Fire Emblem Fates Character Guide: Conquest

Hello and welcome to the Fire Emblem Fates Conquest character guide! This guide focuses on the adult characters of Nohr, who are present in Conquest and Revelation. If you are looking for the children of Nohr, you need to check out this guide. If you also need to see characters like the Player Character or Silas who are in all versions of the game, this guide right here will help you out. For child characters who appear in every version, use this guide. If you’re playing Revelation and need to see the guides for Hoshidan characters as well, here’s the parent guide and here’s the children guide.

Here’s what to expect from this guide. One character at a time, I’ll present mechanical information like the character’s growth rates, maximum stats, and personal skill. Credit goes to Serenes Forest for all of this very specific data. After the mechanical stuff is out of the way, I’ll provide an analysis of the character based on the data and on my personal experiences in play, recommending certain classes or combinations of skills to help you get the most out of each character. If you want to find a specific character in the guide, you can jump to them by searching their name using CTRL + F on your keyboard. Conversely, for those on mobile, they’ll be in alphabetical order.

And now, without further ado, let the character guide begin!


ARTHUR
Class: Fighter
Recruitment: Automatically joins in Chapter 7 (Conquest) or Chapter 14 (Revelation)
Growth Rates – HP: 50 Str: 45 Mag: 0 Skl: 55 Spd: 35 Lck: 5 Def: 45 Res: 20
Maximum Stats: Skl +3; Str and Def +1; Res -1; Lck -3
Personal Skill: Misfortunate – Enemies within 2 spaces get Crit Evade -15, this unit has Crit Evade -5
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*makes predictable Captain America joke* Arthur is something of a self-styled superhero, but his power is a bit unfortunate – he’s un-fortunate. His luck is trash. Garbage. Terrible. Misfortune follows Arthur wherever he goes, but he somehow stays positive and does everything in his power to help the people around him, particularly his beloved lady Elise. Arthur joins early on in Conquest and about midway through Revelation.
Arthur’s personal skill is devastating all around. Any enemies within two spaces of him lose 15 points from their ability to evade critical hits, which means if you’ve got a unit with a high-crit weapon ready that guy or gal will be in great shape. Of course, Arthur’s skill also lowers his own crit-evasion by 5, and that combined with his absolutely terrible Luck stat means that if Arthur CAN take a critical hit, he WILL take a critical hit. This is a serious weakness of Arthur’s that you will absolutely have to watch out for during play.
Arthur begins play as a fighter and has Cavalier as his secondary class. This makes his four promoted class options the Berserker, the Hero, the Paladin, or the Great Knight. This actually gives him access to some absolutely fantastic skills, including both Sol and Luna (special attacks that heal the user or ignore part of the enemy’s defense, respectively), Axefaire (+5 damage when using an axe), Axebreaker (+50 to hit and avoid against enemy axe-wielders), Aegis (chance to ignore half of damage from certain types of attacks, mostly ranged weapons), and Armored Blow (+10 defense when initiating battle). These aren’t the only ones, either. Arthur’s incredible skill selection makes him a beast at either attack or defense, or you can always combine your favorites for the best of both worlds. In Conquest it can be tricky to have a character jump around between classes due to the limited number of chapters and experience, but Arthur is obtained early on and he can certainly be worth the investment.
Arthur begins play as a Fighter, which allows him to naturally gravitate towards either Berserker or Hero. Berserker is a really solid choice for him – they get a hidden stat bonus to Critical Hit, which combined with his personal skill gives him serious critical hitting power. They also get access to S-level axes, meaning you can equip Arthur with the best weapon possible and get the best weapon skill bonus. He may end up needing some Speedwings depending on how well the RNG favors you, as his Speed growth as a Berserker sits right at 50%. But his HP, Strength, and Skill will be quite solid. Where you really need to watch out is Luck – the combination of Misfortunate and the Berserker hidden stats gives him a whopping -10 to Crit Evade, and his Luck stat will likely be painfully low. Using Arthur can be a serious gamble – it’s up to you to decide whether the potential reward is worth the risk.

BENNY
Class: Knight
Recruitment: Automatic in Chapter 13 (Conquest), talk w/ Elise in Chapter 14 (Revelation)
Growth Rates – HP: 50 Str: 40 Mag: 0 Skl: 50 Spd: 10 Lck: 35 Def: 55 Res: 45
Maximum Stats: Def +3; Res +1; Spd -3
Personal Skill: Fierce Mien – Enemies within 2 spaces have Avoid reduced by 10
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This guy may look like he’s a creepy fellow, but in reality he’s a big ole softy. Benny’s a knight from the countryside of Nohr in service of his master Charlotte, and he’s recruited automatically during the course of battle in Conquest, while you need to use Elise to speak with him to recruit him in Revelation.
Benny’s personal skill is simple but solid, the kind of skill I really like – any enemies within 2 spaces of him are so disturbed by his visage that they lose 10 points from their Avoid stat, making it easier for allies to hit them. This is really helpful to anyone with lower accuracy, or to allies who don’t have weapon advantage against a nearby opponent. Since Benny’s someone you’re gonna want on the front line, everyone attacking around him will benefit from this skill.
Benny begins as a Knight and has the option of becoming a Fighter. This opens him to a number of useful skills such as Wary Fighter (can’t double attack or be double-attacked), Pavise (chance of reducing damage from certain enemy attacks by half), Luna (chance to ignore part of the enemy’s defense), Armored Blow (defense +10 when initiating battle), Axefaire (+5 attack when using an axe), Sol (chance to heal damage dealt to enemy), and Axebreaker (+50 hit and avoid against enemies with an axe). Wary Fighter is a MUST for Benny – his Speed is terrible and he’s guaranteed to be double-attacked by pretty much any opponent, so you’re going to want to take that advantage away from the enemy. Because he won’t be able to double-attack as a consequence of that (not that he’d be able to anyway), Luna is another good option so you can really tear into the enemy with his attacks. If you choose to make him a General, giving him Axebreaker is a great option to mitigate the threat from enemy axe-wielders.
Benny is a one-trick pony, but he is crazy good at his one trick: defense. With 75% growth rates in both HP and Defense as a General, he’ll not only be able to take physical attacks well but also to sponge damage for a long time. And his natural Resistance growth is so high that with RNG on your side, he can actually have pretty solid defense against magical blows as well. Benny’s major vulnerability is his atrocious Speed stat, which is why you really want to make sure to get Wary Fighter onto him whenever possible. He’s got some worthwhile skills all over his class options, so if you can manage to switch him around it will absolutely be worth your time.

BERUKA
Class: Wyvern Rider
Recruitment: Automatic during Chapter 10 (Conquest) or End of Chapter 12 (Revelation)
Growth Rates – HP: 45 Str: 30 Mag: 10 Skl: 55 Spd: 30 Lck: 45 Def: 40 Res: 25
Maximum Stats: Skl and Def +2; Spd -2; Str and Res -1
Personal Skill: Opportunist – If initiating a battle where the enemy cannot counterattack, damage +4
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Ah, Beruka. This socially-awkward assassin rides proudly atop a wyvern and faithfully serves her master Camilla. She has creepily watched over you your whole life and is mad that you didn’t realize she was stalking you. Regardless, she joins in Chapter 10 during Conquest or Chapter 12 in Revelation.
Beruka is one of two characters in the game that I think has a pretty great personal skill, but is wasted on its wielder. Opportunist allows Beruka to deal +4 damage against opponents who can’t retaliate against her. Now, let’s think for a minute about who can’t retaliate. She wields axes, so generally she’s going to be attacking in melee. That means the Big Three (swords, axes, lances) can all retaliate. Plus magic and hidden weapons, both of those hit in melee and at a range. So without using inaccurate and unreliable throwing axes to use this ability against melee attackers, the only really reliable way to activate Beruka’s skill is against archers. And what’s a wyvern rider’s biggest weakness again? Right. Archers. Beruka has a really hard time taking advantage of opportunist safely, but when she does get the chance it definitely helps her hitting power.
Beruka’s starting class is the Wyvern Rider, and her secondary class is the Fighter. This gives her the Wyvern Lord, Malig Knight, Berserker, and Hero as promoted class options. She definitely gains some useful skills from these paths: Swordbreaker and Axebreaker (+50 to hit and avoid against swords and axes, respectively), Sol (chance to heal HP equal to damage dealt), Axefaire (+5 damage when wielding an axe), and Trample (+5 damage against unmounted enemies). See those two +5 damage skills? You’re absolutely going to want to run those together on Beruka, as those combined with Opportunist give her 14 extra damage against any opponent she attacks who is unable to retaliate. This helps to counteract her below-average strength growths and increases her chances to get a kill. Beruka notably has another role she can play with the combination of Rally Strength and Rally Defense. Those two skills together makes anyone within 2 spaces of her a physical powerhouse with +4 attack and defense. You can use her to power up a group of allies and then smash them into the enemy ranks.
Beruka is a character with a great personal skill who suffers from unfortunate growth rates. Neither her Strength or Speed are quite high enough to make her a real threat on the battlefield, and she has a hard time playing a defensive role due to her crippling weakness to arrows and relatively low Resistance. If you change her class around to scoop up skills from her various classes, she can get enough of a damage boost to be somewhat viable. But in Conquest your resources are limited, so it might be better to use your skills on characters with more natural potential.

CAMILLA
Class: Malig Knight
Recruitment: Automatic in Chapter 10 (Conquest) or End of Chapter 12 (Revelation)
Growths – HP: 40 Str: 50 Mag: 25 Skl: 50 Spd: 55 Lck: 25 Def: 35 Res: 45
Maximum Stats: Str, Skl, Spd, and Def +1; Mag -1; Lck -2
Personal Skill: Rose’s Thorn – Adjacent allies deal +3 damage and take -1 damage
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Camilla is your older sister and a princess of Nohr. She’s kind of creepy with her whole overprotective big sister thing, but there legitimately is more to her than just really disturbing fanservice. She has quite the backstory to bring to the table. Still weird that you can marry her, though…anyway, she either joins in Chapter 10 in Conquest or Chapter 12 in Revelation.
Rose’s Thorn is an okay personal skill. Overall I like the Hoshidan princesses’ skills more than the Nohrian ones, but whatever. Any ally character next to Camilla gets a bonus of 3 to their damage and 1 to their armor against incoming attacks. This is a pretty nice buff that makes allies more dangerous, but getting Camilla next to a group of people to take advantage of it is definitely going to take some careful planning.
Camilla begins as a Malig Knight, which is already an advanced class. Her other options are the Wyvern Lord, Sorcerer, and the Dark Knight. If you check out her growth rates above, you’ll see that Camilla favors Strength over Magic, so you likely won’t want to settle on a magical class as her final form. However, the skills that these classes offer are pretty valuable. Vengeance gives a chance to deliver an attack with additional damage equal to the user’s missing HP, Bowbreaker gives +50 to hit and avoid when fighting an opponent with a bow (incredibly valuable to a character with a weakness to arrows), and Lifetaker heals Camilla by 50% if she initiates battle and takes the opponent down. These skills work well on Camilla as a Malig Knight or Wyvern Lord. Personally, I prefer Wyvern Lord for higher Health, Speed, and Defense growths compared to Magic and Resistance growths from the Malig Knight. Still, it’s worth training as a Malig Knight long enough to get Trample, which increases damage against unmounted units by 5.
Camilla joins the party at a higher level than most of your team, and using her too much early on can really sap valuable XP from other members of your team. However, carefully using her as a defensive unit until everyone catches up to her level is pretty useful. Once everyone’s even with her, start using her for her impressive strength and speed. You’ll have to watch out for archers, though changing to a Sorcerer to pick up Bowbreaker will make that threat a lot less problematic for her. Overall, Camilla is worth keeping around and changing her classes can give her a solid variety of skills.

CHARLOTTE
Class: Fighter
Recruitment: Automatic in Chapter 13 (Conquest); Talk w/ Elise in Chapter 14 (Revelation)
Growths – HP: 65 Str: 55 Mag: 0 Skl: 35 Spd: 50 Lck: 45 Def: 20 Res: 5
Maximum Stats: Str +3; Spd +2; Def and Res -2
Personal Skill: Unmask – Damage +4 and Crit +20 versus females
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This sweet, good-natured country girl is just a pretty face who needs protecting from a big, strong man. That is, until she isn’t. Charlotte’s personality around men – primarily rich men – is a total facade. This girl is nasty, mean, and can swing an axe with more ferocity than the buffest, beardiest, plaid-wearingest lumberjack you’ve ever seen. She joins automatically on the third turn in Chapter 13, or when you speak to her with Elise in Chapter 14.
Unmask has a great effect, but it’s pretty situational. Enemy randoms tend to default to the male gender, which means that besides the occasional footsoldier who happens to be female, this ability will only work on specific bosses. Now that’s not to say that this is a bad thing – watch out, Hinoka – but it just means that this skill doesn’t have a lot of versatility and it’s going to be difficult to build a strategy around it. It’s more of a “oh, hey, I got to use that” kind of skill.
Charlotte begins play as a Fighter – the first ever female fighter, at least in the American Fire Emblem releases – but can also moonlight as a Troubadour. This is a really weird secondary choice for her, as she has abysmal growths in Magic and Resistance both. It also doesn’t grant her a number of very useful skills; Inspiration (allies within 2 spaces deal +2 damage and take -2 damage) and Tomebreaker (+50 hit and avoid against tome-weilders) are the only ones with much value. Since class-changing seals – and the time to utilize them effectively – are a rare commodity here, it’d be best to just keep Charlotte in her natural progression rather than jump around. Spend a little time as a Hero to pick up Sol (chance to heal HP equal to damage dealt) and Axebreaker (as Tomebreaker, but against axe-wielders) before becoming a Berserker to enjoy S-level axes, Axefaire (+5 damage when wielding axes), and a huge hidden boost to Crit Rate.
Charlotte is a classic Fire Emblem fighter: strong and fast with high HP but frail defenses. She joins a bit low-leveled but once you get her trained up, she’ll be hitting hard and very likely hitting twice, meaning she’s a pretty solid killing machine (particularly against female opponents). Just be sure you keep a healer nearby, as she’s going to be taking a pretty hefty amount of damage as well.

EFFIE
Class: Knight
Recruitment: Automatically in Chapter 7 (Conquest) or Chapter 14 (Revelation)
Growths – HP: 35 Str: 60 Mag: 0 Skl: 35 Spd: 50 Lck: 50 Def: 35 Res: 30
Maximum Stats: Str +3; Spd +1; Skl, Def, and Res -1
Personal Skill: Puissance – When this unit has 5 or more Strength than her opponent in battle, damage +3
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“Bro, do you even lift?” This is the question posed by Effie to pretty much everybody, as her devotion to physical power and exercise is matched only by her friendship with princess Elise. She joins very early on in Conquest and about midway through in Revelation.
Effie’s personal skill is one that I am quite fond of. Effie is very much inclined towards Strength – check out that 60% natural growth rate! – and this means that it’s pretty common for her to exceed the Strength of most enemies by 5 points. The damage bonus is really nice because while Effie has good natural speed growths, as a Knight she can’t really take full advantage of that and will rarely be able to double-attack. This means you want her to hit as hard as she can with her first blow to potentially OHKO opponents. Puissance is a great way to make that happen and makes her deadly to frail characters like Archers, Diviners, and Samurai.
Effie’s starting class is the Knight, but she can become a Troubadour if she so chooses. This is not the ideal class for her by any stretch of the imagination. Inspiration is okay for her (+2 damage and armor to all allies within 2 spaces) as well as Tomebreaker (+50 hit and avoid against tome-wielders) but overall you’ll be better off using your Seals to train her as both a Great Knight and General.
I recommend choosing General rather than Great Knight any time ever – Generals have better HP, Skl, Lck, and Res growths compared to Great Knights only having higher growths in Spd. However, you’ll definitely enjoy Luna (chance to ignore half of enemy’s defense) and Armored Blow (+10 defense when initiating combat), so be sure to moonlight as a Great Knight in order to catch those skills. Effie has incredible Strength and good Speed for a General, so if you don’t keep Wary Fighter on her she might be able to double-attack some opponents. Just know that for a defensive role, she’s a bit on the softer side, so you’ll have to be careful not to tank with her too much.

ELISE
Class: Troubadour
Recruitment: Automatically in Chapter 7 (Conquest) or Chapter 14 (Revelation)
Growths – HP: 30 Str: 5 Mag: 65 Skl: 25 Spd: 55 Lck: 70 Def: 15 Res: 40
Maximum Stats: Mag +3; Spd, Lck, and Res +1; Str -1; Skl -2; Def -3
Personal Skill: Lily’s Poise – Adjacent ally take -3 damage and deal +1 damage
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The best little sister ever! No offense to my actual little sisters. But seriously, Elise is frikkin’ adorable and must be protected. She is too sweet and innocent for the world of Fire Emblem Conquest. She’s recruited early in Conquest but about midway through Revelation.
Lily’s Poise is a straightforward but very beneficial personal skill that allows Elise to reduce damage to adjacent allies. This works out pretty okay since Nohrian healing staves generally only work on adjacent characters. Of course, having Elise adjacent to allies on the front line could mean she’s in danger, so you’d better be careful to protect her. While I prefer Sakura’s personal skill a little more because it has some range to it, this one is still pretty solid.
While Elise is normally a healer, her secondary class is a bit more aggressive: the wyvern rider. She takes after her sister in this regard, but with a pitiful Strength growth of 5 she’s not going to be much use as a wyvern rider. Still, she can pick up some pretty decent skills this way. Savage Blow is a nice chip-damage skill for weakening nearby enemies, and Trample allows her to deal +5 damage to unmounted units. And while her physical damage will never be impressive, her magical damage has the potential to be incredible, so this skill definitely has value for her. Alternatively, as a wyvern lord you can pick up Rally Defense which combines well with the Rally Resistance ability from the Strategist line.
Elise begins play as a Troubadour which is honestly a fantastic class. In the early stages, she’ll serve the very important role of party healer. Once she has an opportunity to become a Strategist, she’ll not only bring the healing but also serve as a powerful glass cannon. With such high magic growths and a +3 maximum magic stat, Elise can deal devastating magical damage. I recommend picking up Live to Serve from the maid class and, if you have the Seals and the time, Trample and Rally Defense from the malig knight and wyvern lord, respectively. These skills together allow her to function very effectively as a support role, providing healing and increased defenses to her allies, while also enabling her to deal crippling damage with magic if need be. Elise is a great character that I fully recommend keeping in your party.

FLORA
Class: Maid
Recruitment: Upgrade Launcher/Ballista/Fire Orb to Level 3 (Conquest and Revelation)
Growths – HP: 35 Str: 40 Mag: 20 Skl: 45 Spd: 30 Lck: 35 Def: 30 Res: 30
Maximum Stats: Skl +2; Str and Def +1; Mag, Lck, and Res -1
Personal Skill: Icy Blood – When user’s HP is less than maximum and an enemy attacks, enemy takes the same amount of damage and takes Skl/Spd -3
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Flora is around from the very beginning of the game, a much colder and more efficient maid than her sister Felicia. Her motivations are different as well, so don’t expect her to join you early on like Felicia or Jakob. In fact, recruiting her requires you to upgrade a weapon type at your base to the 3rd (and highest) level. Chances are you won’t be accomplishing this feat til late game.
Flora’s personal skill is Icy Blood, which causes enemies attacking her to take the same amount of damage they dish out while also lowering their Skill and Speed stats by 3 each. She has to be missing HP for this to activate, but this skill can be pretty devastating to enemies that get the jump on Flora. Combine this with her dagger proficiency, and she’ll chip enemies down to a very weak state where another ally will certainly finish them off.
As a character who cannot form friendships and therefore note benefit from as many types of seals, Flora has three class sets rather than two. She starts as a maid but can become a Strategist, Sorcerer, Dark Knight, Hero, and Bow Knight. This gives her access to lots of great skills. Notable skills include Inspiration (+2 to damage and defenses to allies within 2 spaces), Vengeance (chance to add 50% missing HP to damage dealt), Lifetaker (heal 50% of max HP when initiating combat and defeating the enemy), Sol (chance to heal HP equal to 50% damage dealt), and no less than FOUR “breaker” skills (+50 to hit and avoid against the covered weapons: axes, shurikens, bows, and tomes). That’s a ton of useful skills, so many that you can’t run them all at the same time. You can run all four Breaker skills to make Flora a dodging machine against most weapon types in the game, or run Vengeance, Sol, Lifetaker, and her personal skill together for a strategy of hurt and healing that leaves Flora’s HP in a constant state of flux, in the best way possible. What strategy you prefer is ultimately up to you.
Flora is a tricky character because she joins so late and has no supports to speak of save for the player character. These are definitely turn-offs, but a great personal skill and an incredible selection of class skills means that investing Seals into her will reap serious rewards. Of course, in Conquest it can be tricky to spend that much time on one character, especially late in the game. Flora can be worth the investment, but she definitely is a costly one. In the long run it may pay off more to put that energy into characters you recruit in the early game, saving her for if you’ve lost characters like Felicia, Jakob, or Elise.

GUNTER
Class: Great Knight
Recruitment: Automatically in Chapter 15 (Conquest)
Growths – HP: 15 Str: 5 Mag: 0 Skl: 5 Spd: 0 Lck: 15 Def: 5 Res: 5
Maximum Stats: Str and Def +2; Skl +1; Spd and Res -2
Personal Skill: Forceful Partner – If protagonist is the lead unit, hit +15 and damage +3
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It’s really hard to talk about Gunter without spoilers, since, you know, he dies in the third chapter of all versions…so, uh, why is he here? It’s a total mystery…if you COULD somehow recruit him in one of the versions, he’d probably show up around Chapter 15.
Besides its very unfortunate name, Gunter’s personal skill is unfortunate in one other way: it only works in conjunction with the player character. That means that when paired with literally anyone else, Gunter’s personal skill isn’t a factor. When Gunter is behind the Avatar, though, (s)he gets a pretty nice boost in accuracy and power. This is particularly useful in Chapters 2 and 15, where your player character is pretty much flying solo other than Gunter and maybe one other person. In those very specific situations, take advantage of this Forceful Partner. Man, that was a weird sentence…uh…moving on.
Gunter starts as a Great Knight but has access to the Paladin, Hero, Bow Knight, Malig Knight, and Wyvern Lord classes. There’s a pretty decent skill selection that results from that, probably the best of which are skills like Sol (heal 50% of damage dealt) and Trample (+5 damage to unmounted units). He also gets access to Axebreaker, Shurikenbreaker, and Swordbreaker, giving him +50 hit and avoid against all of those weapon types.
Gunter is not a great character. He joins the party pretty high leveled, but with such pitiful growths he has no direction to grow. Marrying him would mean passing those garbage growths to your children, and since he can only support the player character, you don’t even have many options with him. When it comes to Gunter, just leave him behind. He’s dead anyway, so it’s not like you can use him or anything. Yeah, no spoilers here.

KEATON
Class: Wolfskin
Recruitment: Talk in Chapter 14 (Conquest), automatic in Chapter 13 (Revelation)
Growths – HP: 60 Str: 60 Mag: 0 Skl: 20 Spd: 35 Lck: 30 Def: 50 Res: 25
Maximum Stats: Str +3; Def +2; Skl -2; Spd and Res -1
Personal Skill: Collector – Luck% chance of harvesting 3 materials or food until 7th turn
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What kind of dating sim would this game be if there wasn’t an opportunity for paranormal romance? Keaton shapeshifts into a wolf-like monster and is a pretty likeable guy. He’s very good at finding useless scraps and collecting them as if they are treasure. He joins midgame in both Conquest and Revelation.
Keaton’s personal skill doesn’t exactly have a lot of useful applications. He randomly collects food items or materials during the first seven rounds of combat based on his luck stat. These item types have differing worth – the food you can certainly do without, but the ore can be really useful when forging custom gear for your party. Particularly if Keaton harvests kinds that are different than the one variety of ore you get in your base. So while his skill isn’t going to be helping you defeat enemies directly, it is not totally useless either.
Keaton’s secondary class is the fighter, allowing him to upgrade to the hero and berserker classes. This gives him access to Sol (chance to heal HP equal to 50% damage dealt) but not to much else impressive. The thing is, wolfskin and wolfssegner skills aren’t exactly amazing either, so it might still be worth it to have Axebreaker (+50 hit and avoid against axes) and Rally Strength (+4 to Str for allies within 2 spaces when used). If you really want to get some interesting skills onto Keaton, you’ll need to use a Friendship Seal or Partner Seal.
Keaton is a character you can have confidence in when it comes to hitting hard and taking (physical) hits. Where he gets a little spotty is his speed. At a 50% growth rate in the wolfskin and wolfssegner classes, the RNG is a huge deciding factor when it comes to whether or not he’ll be able to perform when it comes to speed. With good speed, Keaton is a monster, as double-attacking with a whopping 80% total growth rate in Strength (again, assuming you stay a wolfskin) is going to be pretty destructive. However, 50% RNG can also really leave him wanting for speed and cause him to underperform. In either case, Keaton can be a pretty solid tank character, and even if he doesn’t get to double attack the Grisly Wound ability means that every enemy that attacks him is taking an extra 20% of their HP in damage. Place him on the defense, let the enemy ranks balk at his presence, and then swoop in and finish them off.

LASLOW
Class: Mercenary
Recruitment: Automatically in Chapter 12 (Conquest) or 17 (Revelation)
Growths – HP: 50 Str: 45 Mag: 0 Skl: 45 Spd: 30 Lck: 55 Def: 35 Res: 25
Maximum Stats: Skl +2; Str and Lck +1; Spd, Def, and Res -1
Personal Skill: Fancy Footwork – Str/Spd +1 to all allies within 2 tiles when used
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Hmm, something’s odd about Laslow. He seems familiar. Could he be…no. No way. It’s not possible. And yet…hmm. It’s a conundrum, to be sure. If you’ve played Awakening, Laslow might just resemble a certain somebody. Regardless, his recruitment time is pretty different depending on the game: he joins early-midgame in Conquest and late-midgame in Revelation.
Fancy Footwork is a pretty “meh” skill in my view. I understand that a personal skill probably shouldn’t be as strong as a legitimate Rally skill, but they couldn’t have at least made it grant Str/Spd +2? Seriously? Anyway, it’s the kind of personal skill that doesn’t hurt to use when you have nothing better to do, but you probably won’t go out of your way to utilize it. It’s best in conjunction with full-blown Rally skills, but Laslow only comes by one of them without extensive use of Seals.
Laslow is a really valuable character in Conquest because of a feature he shares with two other familiar-looking characters: a secondary class from Hoshido. Laslow’s secondary class is a ninja, making him one of only a few members of the Nohrian force capable of passing down ninja skills. Through the ninja class he gains access to Poison Strike (opponents lose 20% HP after battle that the user initiates), Locktouch (open locked chests and doors), and Lethality (rare chance to instantly kill the target). He already learns Sol from the Hero line (chance to restore HP by 50% damage dealt), and that combines well with Poison Strike to slowly chip down enemies while keeping Laslow pretty healthy.
While Master Ninja is probably the best-quality class that Laslow gets access to (S-rank in shurikens as well as hidden stat bonuses) he doesn’t necessarily have the appropriate stats to fully realize it – not compared to, say, Kaze. His relatively balanced build really lends itself to the hero class, where his particularly high skill gives him the best chance of activating Lethality and picking off enemies without breaking a sweat. Even if you don’t necessarily want to use him the whole game, he’s good to have around for breeding purposes, handing down rare ninja abilities to his kids so they don’t have to be a ninja to learn them.

LEO
Class: Dark Knight
Recruitment: Automatically in Chapter 14 (Conquest) or 17 (Revelation)
Growths – HP: 45 Str: 25 Mag: 55 Skl: 35 Spd: 45 Lck: 45 Def: 30 Res: 45
Maximum Stats: Mag and Res +2; Str and Spd -2
Personal Skill: Pragmatic – When opponent’s HP is less than maximum, deal +3 damage and sustain -1 damage
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The smart brother of the Nohrian bunch, Leo’s academic excellence and status as one of the youngest kids has given him something of a Napoleon complex. He’s still there for his family, though, and they’re lucky he is – this guy can sling a spell like nobody’s business. He’s recruited midgame in both titles, but a bit later in Revelation than in Conquest.
Pragmatic is a fantastic personal skill and I wish more characters had skills like it. Leo is more powerful when facing opponents with less-than-full HP, which is a skill you can strategize with and that you can set up pretty easily. Once he’s attacking someone missing a bit of HP, he’s dealing a whopping +3 damage. That’s +6 if he manages to double attack! And the mild defense boost isn’t too shabby either. Pragmatic is great because you can anticipate it’s usage and incorporate it into your strategy to make sure that Leo is always being as effective as possible.
Leo’s secondary class is the troubadour, which is one of my favorites and has access to some really nice skills. Honestly, both of Leo’s class sets are awesome, and altogether he gets some pretty amazing stuff. With access to Vengeance (chance to add 50% missing HP to damage), Lifetaker (heal 50% max HP after defeating opponent in a battle the unit initiates), Inspiration (+2 to damage and defenses to all allies within 2 spaces), and both Bowbreaker and Tomebreaker (+50 hit and avoid against specified weapon), he has a really amazing set of skills to utilize and to pass down to his child.
Leo is a great character with access to lots of good skills and classes. While he begins as a dark knight, I honestly recommend settling on sorcerer. Sorcerers have better stat caps in Magic, Speed, and Resistance, versus the dark knight’s edge in Health, Strength, Skill, Luck, and Defense. That may make it seem like the Dark Knight is ultimately better, but you have to consider what stats are ultimately more important. The sorcerer is squishier, yes, but neither the dark knight nor the sorcerer is meant to absorb blows – they’re about dealing damage. The sorcerer does this better with a 4 point advantage in Magic and a 2 point advantage in Speed. Additionally, the sorcerer has an S-rank in tomes, meaning a +1 damage increase and a +5 hit increase versus A rank. And on top of that, the sorcerer class gets a hidden stat bonus of +5 hit, +10 Crit, and +5 evade. These bonuses, along with the weapon rank bonus, cause the differences in ability concerning the Skill and Luck stats to totally disappear.The sorcerer is now dealing 5 more damage per attack, with a greater chance to double-attack, greater accuracy, and a higher chance to score a critical hit. I fully recommend the sorcerer over the dark knight for Leo, as it will allow him to deliver better on the role of dealing damage.

NILES
Class: Outlaw
Recruitment: Automatically in Chapter 8 (Conquest) or 17 (Revelation)
Growths – HP: 40 Str: 35 Mag: 20 Skl: 40 Spd: 50 Lck: 30 Def: 30 Res: 40
Maximum Stats: Spd +3; Res +1; Str -2; Skl -1
Personal Skill: Kidnap – Capture generic enemies to send them to prison in My Castle
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Niles, blech. Hate his personally, but I do enjoy using him on the battlefield. Niles plays how I have always wanted archers to play. I mean, what’s the point of an archer that doesn’t have the speed to double attack? Freakin’ Leonardo and Virion…anyway, this guy either joins you early on, or late-midgame, depending on the version you are playing.
If you’ve read my Birthright character guide already, you know that I hate this personal skill already. Each path has a character who specializes in capturing enemy units for the prison, but it’s a total waste of a personal skill slot. If I want to capture people, I HAVE to use those characters. If I don’t want to capture people, those characters effectively have no personal skill. I wish the capture mechanic was based on an item you could carry or a skill scroll you could assign to any unit you want in place of a class skill, something. As it were, I dislike Kidnap. BUT in the interest of fairness, using generic units is much more viable in Conquest, where the difficulty is more punishing and you could potentially be losing enough units to need some randoms to pad out your team. I’ll give it that much, at least.
Niles’s secondary class is the dark mage, which is not a great class for him in terms of stats but definitely offers him some nice skills. Namely, Vengeance (chance of adding 50% missing HP to damage) and Lifetaker (heal 50% HP after initiating combat and defeating the enemy). These skills couple well together – take damage, deal extra damage thanks to Vengeance, recover your missing HP with Lifetaker, repeat – and they fit the strategy of the outlaw class in general. Lifetaker in particular gives Niles some survivability when you want him to go off alone and loot through treasure.
I definitely recommend using Niles in your party. Even though he’s an unpleasant guy in the way he mercilessly teases his allies and is weirdly perverted towards the women in the group, he’s worth dealing with for his battlefield ability. The Nohrian side is slow overall, so Niles brings some much-needed swiftness to the team, and he is excellent for going off alone to scoop up some treasure chests while everyone else is busy fighting. Plus, his child is absolutely worth recruiting!

NYX
Class: Dark Mage
Recruitment: Talk with PC in Chapter 9 (Conquest) or Chapter 15 (Revelation)
Growths – HP: 30 Str: 5 Mag: 50 Skl: 35 Spd: 50 Lck: 20 Def: 15 Res: 30
Maximum Stats: Mag +3; Spd +2; Res +1; Lck -1; Skl and Def -2
Personal Skill: Countercurse – When enemy initiates battle and deals magical damage, they take half of that damage
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Nyx is mixed up in a sort of weird “Freaky Friday” scenario where she is a grown woman who has lived for many years trapped in the body of an underaged girl. Or I guess maybe not underaged, since she can get married and have kids…I don’t know. Cultural standards about that differ, so I don’t want to fill this article with my American bias about the appropriate age for procreation. I’ll just fill it with other kinds of bias, like my vehemently-worded opinions on personal skills. Anyway, Nyx is recruited in the early game in Conquest or midgame in Revelation. In both instances you need to speak with her using the player character.
As much as I like to riff on personal skills, Countercurse is actually not that bad. It’s a weaker version of Countermagic but not in such a debilitating way that the skill is now useless. When an enemy magician attacks Nyx, they take half the damage they deal to her. While you may not necessarily want to put her tiny, fragile body in front of every single sorcerer you see, this skill can definitely see some use if you apply it carefully. Just make sure Nyx has the HP to take any damage the enemy dishes out and you’ll be fine.
Nyx starts as a dark mage but has access to the outlaw class as her secondary. This is kind of a weird choice for her and it doesn’t exactly fit her style. While the outlaw/adventurer is a good class statistically, it doesn’t offer skills that are particularly useful. It’d be different if all the good skills were in one advanced class, or even if they were level 5 skills, but the only skills worth picking up (Pass and Shurikenbreaker) both require level 15 in their corresponding classes. Luckily, Nyx gets some pretty great skills from her base class (this line leads her to Vengeance and to Lifetaker, for example), so you can just take advantage of those and maybe use partner seals to tech some better stuff onto her if you have the opportunity.
Nyx has great magic and speed stats, with some nice max stat adjustments in those as well (from a stats perspective, she’s actually a better Sorcerer than Leo, who I would say competes with her only thanks to his superior skill selection and personal skill). Making her a sorcerer will make her a powerful glass-cannon. Do NOT get in the habit of putting this girl in harm’s way, but when harm wanders into her range of attack, she’ll gladly blast it to smithereens.

ODIN
Class: Dark Mage
Recruitment: Automatically during Chapter 8 (Conquest) or 17 (Revelation)
Growths – HP: 55 Str: 35 Mag: 30 Skl: 55 Spd: 35 Lck: 60 Def: 40 Res: 20
Maximum Stats: Mag, Skl, and Lck +1; Spd and Res -1
Personal Skill: Aching Blood – Crit +10 when using a custom weapon with a name at least 12 characters long
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Is it just me, or does his hand seem a little…trembly to you? Like the blood of heroes flows through it and urges it to wield a legendary blade? Eh, maybe it’s just me. Odin has a familiar flair for the dramatic that may put you in mind of a certain somebody from Awakening. But he’s a mage, so OBVIOUSLY they’re different. Anyway, Odin joins pretty early in Conquest but much later in Revelation.
Aching Blood is actually a pretty solid personal skill (only to be outclassed by his child’s personal skill, but hey, isn’t that what any parent would want?). Forged weapons are generally better than the typical stuff you can buy at the store, and it’s not like giving it a ridiculous name like “Gigamegavolt” or “Flurbnhustmneir” isn’t fun. And when you do, that nice powerful custom weapon gets a solid +10 to the critical hit bonus. It’s definitely worth your time!
Odin is one of three characters on the Nohrian path who has a Hoshidan class as his secondary class. His class is the samurai, which offers some pretty fantastic skills for Odin to pick up. Astra gives you a chance to attack 5 times at 50% damage, for a total of 250% damage in “one” strike. Swordfaire gives +5 to damage with swords, useful to Odin not only in his secondary classes but as a dark knight as well. And Seal Speed from the weapon master can be combined with Seal Magic from the dark knight to totally debilitate enemy magicians with an attack from Odin, reducing their Magic and Speed by -6 to effectively render them useless on the offensive.
Odin is a tricky character to place in a specific class. He has access to two really great final classes: the Sorcerer and the Swordmaster. Both have access to S-level weapons and hidden stat bonuses, making them really effective classes to use. However, Odin doesn’t exactly have perfect growths for either one. He’s balanced, and so his stats seem to more appropriately fit a similarly balanced class. In this situation, the dark knight might be the most appropriate class. While Odin may not be able to fill the shoes of a sorcerer or swordmaster, he can take the useful skills they offer and channel them as a dark knight to serve as a pretty solid second-string fighter with potential to deal solid physical or magical damage. If anything, Odin is a valuable character to use because he offers useful skills to pass down and has a pretty awesome child that definitely belongs on your team.

PERI
Class: Cavalier
Recruitment: Automatically in Chapter 12 (Conquest) or 17 (Revelation)
Growths – HP: 30 Str: 50 Mag: 5 Skl: 30 Spd: 50 Lck: 35 Def: 25 Res: 45
Maximum Stats: Res +2; Str and Spd +1; Skl -1; Def -2
Personal Skill: Bloodthirst – When unit initiates battle and defeats the enemy, Str/Mag/Skl/Spd +4 for one turn
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The Harley Quinn of FE Fates, this girl is great for anyone who loves a tragic backstory. And hey, who doesn’t love a tragic backstory? While Peri’s obsession for killing things would be disturbing in most cases, who can be disturbed by a face like that? She’s too cute to be a sociopath! Peri joins you early-midgame in Conquest or late-midgame in Revelation.
Bloodthirst is a really interesting personal skill in that it activates at what seems like the worst possible time – when Peri’s turn is over. She’s defeated an enemy, and now she gets a stat boost? I wanted the stat boost FOR the enemy! Peri’s personal skill invites you to utilize Azura to her fullest extent; you run in with Peri, finish off an enemy, have Azura sing, and then send your newly-empowered Peri to deliver some serious retribution to the enemy.
Peri’s secondary class is dark mage (why does EVERYONE in Nohr dabble in dark magic, it seems?), which isn’t appropriate for her stats but definitely offers skills she can use. I’ve mentioned many times now the fantastic combo that is Vengeance/Lifetaker, and it works just fine on Peri. With Armored Blow from her great knight class, she can even have increased physical defense when initiating combat so that she’ll take reduced damage – and therefore have a greater likelihood of healing all the damage off using Lifetaker. Add the defense-piercing capabilities of Luna and you’ve got a pretty solid character on your hands.
Cavalier is honestly one of my least-favorite classes, but Peri does a decent job with it. Her growths are best suited for the paladin approach, so be sure to change to that class after picking up the amazing skills from the great knight class. While Peri may be a bit average as a unit, she’s hecka fun in support conversations, so if you play for the whole social/dating sim aspect of the game she’s a strong candidate in that category.

SELENA
Class: Mercenary
Recruitment: Automatic in Chapter 10 (Conquest), end of Chapter 12 (Revelation)
Growths – HP: 40 Str: 30 Mag: 5 Skl: 25 Spd: 45 Lck: 30 Def: 45 Res: 30
Maximum Stats: Spd +2; Def +1; Str and Skl -1
Personal Skill: Fierce Rival – If this unit is the support unit and the lead unit lands a critical hit, this unit will land a critical hit as well
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Now they’re not even trying! Come on, this is obviously…you know! From Awakening! The name is almost the same, the hairstyle is identical, she looks just like her mom – ah, I guess they can’t be the same person. The folks at Intelligent Systems gotta get to work on some fresh designs. Anyway, this familiar looking lady can be recruited relatively early in both Conquest and Revelation.
Fierce Rival is a great-sounding personal skill that I have never successfully activated. I think for me, it all comes down to your approach. I pretty much always utilize the more defensive pair-up strategy where the characters literally are paired together, rather than just standing in adjacent grids. In that situation, you can’t activate this skill, so it does presume a certain strategy. However, I imagine that having Selena stand next to someone with a killer weapon is a pretty fierce combo to behold.
Selena is the third and final Nohrian soldier who offers a class from the Hoshidan selection: the sky knight. This is a pretty great class as the falcon knight offers Rally Speed (arguably the best Rally skill short of Rally Spectrum) and Warding Blow (+20 resistance to magical damage when initiating combat). While the ninja and samurai classes that Laslow and Odin offer are both accessible to the Nohrian party through Kaze, Selena is the only way to get a sky knight on your team and pass down those skills to your kids. Short of making the player character’s secondary class a sky knight at the beginning of the game, that is.
Selena is a pretty balanced unit but definitely not an impressive one. Her overall class selection is pretty bad – no S-rank weapons, no truly impressive skills, and no unifying strategy to really give her a niche within the group. Her main selling point is her speed growth, which isn’t in samurai or ninja territory but is one of the higher ones in the Nohrian force. Use her for fast damage against axe-wielding enemies and to pass down Warding Blow to a kid that can really use it.

XANDER
Class: Paladin
Recruitment: Automatically in Chapter 16 (Conquest) or 17 (Revelation)
Growths – HP: 45 Str: 50 Mag: 5 Skl: 40 Spd: 35 Lck: 60 Def: 40 Res: 15
Maximum Stats: Str and Lck +2; Def +1; Mag, Skl, and Spd -1; Res -2
Personal Skill: Chivalry – When enemy has max HP, damage and defenses +2
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Man, I have never been this happy to reach the end of the alphabet! Xander is the oldest brother in the Nohrian royal family and is sort of a father to them, since Garon isn’t exactly good at the whole “dad” thing. Xander is brave, yet practical, dutiful, but kind, and loves his country but loves his family even more. I’m a huge Xander fan – maybe not as much as the ones who like his abs, but still. Xander is one of the last characters to join you in both Conquest and Revelation.
As much as I like Xander, this personal skill is garbage. Benefiting from it only when the enemy has maximum HP means that he loses this benefit against anyone he has fought before, or who has fought against another member of the team. And since Xander realistically lacks the speed to take advantage of the +2 damage bonus twice, but also the power for +2 to lead to an OHKO, it isn’t exactly a devastating ability. It’s not useless, but it may feel like it is sometimes.
Xander’s secondary class is the Wyvern Rider, which means that three of the four royal siblings of Nohr can ride dragons. This isn’t too terribly awful for him, as Trample gives him a much-needed damage bonus, and Savage Blow can make him useful for chipping down enemies when he fails to take them down directly. Xander’s truly useful skills actually come from his access to the great knight class, so you definitely want to jump over to that one when you get the opportunity.
You may have sensed a theme in the previous paragraphs: while I love Xander’s personality and character, as a unit he definitely is wanting. He has good strength but not berserker good, meaning he won’t be finishing off enemies in one shot. But his speed is very lacking, and he won’t really be double-attacking either. In reality, by role Xander is more of a tank character, able to take blows for your party while doling out damage so that vulnerable units like outlaws and mages can come in and clean up. Because this role is more appropriate for him, I actually recommend the great knight class for him rather than his typical paladin class. The higher caps in health, strength, and defense make more sense for Xander’s growths.

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Holy cow, it’s finally over. The last Fire Emblem Fates guide has been completed! I may at some point try to create a sort of “ultimate guide” that puts all the characters in one document, with updated information for the guides that are a bit older and so maybe don’t have all the important details. But for now, I am ready to put Fates behind me and wait expectantly for the next FE title: Shadows of Valentia! You can definitely expect me to be talking in detail about that game, so if you like these guides feel free to follow through WordPress, e-mail, or social media so you’ll know when the guides for Echoes begin to come. For now, I bid you farewell, adventurers!