'd imagine, this leaves him or her vulnerable. Savior nullifies those penalities. So, if you use the Rescue command a lot, Savior is a pretty good ability to stick on one of your units. A mounted unit or laguz (both of which are good rescuers) would be good options for the Savior skill, especially since they have big movement ranges. My advice is to stick it on at least one of your units just in case. You can thank me later. Priority: High ~~~~~ SHADE ~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: Ilyana Found: Chapter III-3 => The boss drops it Restrictions: Beorc only Effect: Character has a reduced chance of being attacked by an enemy. Activation: Always active. Advice: This is a good ability for units with low Defense or for a plain, old underleveled one. It'll keep them out of danger a lot of times. Now, if a unit with Shade is the only unit in an enemy's attack range, that enemy is still going to attack. Plus, Shade doesn't guarantee that no one will choose to attack. It's just a reduced chance. So, you still need to pay attention to where you're moving your peeps. Priority: Medium ~~~~~~ SHRIEK ~~~~~~ Capacity: 20 Characters: Vika Found: Chapter IV-5 => Base conversation (entitled "Birds") Restrictions: Ravens and Hawks only Effect: Drops enemy's Luck to 0 for a turn when unit is indirectly attacked. Activation: (Luck)% Advice: Eh, I dunno exactly how useful this one is. I mean, so what if your enemy has no Luck? It's not a huge advantage in combat. Plus, 20 capacity is a lot for a simple skill like this. Try giving your bird some other skills. But if nothing good is left, I suppose Shriek is better than nothing. Priority: Low ~~~~~ SMITE ~~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: Mordecai Found: Nowhere Restrictions: None Effect: An upgraded Shove that moves an adjacent unit 2 spaces away. Activation: An additional "Smite" command appears when a shove is possible. Advice: If you feel the need to use Smite, you should stick it on a big character. Laguz would be ideal, but some of your burly axe users would also be good candidates if you aren't using laguz. I'd only recommend putting this on a unit if you use Shove often because Smite is essentially an upgraded Shove. Otherwise, you're better off with skills you can use more frequently. The decision is yours. Priority: Medium if you're good with Shove, Low otherwise ~~~~~~~~~ STILLNESS ~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 25 Characters: Volke Found: Nowhere Restrictions: Beorc only Effect: Enemies don't attack character unless he or she is the only one in range. Activation: Always active. Advice: Well, by the time you get to access Volke's skills, you're on the last chapter of the game. So really, the focus should be on trying to pump up your strongest units with good abilities. And when you try to assign Stillness...it's unlikely you'll have 25 capacity leftover on any of your beorc units. Furthermore, you want to bring in your most powerful units for the final chapter, so giving them Stillness to stay out of combat kind of defeats the purpose. But if you do happen to have 25 capacity leftover on an Arch Sage or some other unit with mediocre or low Defense, Stillness wouldn't be a bad idea. Sanaki, for example, might be a good choice because of her low Defense. Priority: Low ~~~~~~~ VANTAGE ~~~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: Naesala, Mia Found: Chapter 1-F => It's in one of the chests. Restrictions: None Effect: When attacked by an enemy, allows unit to attack first. Activation: (Speed)% Advice: Vantage is no longer always active as it was in the last game. So, be sure to give it to a fast character who sees a lot of combat. If you add other abilities like Adept or Wrath, you may even be able to kill enemies before they get a chance to attack you, which is, I guess, the point of Vantage. Har har, did I just make a vantage point pun? Wow... anyway, Trueblades come to mind when assigning this skill. Avoid giving it to Snipers/Marksmen because they usually don't counterattack. Priority: High ~~~~~~~~~~ WHITE POOL ~~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 10 Characters: Nasir Found: Nowhere Restrictions: White Dragons only Effect: Increases Magic and Speed of adjacent allies by 5. Activation: Always active when an ally is standing next to the White Dragon. Advice: +5 Speed is pretty nice...it can let lots of units double attack. +5 Magic for your magic users isn't bad either. The catch, of course, is that you have to put your White Dragon in the fray alongside everyone else. If you think Nasir can handle it, then by all means, put him near your frontliners. On the other hand, if you think Nasir isn't up to the challenge (perhaps on Hard Mode), you may want to leave him out of battle instead. Or, for those of you who don't care about losing units, you can still put him in the middle of combat. =D You're pretty close to the end when you recruit Nasir anyway. White Pool will probably help you quite a bit for the final boss of the game, thanks to the double attacks it helps grant. Priority: High, but it's free so don't remove it ~~~~~~~~~ WILDHEART ~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: Volug Found: Chapter III-8 => Janaff comes with one in his inventory Restrictions: Laguz only, Herons excluded Effect: Allows unit to transform at will with halved transformation bonuses. (In part I of the game, the transformation gauge stays full. For the rest of the game, it decreases normally.) Activation: A command appears whenever the unit can shift. Advice: Eh...this skill isn't really worth it. Your stats are only multiplied by 1.5 instead of 2, which is a pretty significant difference. It's much easier to take Olivi grasses and Laguz stones from units you're not using and give them to the laguz you are using. I know Volug is required to have it for part I, but it's okay then because he's comparatively stronger than your other units. Later on in the game, Wildheart will be much more of a hindrance than a useful skill, so I recommend taking it off of Volug (if you're using him). Sell it if you want; there are better skills to give your laguz. Priority: Very Low Additional: [furryjenny] Assign Wildheart to Ranulf (for the missions he's required to take part in). First of all, don't do that if you plan on using Ranulf as a permanent unit. Second, make sure that the halved transformation bonuses aren't too debilitating (I don't think they are, but you never know). Kudos to furryjenny for finding a use for this skill! Oh, and she also informed me that it doesn't halve EXP like the game says it does. ~~~~~ WRATH ~~~~~ Capacity: 15 Characters: Edward, Nephenee, Nealuchi Found: Nowhere Restrictions: None Effect: Increases critical hit rate by 50 when under 30% of max HP. Activation: Always active when under 30% of max HP. Advice: Wrath is a pretty powerful skill, but I can't say that I use it a lot due to the HP requirement. Naturally, it's best given to classes like Trueblades or Marksmen that have inherent critical hit bonuses. You should also make sure that the unit you're giving Wrath to is strong enough stay alive at only 30% max HP. Sometimes, however, the problem is that your unit will be too good to take that much damage. Experiment to see which of your characters are best suited for this ability. For example, you might try to get Nephenee hit by some magic attacks, then send her out to fight non-magic units. Try to have a support buddy who boosts Avoid or Defense nearby, and always carry a healing item just in case things go awry. If you can, add Vantage so your unit doesn't face so many enemy attacks. Usually, it's the indirect attacks that kill a unit with Wrath, so watch out for those. Priority: Medium Additional: [sangdrako] You can add Miracle to a unit to keep him or her alive longer (hopefully). Good idea. =================== ~V.C. Mastery Skills~ [\MASS] =================== Considered the most powerful of all skills, mastery skills are only learned when a beorc reaches his or her third tier class; laguz learn a mastery skill when they use a Satori Sign after reaching level 30. Mastery skills are class-specific and cannot be transferred, so there's not much advice I can give for assigning these skills. You're stuck with them whether you like it or not. Most of the mastery skills just do a bunch of damage that only the toughest of enemies can survive, but here is a list of their specific effects. ~~~~~~ AETHER ~~~~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Vanguard Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Gives character a double attack: the first heals HP equal to damage dealt (like Sol) and the second negates enemy defense (like Luna). Activation: (Skill/2)% Advice: Aether is an extremely powerful skill, almost always guaranteeing a KO when it activates. Speaking of which, Aether's activation rate is kind of low, so don't depend on it to heal you or get you out of a jam every time you attack. Aether only has a chance of activating when Ike attacks directly, so remember that when you use Ragnell from far away. ~~~~~ ASTRA ~~~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Trueblade Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Allows unit to attack five times in a row. Activation: (Skill/2)% Advice: Well, the downside is that it wears your weapon out faster. That's not too much of a downside though, especially toward the very end of the game, where you obtain blessed weapons. Otherwise, it's pretty much quintipling your damage and destroying your enemies. Be careful though; even with all the Skill a Trueblade has, you're not going to get it to occur every turn. Astra doesn't activate when attacking indirectly. Additional: [furryjenny] This is the worst mastery skill. And I can see why. Just compare it to Adept to see why (lower activation rate, can't critical, uses weapon faster, etc.). However, the sad truth is that you can't remove Astra. 'Tis a pity. ~~~~ BANE ~~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Whisper Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Leaves enemy with 1 HP. Activation: (Skill/2)% Advice: Bane can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I mean, if it activates on a first attack, you'll probably end up killing the enemy. If it activates on the second attack, a weaker unit can pick the enemy off and get some easy EXP. On the other hand, it can act like Mercy in that it leaves the enemy alive when you wanted him or her dead...not cool. So, remember to factor that into your calculations when you use a Whisper to fight. Bane won't activate against bosses or when you attack indirectly. So, if you definitely don't want Bane to occur, you can toss knives from afar. ~~~~~~~~ COLOSSUS ~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 25 Classes: Reaver Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Triples Strength. Activation: (Skill)% Advice: Reavers have very high Strength, so you can expect this to be a one-hit KO, even against mighty Dragons. Reavers are offensive units, so they should have plenty of chances to activate this skill. Colossus doesn't activate when attacking indirectly, and I've never seen it activate with a crossbow. ~~~~~~ CORONA ~~~~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Light Priestess, Saint, Chancellor Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Ignores enemy's Resistance and halves enemy's Accuracy for a turn. Activation: (Skill)% Advice: This is a pretty good ability since light magic is notoriously weak. The halving enemy accuracy part is okay, as it helps your unit dodge an incoming attack if your enemy happens to survive. But still, try to attack so that your opponents can't counter. Corona doesn't actiavte with staves...obviously... ~~~~~~~ DEADEYE ~~~~~~~ Capacity: 25 Classes: Marksman Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Triples damage and puts enemy to sleep. Activation: (Skill/2)% Advice: The sending the unit to sleep thing is pretty useful. Too bad no one ever lives through the triple damage part (except maybe Generals). So, don't depend on Deadeye to put an enemy to sleep, especially since the rate of activation is so low. I don't think Deadeye activates when using a crossbow, but I'm not sure. Marksmen probably shouldn't be using crossbows anyway. Additional: [smbbmaster] confirms it doesn't activate when attacking directly with crossbows. ~~~~~~~ ECLIPSE ~~~~~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Black Knight Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Quintiples strength and ignores enemy's Defense. Activation: (Skill)% Advice: Yeah...ouch. This is essentially a one-hit KO to the enemy. You can use the Black Knight as much as you want while you have him. Just beware-- he hogs potential EXP from your teammates. Later on, when you have to fight him, you shouldn't have to fear Eclipse activating because Ike should have Nihil. Eclipse doesn't activate when attacking indirectly. Addiditonal: Something else I thought of...if you're going for the battle conversation in chapter III-7 to recruit Lehran, you'll have to fight the Black Knight one extra time. In that instance, since Ike isn't yet promomted, the Black Knight might activate this and kill Ike. To be safe, battle save beforehand. If you removed a Nihil from Callil or a Parity from Lucia back in part II, you can put it on Ike for that battle. If you're on hard mode and don't have any of these protective skills, hope for the best or just go for a ranged attack so that Eclipse won't activate. If you just let the Black Knight attack you, he'll attack from afar anyway. Be sure to retreat or rescue afterward so he doesn't pursue you. ~~~~~ FLARE ~~~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Arch Sage, Summoner, Empress Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Ignores enemy's Resistance and heals user equal to damage dealt. Activation: (Skill)% Advice: Flare is not quite as powerful as the other mastery skills, so keep that in mind. My Arch Sages tend to be at full health a lot of the time, so I don't rely on Flare to heal them. Yours may be different. If your Arch Sage gets hit, you can try indirectly attacking a nearby enemy and hoping for a Flare. But have a backup plan in case. Oh, and I doubt you thought otherwise, but Flare doesn't activate with staves. ~~~~~~ IMPALE ~~~~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Sentinel Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Quadruples damage. Activation: (Skill)% Advice: A very useful skill. If your Sentinel is on the frontlines where he or she belongs, Impale will help bring down many an enemy. It doesn't activate when attacking indirectly. ~~~ IRE ~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Red Dragon, White Dragon, Black Dragon Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Triples damage. Activation: (Skill)% Advice: Hm...Ire is basically the same thing as a critical. Transformed dragons have a Skill cap of 30, with the exception of Kurthnaga and Dheginsea. So, you'll probably be scoring "critical hits" almost a third of the time. I guess it makes your dragons more powerful, if you've managed to train them this far. I don't recall whether or not Ire activates when attacking indirectly, but my guess is that it doesn't. ~~~~~~~~~ LETHALITY ~~~~~~~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Assassin Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Automatically kills the enemy unit. Activation: (Skill/2)% Advice: Yep, Lethality just flat out kills your enemy. Now, don't start daydreaming just yet. It doesn't work on the final boss, or any boss for that matter. And it's not going to activate too often, so don't depend on it. Rather, you could try using Volke to weaken enemies and counting Lethality as a favorable surprise. My point is, don't expect it to occur a lot. Lethality will not activate when attacking indirectly. ~~~~ LUNA ~~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Marshall Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Triples Strength and ignores enemy's Defense. Activation: (Skill)% Advice: Luna absolutely destroys opponents. Put your Marshalls where the enemies are and let the carnage begin. It doesn't activate when attacking indirectly, as those of you who have looked at the entries for the other mastery skills might have deduced. ~~~~ REND ~~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Cat Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Quintiples strength and immbolizes enemy for a turn. Activation: (Speed)% Advice: Yeah, this is pretty much like Roar except Rend compensates for Cats' lower strength. Cats are really fast, so expect this to activate fairly often. ~~~~ ROAR ~~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Lion, Tiger Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Triples Strength and immobilizes enemy for a turn. Activation: (Strength)% Advice: It's pretty much Stun, but you're probably going to kill the enemy first. This will activate quite a bit since Lions and Tigers have quite a bit of Strength. Put them near lots of enemies so they can dominate. ~~~~~~ SAVAGE ~~~~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Wolf Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Triples Strength and halves enemy's Skill for a turn. Activation: (Skill)% Advice: The halving Skill part isn't that useful, but your enemy will probably be too dead for that to matter. ~~~ SOL ~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Gold Knight, Silver Knight, Valkyrie Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Triples damage and heals user equal to damage done to enemy. Activation: (Skill)% Advice: If your unit is kind of low on HP, you can try attacking an enemy Sniper or something. That way, you'll get a couple of free chances to activate Sol. This is a good ability for keeping your units alive when they're far away from your healers, which your Gold and Silver Knights probably are. I believe Sol does not activate from afar...unless you're using a bow. Additional: [jklow13] Confirmed that last part about bows. Thank you! ~~~~ STUN ~~~~ Capacity: 25 Classes: Seraph Knight, Dragonlord, Queen Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Triples damage and paralyzes enemy for a turn. Activation: (Skill)% Advice: If you fail to kill your enemy with Stun, you don't have to worry. You can just use Canto to retreat if you're hurt. But, it's like a critical attack, so chances are, you won't have to worry about that because your enemy will probably already be dead if it activates...hm, boy does that sound familiar...maybe because that the case for every other mastery skill in the game? Oh, and this is probably familar too: Stun doesn't activate when attacking indirectly. ~~~~ TEAR ~~~~ Capacity: 30 Classes: Raven, Hawk Found: N/A Restrictions: N/A Effect: Triples Strength and halves enemy's Speed for a turn. Activation: (Speed)% Advice: This pretty much guarantees a double attack if you didn't have one already. Like all the other mastery skills, it's going to kill 99% of the time if it activates, so use your bird often. =============================================================================== ~VI. Frequently Asked Questions~ [\FAQS] =============================================================================== This is the section where I attempt to anticipate your questions and answer them before you ask me. Naturally, I can't read minds, so if there is a question you have whose answer is NOT IN THE FAQ, feel free to e-mail me. Q: How do I get a skill to activate more often? A: Skills will activate more often if the unit's biorhythm is at best or good. On the other hand, skills will activate less often if his or her biorhythm is at bad or worst. Other than that, I don't think there are any other ways to change how often a skill activates. Besides cheating. Cheating is always an option. But for those of you who are honest, dedicated players, I believe that's it. Specifically, biorhythm impacts skill activation in the following ways: BEST: +10% chance GOOD: +5% chance NORMAL: +0% chance BAD: -5% chance WORST: -10% chance (I took that from the Activation section of my FAQ. Serves you right for not reading it. =P) Q: What's the best skill to give to [insert character here]? A: It's all subjective. Your opinion is as good as if not better than mine. All I can recommend is that you should play around with them until you get a combination you like or that you feel is good. My ideas are just suggestions (quite a few of them are common sense). Q: Why does your FAQ say Resolve activates at under 50% max HP when the game says it activates at under 20% max HP? A: According to many people (myself included), that's just an error on the game's part. Trials have confirmed that it will activate at any point under 50% max HP, not 20%. So, that actually works in your favor! Q: So, does the same thing work for Wrath? A: Unfortunately, no. Your unit must be under 30% max HP to activate Wrath. Q: Do skills transfer from Path of Radiance? A: It depends. Many of the skills that the recruitable FE: PoR characters started with in that game will reappear in this game (and don't take up any capacity!), but any skills you may have added yourself will not reappear. If you removed an ability that a character started with in FE: PoR, that ability still comes back in FE: RD. Q: How do I learn a mastery skill? A: If you missed what I said earlier, beorc learn a mastery skill automatically when they promote to a third tier class. Laguz need to use a Satori Sign when they reach level 30 or higher. Q: How do I get more capacity? A: Beorc get more capacity upon promotion. Laguz get more capacity upon reaching higher levels. They get extra capacity at levels 15 and 30. Also, Laguz royals (not just kings and queens) get an extra 30 capacity...just for being royal. Herons, however, do not count as "royalty" in this case. Q: I know I have the capacity to add this skill! Why can't I assign it? A: Sometimes abilities are only for certain species, classes, or characters. I have listed all of these restrictions in my guide. Look at the "Restrictions" entry under the skill you're wondering about. If that's not the problem, perhaps you already have six skills assigned on a character. That's the maximum, so you're going to have to remove one to add another. Q: How do I pick up hidden treasure? A: Move a unit onto the square. There is a chance that the unit will see the treasure and pick it up. If not, keep trying. Thieves, Rogues, and Whispers almost always successfully find treasure. Otherwise, units with high Skill or best biorhythms also have pretty good chances of finding hidden treasure. For those who are interested, the specific formula is as follows: % Chance of detecting a hidden item = Skill + Thief bonus + Biorhythm bonus where the thief bonus is 60 if your unit is a Thief, Rogue, or Whisper and the biorhythm bonus is +20 if at best, + 10 at good, 0 at normal, -10 at bad, and -20 at worst. Q: What do "FE: RD" and "FE: PoR" stand for? A: FE: RD is the game you're playing, silly. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. FE: PoR refers to the game that came out before it, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. FE: RD is a sequel to FE: PoR, so I tried to point out some of the connections between them as far as the skills go. Q: Your opinion sucks. This guide is lame. A: That's not even a question. For comparison purposes, see the next QUESTION, please. Q: I respectfully disagree with your opinion. I believe you did not give [insert something here] a fair evaluation. May I e-mail you about this? A: By all means. I'll include your suggestions in this FAQ and credit you if your help is good enough. If you read the previous "question," you should also realize that I'm going to ignore crap like that. Be nice when you write, please. It makes the world go 'round. If you want to, you can send [constructive] criticism about my FAQ. I want to make it as good as possible. Include your username so I can credit you, too. Q: I see this FAQ on a site besides GameFAQs, GameSpot, etc. What should I do? A: Heh...look at my Credits and Legal Info section. =============================================================================== ~VII. Credits and Legal Info~ [\CALI] =============================================================================== MAJOR THANKS TO: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ www.serenesforest.net for some skill effects, skill locations, activation rates, and some other miscellaneous stuff. This guide would not have been possible without it. VincentASM, you are my hero. (Serenes Forest is a great resource for all things Fire Emblem. I highly, highly recommend visiting. Lots of info available there.) Nintendo/ Intelligent Systems for making such a great game. Long live the Fire Emblem series! OTHER THANKS TO: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My friends for supporting me while I was writing. GameFAQs for hosting my FAQ originally. Other sites (listed below) for also hosting. Konxilla for proofreading. furryjenny for various corrections throughout the FAQ and also some suggestions about some of the skills. strategyfreak90 for pointing out that Blossom doesn't affect bonus EXP (as I had erroneously beleived originally). jklow13 for confirming when Sol activates from afar. sangdrako for a tip when using Reslove or Wrath. henryshaw1993 for suggestions for Blossom and Nullify. MrSlateGray for an idea for Mercy. ssmbmaster for confirming when Deadeye activates. (Your name could be here!) Fire Emblem is copyrighted by Nintendo/Intelligent Systems. PERMITED TO POST THIS FAQ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GameFAQs Neoseeker Super Cheats GamesRadar Cheat Planet I have only given the sites listed above and their affiliate sites permission to post this guide. However, I don't really mind if this FAQ turns up somewhere else as long as I still get credit for it. But, chances are, if a random site has this FAQ, it's not a very good one. I mean, if it needs to steal other FAQs to get material, how good can it be? I'd encourage you to visit more... legitimate sites such as GameFAQs for your gaming help. I really appreciate you for reading my guide! It was lots of fun to write, and I hope it helped you on your quest to save Tellius! Copyright 2011 Leroy Jia qwedsa@ymail.com [END OF FAQ]