Fire Emblem Engage tips you need to know before starting

Fire Emblem Engage has the deepest strategy gameplay of any entry in the series, and these are the tips you need to know

Fire Emblem Engage is out now, and it presents one of the most robust versions of the classic Fire Emblem strategy battle system we’ve ever seen. New mechanics in and outside of battle can have a huge effects on how your army performs, and in this guide we’re breaking down the things you need to know.

Those new battle abilities and effects? How to rank up your bond quick? Getting more Master Seals? Adopting more animals? Yep, we’ve got the answers you need to all of those and more, so just take a look at our full breakdown below for everything you need to know.

Bonding in the Arena

You can find the Arena near the rear of the Somniel, and in here you can train your fighters against one another in order to earn extra experience. If you have a unit that just needs a tiny bit more EXP before the next level, this is a great way to get it, but you can also use the Arena to increase bonds. If you send Alear into the Arena, they will develop their bond with whichever random unit they battle against. This can be done three times between battles, and is a great way to increase their bond with the entire cast.

Emblem bonds

While in the Arena you can also infinitely train against Emblems, and this will increase your Emblem Bond. Bonding with your equipped Emblem will unlock new abilities and buffs for when you Engage, so it’s important to get the bond as high as possible. It requires Bond Fragments, but you’ll receive plenty of these following each battle. Make sure to max out the Emblem Bond level for the units you’ve chosen to Engage.

Master Seals

Once a character hits level ten you’re able to use a Master Seal on them to ascend their class. Second Seals are also available, which can change a unit’s class to something of an equal or lower level. A Master Seal can drastically change how a unit performs in battle, and you’ll be able to earn them from battles, and purchase them from the shop in the Somniel after a certain point in the story. The higher your unit’s level is to 20 before using a Master Seal, the better your unit will be once ascended.

Item farming, animal adopting

You can adopt animals following battles, and place these in your farm at the Somniel to literally farm items – items from the animal’s region will appear there regularly. The animals you can adopt are limited until you’ve provided donations to the region you’re in via the Bulletin Board at the Somniel – donations will provide other handy benefits and items too, so it’s worth donating until most areas are leveled up at least once.

Emblem, Engage!

The titular Engage feature is important to use in battle. You’ll be collecting Emblem Rings throughout the story, and you can assign each ring to a unit of your choice. Each Emblem has unique abilities and weapons for use, so you should think carefully about which units should get access to them. For example, a short-range Martial Arts user might benefit from access to spells or a bow.

Optimize All

Before each battle you should first select which units you wish to send into battle – as battles allow different numbers of units, you might find that your faves are excluded unless you check ahead of time. While you’re in the unit selection screen, you can tap L to Optimize All. This will unequip all items from units you’re not using, and assign the best compatible weapons to your active units. Though it doesn’t always take into account certain items you might want, like a Longbow for extra archer range, or healing staves over ones that provide unique effects. Still, this means that you should have access to any weapon you could need, as long as you keep the Convoy fully stocked with weapons, staves, and vulneraries.

Enemy range

When battles get tough you really need to think about where to place your units. Main missions shouldn’t pose too much of a challenge on Normal difficulty with Permadeath off – you won’t have to flex your strategic muscle too much here – but Paralogues are a different story. Even without any additional difficulty modifiers, Paralogues are super tough when they unlock. For these hard-fought battles, make sure to active the Enemy Range mechanic, which allows you to see all of the squares your foes have access to during their turn. Keep low-defense units out of harm’s way, and only bait foes with tough fighters.

Battle speed settings

Fire Emblem has had battle speed settings since Awakening now, allowing you to hold the A button to speed up battle animations. But dip into the settings menu and you’ll be able to find a variety of different functions to turn off and on. For example, you can deactivate battle animations for enemy turns to make them go faster. Or, if you’re a strategy purist, you can turn battle animations off entirely.

Weapon triangle

The classic weapon triangle is back, and it’s better than ever. Or, well, it’s about the same, really. Sword beats axe, axe beats spear, spear beats sword. It’s a simple system, but now close-range Martial Arts attacks are effective against dagger, bow, and spell users. Other than that, things are similar, with bows still effective against flying units, and spells great for downing armored units with low resistance.

Break

The Break status is a new feature, and fleshes out the importance of the weapon triangle. Now when you use an advantageous weapon against a foe, you have a good chance to inflict Break on them. Once Break has been inflicted, that unit will drop their weapon and be unable to defend themselves until the end of the turn. This makes inflicting Break a great opportunity to unleash hell against a tough foe. But of course, your units can be hit with Break too, giving you another reason to think twice about stepping into enemy territory without thinking things through.