Summary
Fire Emblemis one of Nintendo’s most unique franchises when it comes to gameplay, with the series managing to perfectly blend an RPG progression system with large tactical battles and even a fewslice-of-lifeelements to break up the intensity of the story and combat. This means that players will take charge of multiple units at a time, sometimes more than 30 in the case of the older games, with every character having their own stats and personal abilities, which make them ideal for certain situations.
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However, this has also resulted in some units being much too powerful for their own good, and if players decide to invest a lot of time into these characters and get lucky with their stat buffs, they can essentially command an entire map on their own. These are some of the most fearsome units that are already viable when the player is able to command them, but they also have the potential to grow into being the best units in the game after experiencing a few battles.
7Titania - Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Base stats:
It’s astonishing that Titania becomes available from the first chapter ofFire Emblem: Path of Radiance, not only because she’s already promoted to a Paladin, which gives her incredible stats, but also because her growth rates border on being game-breaking. For example, each time Titania earns a kill with her lance or axe, she has an 80% chance to improve her HP, meaning she is more or less guaranteed to become the tank of the army very early on.
Pair this with a mount that grants her 9 movement right from the get-go, along with the fact that she starts with an A-grade axe proficiency from the moment she becomes available, and it’s easy to see whyTitania wreaks havocso early on inPath of Radiance.
6Seliph - Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy Way
Many players whotry to speedrunthroughFire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy Warwill make it their sole mission to level up Seliph as much as possible early on, and the reason for this is that he can make quick work of the first few missions almost single-handedly. His base HP stat of 31, mixed with a fairly high skill and speed, means that he’s not only durable but also fast on his feet and capable of throwing out criticals when they’re most needed.
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Where Seliph really shines, though, is when attacking bulkier enemies who are slower than him since this will activate his Pursuit personal skill, which lets him attack twice, but even if he does somehow take a hit, his high defense will still be there to save him.
5Marcus - Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
The majority of mainlineFire Emblemgames will follow aspecific combat systemwhere each of the three main weapons is effective against a different one, so while swords are good against axes, axes work well against lances, for example. This means that most units will be adept at using one or potentially two types of weapons if they’re lucky, butin the case of Marcus, he starts off having a high proficiency with every single one, largely negating this mechanic altogether.
Marcus' tremendously high strength, skill, and speed make himnear-unstoppablefor almost the entire game, capable of wiping out entire maps by himself in the first few hours. While he won’t gain much more speed throughout the game due to his 25% speed growth, many of the enemies inBlazing Bladetend to become a lot heavier as the game progresses, so this barely even phases him.
4Robin - Fire Emblem: Awakening
Robin is a unique character as while they might not be the powerhouse that a lot of characters are on this list, it’s their abilities that make them so devastating by the mid to late game.Fire Emblem Awakeningintroduced the “Pair Up” system where two characters could come together to act as a single unit in battle, but thanks to Robin’s unique Veteran personal skill, it means that they earn 50% more exp when paired up with other units.
With an already good set of stats, Robin can grow to become extremely strong so long as they are kept alongside other stronger units in the game, such as Frederick and Lon’qu. Because they start off as the Tactician class, it also meansthey can use magicin the form of Tomes, alongside also beingefficient with a sword, so they can act as both a deadly close combat unit and a ranged character, making them viable for much of the game.
3Palla - Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem
Despite making an appearance in 3 games beforeNew Mystery of the Emblem, Palla was buffed tremendously in thisfan-favorite DS title, especially in terms of her lightning-fast speed, which helps out a lot for a Pegasus Knight who might be a little more vulnerable to attacks. With that being said, though, her reasonably high defense stat means that she won’t be shot out of the sky with a single arrow, making her potentially the only Pegasus class in the series who can double as a sort of sub-tank role too.
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Palla is also able to be promoted to the Dracoknight class, which is near game-breaking inMystery of the Emblemsince it will skyrocket a unit’s HP, alongside their strength and defense. Overall, Palla is great for flanking troops and cutting them down one by one, but she can just as well be the leader of a battalion when she’s promoted.
2Sigurd - Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy Waris a game known for its difficult maps and tanky enemies, with regular grunts usually requiring more than a few hits to be fully defeated, but Sigurd doesn’t exactly play by these rules. With a staggering 9 movement and an extremely high strength stat, Sigurd can zip around the map and one-hit regular enemies like nobody’s business.
He also shares the Pursuit skill with Seliph, meaning he is almost always guaranteed to attack twicedue to how fast he is. His blistering speed also means he is the best unit in the game for taking down castles which will automatically remove all enemies nearby, so he’s absolutely essential for planning an effective assault strategy, doubling as the most powerful and interesting character in terms of hispersonal story.
1Seth - Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Even at level 1, the charismatic Paladin Seth is already on par with a legitimately promoted cavalier unit in terms of his stats, possessing the best base statistics in the entire series. Most people would presume that he is, therefore, only viable for the early game and falls off soon after, but the truth is, he has an exceptional growth rate in nearly all of his stats, especially his HP, which has a 90% chance of improving with each level.
Because literally every single one of his stats is considered to be very good, it makes him the safest unit inScared Stones, who is capable of rushing in to save an ally without having to worry about dying in the process. His A rank proficiency in both lances and swords means he also has full command of the weapon triangle system. It’s even gotten to the point wheremany fans have theorizedthat he could not only solo the game without any help but that this would actually make the game easier since he wouldn’t need to bail out his allies constantly.
