Fire Emblem Heroes / Tropes S to Z

Fire Emblem Heroes tropes: A to E | F to L | M to R | S to Z

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This game has examples of:

S

• Say My Name: Certain characters will call out the name of someone else when they're defeated. Eirika and Ephraim call out to each other (and apologize to one another, in their alternates). Similarly, Sigurd and Deirdre say each other's names, Arvis refers to Deirdre and Julia, and Gunnthrá apologizes to Fjorm.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Rearmed Ophelia will say "Zap!" or "Bam!" every time she fires off an attack that isn't fueled by a special.
• Scary Stinging Swarm: Occasionally in the Aether Resort's Field, a bee will show up, prompting the heroes to run off. Played for Laughs, as even the bravest or most fearsome hero is not safe from this.
• Scenery Porn: As the years went by, Fire Emblem Heroes has had increasingly gorgeous and detailed battle backgrounds, especially when it comes to Intelligent Systems' take on the Nine Realms of Norse Mythology.
  • The realm of dreams, Ljósálfheimr. The fairy realm has flowers absolutely everywhere, colorful hills and adorable little houses with grassy roofs, beautiful pine tree forests and high cliffs with waterfalls and rainbows, complete with giant beanstalks. The forest background of Ljósálfheimr shows the unusual plantlife of the realm, with flowers growing even on the trees themselves, giving off subtle hints that the realm that they are in isn't Zenith, but another world entirely. It doesn't end there, as the Tempest Trials "New Treasures" revisited Ljósálfheimr with two new backgrounds. The realm has been decorated with Japanese-style objects including boats, a Torii gate, bamboo decorated with flowers in the style of the realm of dreams, and lanterns in the forest background with the stone path to the lake. The stunning sunrise combined with the rainbows and the stars still in the sky is the icing on the cake, giving the realm the otherworldly undertone it has.
  • Dökkálfheimr is one of the most unique and beautiful settings in Fire Emblem by far, with its magical night sky with a large blue moon, ornate castle in the far distance along with giant landmasses that look similar to Dragon Blood trees, and pink grass connected by dark purple briars, decorated with beautiful blue flowers, thorny trees, and bizarre biolumeniscent, pear-shaped lantern plants. Its forest variant includes even more strange plantlife, with trees that have a glowing purple energy source in their exposed centers, glowing mushrooms, and many other unusual biolumeniscent plantlife. The realm of nightmares looks less like a nightmarish place and more like an alien planet!
• Scissors Cuts Rock: If a unit with either the Cancel Affinity skill or status effect fights an opponent using Triangle Adept or a gem weapon, the bonus from the opponent's skill or weapon is reversed. For example, if a Red unit with Cancel Affinity fights a blue unit with Triangle Adept 3, the +20% bonus from Triangle Adept becomes a -20% penalty instead. Since a unit with a weapon triangle advantage usually gets a +20% bonus, the new penalty effectively neutralizes the weapon triangle. This also happens if the enemy has the [Triangle Adept] status, which temporarily gives them Triangle Adept 3.
• Score Multiplier:
  • Using certain heroes in Arena or Tempest Trials battles will multiply your score. The multiplier for Tempest Trials can either be x1.2 or x1.4 depending on the hero, but it's a flat x1.4 if you have any of the bonus heroes in Tempest Trials+.
  • During Voting Gauntlets, huge score discrepancies between two fighting Heroes will trigger a temporary score multiplier for the underdog. The number gets bigger the later into the round it's received, hitting x7.5 during the last hour. In addition to that, if the player uses the character they are supporting in a Voting Gauntlet battle, they receive a x1.1 score multiplier. An update in March 2019 later add endurance multipliers on the winning team, going up to x3.25 at the last hour, but a later update increased the multiplier of the underdog team, going up to x12 on the last hour.
  • During Grand Conquests, your score in an area will be multiplied after battle, depending on how many Troops on your side are helping out in that area.
  • In Røkkr Siege, you have a damage multiplier to deal damage to the Røkkr in order to remove the starting HP of 200000 (and increases for each successive Røkkr defeated beforehand), which starts at x1 for Beginner, x2 for Intermediate, and x4 for Advanced, which multiplies for each Havoc Axe used on that battle, and increases further by either dealing damage to the Røkkr or eliminating enemy reinforcements, but the increases only last through that battle.
  • The Frontline Phalanx allows players to gain multipliers from a Victory every hour, with the chances of losing increasing the higher the multiplier gets, and the higher the percentage of players support the same hero the higher the next multiplier becomes for the next hour, up to x9.9 the score with the lowest chance at 30%, whereas a Defeat resets the multiplier to x1.0 and the chance to win to 100% for the next hour. There's also a chance that a Victory will become a Triumph, which adds a x2.0 multiplier to the current multiplier as well, and using Guardian Shields, in addition to preventing the multiplier to reset to x1.0 whenever a Defeat happens, adds a x1.2 multiplier as well, and when enough players use their Guardian Shields on a specific hero in the same hour, a Skjaldborg will happen, where not only will it guarantee a Victory, but also adds an additional x1.2 multiplier. However, there is also a chance that a Defeat will become a Total Loss, inflicting a x0.5 multiplier instead of a x1.0.
• Scratch Damage: Normally averted, but all of the Umbra Burst weapons used by Røkkr bosses have an effect of dealing the minimum of 1 damage per attack.
• Secret A.I. Moves: Legendary Leif inverts this. His Meisterbogen prevents his enemies from following up on his phase, but only if he's under the player's direct control.
• Secret Art: Most skills and Specials have restrictions on what kind of unit type can inherit them, but some units have truly exclusive skills that cannot be inherited by any other unit. Some of these exclusive skills would be carried over to their future variants.
  • Many units and all Legendary, Mythic and Attuned Heroes have at least one skill exclusive to them, where for example Regular Black Knight has Black Luna exclusive to him, which is a 3 cooldown special that ignores 80% of the foe's defenses when it triggers, which he shares with Regular Zelgius and Winter Black Knight. Older Legendary and Mythic Heroes also receive updates of their old exclusive skills, such as Legendary Eliwood's Vision of Arcadia, his first C skill, which gives to the ally with the highest Atk +6 Atk/Def for 1 turn at the start of his turn if there is a Dragon or Beast ally on his team, later upgrades it to Vision of Arcadia II, where he gives himself and the ally with the highest Atk +6 Atk/Spd/Def and [Null Panic] and [Canto (1)] status effects for 1 turn at the start of his turn if there is a Dragon or Beast ally on his team.
  • Duo Heroes have Duo Skills that can trigger at any time outside of certain modes and do not take up their actions, and can sometimes can trigger it again after a certain turn passes in battle after it triggers, where for example Halloween Duo Sothis & Male Byleth's Duo Skill allows them to give themselves and all allies within 2 spaces of the user the [Null Follow-Up] status effect and -1 special cooldown if their special cooldown is at maximum, which can be activated again every odd turn if it was already activated before, and Pirate Duo Hinoka & Camilla's Duo Skill allows them to give themselves and all Flying allies within 3 row or 3 columns centered on them +6 Atk/Spd and +1 Movement, and inflicts [Gravity] on all foes within the same range if they are not Flying units and wield a Ranged weapon.
  • Harmonized Heroes have Harmonized Skills that are similar to Duo Skills that can trigger at any time outside of certain modes and do not take up their actions, and can sometimes can trigger it again after a certain turn passes in battle after it triggers, but not only can they grant the [Resonance: Blades] and/or [Resonance: Shields] status effects, but only affect heroes from titles that the Harmonized Heroes are from, where for example Pirate Harmonized Veronica & Xander's Harmonized Skill allow them to give themselves and allies from Heroes and Fates on the map the [Resonance: Shield] status, and can be activate again every third turn, and Winter Harmonized Altina & Sanaki's Harmonized Skill allows them to give themselves and allies from Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn on the map the [Resonance: Blade] status, and the [Vantage] status to themselves.
• Self-Duplication:
  • There's Legion's Grand Hero Battle, wherein the player faces multiple Legions who are all trying to defeat you.
  • As a nod to the final battle of Fates: Conquest, two copies of Fallen Takumi have to be taken out during his Grand Hero Battle.
  • When Freyja steps onto the scene as a boss during Book IV's story, multiple copies of her are out to hunt down the player's units. There's three copies of her, each with differing skills, and they get replaced by another one should one of them fall.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: Invoked in game with the Limited Hero Battles. The game explicitly restricts team variety by limiting you from only using heroes from a selection of games (for example, Oliver's Grand Hero Battle only allows you to use units that took place in Archanea) - and some of them limit you on how many units can equip the Dance/Sing/Play skills.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Villainous shapeshifter Loki dons a rather revealing outfit in her true form as opposed to the modestly dressed Askr heroes. The dokkalfar Triandra and Plumeria, as well as the antagonistic vanir Gullveig, also show off their fair share of skin. The rest of the villains have been more modestly dressed.
• Sequential Boss:
  • The second Tap Battle features Caeda as the boss of floor 80. She initially appears as her standard self, though once defeated, comes back as her Bridal Blessings variant.
  • Sharena follows suit as the boss of the seventh Tap Battle's 60th floor. She first appears as her regular self, saying the player caught her in the middle of changing. Once she is knocked out, the real battle begins when she returns in her spring garb.
  • Whenever you defeat a Røkkr in Røkkr Sieges, it is replaced by a stronger one, and will get stronger until the 2-day long round ends, with the earlier versions of the mode having heroes changing between those with a different weapon, movement type and skill kit, so a different team may be needed to deal more damage against them.
• Serial Escalation: Each of the Books up the ante more than the last one. To clarify...
  • Book I is lighthearted, focusing on the countries of Askr and Embla fighting with their contract-bound Heroes. For the most part, it's a standard game of "Embla is invading this world! Stop them!", with the Big Bad, Princess Veronica, only fighting you at the end. This is justifiable, though—this is when then game first launched. However, the final four chapters ramp up a little, with some revelations surrounding Veronica and her older brother, Bruno.
  • Book II is when things start really getting good. Here, Askr teams up with Fjorm, the princess of the ice kingdom of Nifl, to combat the fire kingdom of Múspell. The Book's Big Bad, Surtr, poses to be a much bigger threat than Veronica, kidnapping her, killing a main ally of the story and becoming immortal thanks to a ritual (although that's undone by the end of the Book). Finally, we are introduced to the Wild Card Loki—who gives way to a much larger Myth Arc.
  • Book III is when the de-facto protagonist of the story, Alfonse, begins to undergo some major Character Development after spending the first two books as a Vanilla Protagonist. The main opponents here are from Hel, the Realm of the Dead. In short, Death herself is the Big Bad this time. Among her soldiers include Alfonse's father, who sacrificed himself during the first act of the Book to save his son, and future versions of Alfonse and Veronica, who came from another Askr to save their world. Additionally, this is where Askr and Embla beginning cooperating with each other to take down their foes. Outside of the main campaign, we meet Loki's partner, Thórr, and learn of the creator of everything, whom both of them serve.
  • While Book IV is more lighthearted than Books II and III, they managed to up their game when it came to their plot. Here, Alfonse and his sister, Sharena, team up with the ljósálfar of Ljósálfheimr, the Realm of Dreams, to rescue their king from Dökkálfheimr, the Realm of Nightmares. And then it becomes a Wham Book by the second half—the leader of the dokkálfar becomes even stronger than Hel by harnessing the power of both dreams and nightmares, there are some startling revelations about Sharena's identity and the villains are fleshed out even more than Book III's villains.
  • Book V's tone is among the darkest the game has ever been thus far, with a conflict that's ultimately rooted in family. Here, the Order of Heroes fight against the forces of Niðavellir—a kingdom who can fuse magic with science. The book's initial Big Bad, Fáfnir, is possibly the most complex villain shown up to this point, to the point where he's a downright Tragic Villain. In addition, the concept of summoning Heroes plays a major role in the story, with Fáfnir himself being a Hero from another world.
  • Book VI serves as the Grand Finale to the first major story arc of the game—the conflict between Askr and Embla. The main villains, Embla and Elm, can use their powers to erase portions of the world without a single trace. Veronica plays her biggest role in the game's story yet, with the first half of the Book focusing on her and her rule over Embla. During the second half of the Book, we get to see what lies beyond the Nine Realms with Yggdrasill, Bruno dies during the story's climax, and Askr and Embla finally bury the hatchet for good come the Book's conclusion.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong:
  • Discussed in the 8/18/2020 Forging Bonds event "A New Future". The idea of informing the pre-timeskip Three Houses protagonists of what transpires over the course of five years is brought up, but Claude nixes it because simply telling them wouldn't change anything and the experiences fighting for Askr might just do the job for them.
  • "Askran Time Scramble", a side event accompanying Choose Your Legends 2023, has the newly appointed Brave Heroes sent back in time with Brave Gullveig's help to save Askr from bankruptcy and poor harvests. For Part 1, Brave Robin's group focuses on the crops and fields, Brave Corrin's group focuses on expansion of farmable land, and Brave Soren's group focuses on threats from beasts. Part 2 has them go back to deal with bandits.
• Sex Sells: Anna believes in this during the Beach Episode, using a camera-tome to try to take pictures of the new swimsuit-clad Heroes so she can sell them for lots of money.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Throughout Book II, the Order tries to find a way to neutralize the Múspellflame to defeat Surtr. Before she dies, Gunnthrá powers the Summoner's weapon to make them capable of using the Rite of Frost to neutralize Surtr's invincibility. After gaining the Rite of Frost, the party confront and seemingly defeat Surtr with their new power... only for them to learn that the Rite of Flames made Surtr immortal, making everything so far all for naught...but they later find out that his immortality is limited and requires constant human sacrifices to keep his immortality active.
• Shared Family Quirks: Both in terms of style and gameplay, Arvis and his sons (Julius and Saias) have a lot in common. They're all infantry mages with high resistance and innate access to the Ploy skills, and their sprites all feature the same unique Magical Gesture where they dramatically lift their hand above their head. Fans occasionally refer to them collectively as the "Ploy Boys."
• Ship Tease:
  • Bridal Cordelia flirts with the Summoner during her special 5* conversation. She also muses that she and them could make for a good couple.
  • Bridal Lyn, in one of her voice lines, states that she could never be in a relationship with someone who couldn't stand beside her in battle, then immediately follows that up by suggesting that she and the Summoner train together.
  • Robin and Tharja get a few teases:
    • Winter's Envoy has Tharja create an entire persona of what she thinks is a normal girl to get Robin to like her.
    • Robin and Tharja's Tactics Drill, where they must be close to support each other, is called Fates Entwined.
    • Triandra's "Guiding Vision" Forging Bond B implies that Robin and Tharja are a couple, with Tharja saying that Robin cheers her up after bad dreams.
  • Love Abounds has ship tease for Roy and Lilina, showing them attending the Valentine's-esque festival together while their fathers speculate that they may become a couple. It also ends with Sharena nervously giving a gift to the Summoner.
  • In Tempest Trials: Invisible Ties, Female Robin gets ship tease with Chrom. He jumps in when her evil counterpart expresses a desire to kill her, Loki comments that he seems very attached to her, and Masked Marth references the "Lucina's Judgment" scene from Awakening (which is significantly changed if the Female Avatar is married to Chrom) before claiming that the bond between them is unbreakable.
  • Paralogue 55: Dark Desert Rituals has some tease between Kris and Katarina, who remain in Plegia afterwards to enjoy the festival together.
  • Love of a King has ship tease for Líf and Thrasir, with Líf asking Thrasir to stay close while they attend the festival, and their Lv. 40 confessional has Thrasir asking if their bond together is called love, then she wants that love. Considering that "Líf" and "Thrasir" are actually older versions of Alfonse and Veronica, this slightly extends to them as well.
• Shout-Out:
  • The only fish Summer Female Corrin uses are clownfish and blue tang fish, which are the main characters from Finding Nemo and Finding Dory.
  • Ayra's Stop Poking Me! quote "Do that again and you'll pull back a stump." is taken from Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, spoken by Alleria Windrunner in a similar situation.
• Shown Their Work: Zig-zagged. While burning alive is one of the most painful ways to die as Surtr says, you'll also, outside of rare situations, be unable to coherently talk, let alone beg for mercy like he says happens, and you'll go into shock before you die unless the fire kills you before you realize what's happening. This is assuming the smoke inhalation doesn't make you pass out, either.
• Sibling Team: Many sibling pairs exist in the game, from the Original Generation Alfonse and Sharena, Fates' Felicia and Flora, and Blazing Blade's Linus and Lloyd. Then there are sibling trios such as the Whitewings Palla, Catria, and Est, as well as sibling groups of four, like the Hoshidan and Nohrian royals. Even the Niflese siblings exist in a group of four.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: For almost every single banner, any unit that isn't summonable via orbs is never showcased on the trailer at all. This means that Tempest Trials and Grand Hero Battle units are never shown, with only a small cameo appearance (and that's generally for the Tempest unit. Sometimes the Grand Hero Battle unit doesn't get shown at all period). If a Feh Channel features the banner, those units are usually showcased though.
• Situational Damage Attack:
  • The -blade weapons allow the user to gain Atk equal to the total field stat buff they have during combat. Regular Tharja's eponymous Hex, Odin's eponymous Grimoire, Regular Nino's Iris's Tome, Regular Laevatein's eponymous sword, and World of Thracia Olwen's Thunderhead also have the same effect. The [Treachery] status effect is a stronger version, as it allows the user to deal true damage equal to the total field stat buffs the user has during combat. The Cleaner+ is the opposite version in that the user gains Atk equal to the foe's total field stat buff they have during combat. Halloween Harmonized Young Tiki & Ninian's Frostfire Breath has a similar effect, where in addition to granting the user +6 Atk/Spd during combat if the have a field stat buff active, grants Atk to user during combat equal to 1.5x the total field stat buffs to the user's Def and Res. Ninja Laevatein's Twin Star Axe has a similar effect, where the user gains Atk equal to half the total field stat buff they have during combat. Ashera's Order's Sentence and Spring Veronica's Veðrfölnir's Egg are unusual in that the user gains Atk equal to the highest total field stat buff of an ally within 2 spaces of the user during combat, but only if the user is either at 25% HP or above at the start of combat for both of them or a [Bonus] is applied to them for the former.
  • Some weapons, such as the Broadleaf Fan+, Gunnthrá's Blizzard, and Matthew's Spy's Dagger allow the unit to weaponize debuffs on the enemy by enabling extra effects when they attack, such as giving extra damage based on the total debuffs on the target, dealing true damage based on the total debuffs, or gain effects unique to them for doing so,
  • A number of weapons, such as Ares' Dark Mysletainn, Tine's Thunderer Tome, and generic options like the Harmonic Lance, give bonuses when dealing damage with a special, such as a flat damage bonus, or in some cases a damage bonus specific to certain special types.
  • Weapons like the Shining Bow+ allow the user to deal damage based on the difference between defense and resistance, with some having it give additional effects as well.
  • Skills such as Regular Gaius' Candied Dagger allows the user to gain +4 Spd and gain damage equal to 10% of the user's Spd during combat if the user initiates combat, Regular Karla's refined Vassal's Blade allows the user to gain +5 Spd and gain damage equal to 15% of the user's Spd during combat if the user either initiates combat or is within 2 spaces of an ally, Scattered Fangs Nino's refined Giga Excalibur allows the user to gain damage equal to 20% of the user's Spd during combat, so the faster the user is the more damage they will deal.
  • Gangrel's Levin Dagger allows the user to gain +4 Atk/Spd/Def/Res and gain damage equal to 20% of the user's Res during combat if the foe has a [Penalty] inflicted on them.
  • Skill such as Brave Alm's Scendscale allows the user to gain true damage equal to 25% of the user's Atk during combat, and the unique refine for Adrift Camilla's Book of Dreams allows the user to gain +5 Atk/Spd and gain damage equal to 15% of the user's Atk during combat if the user either initiates combat or is within 2 spaces of an ally for both, so the more Atk the user has, the more damage they will deal.
  • Beast weapons allow the user to gain +2 Atk and specific effects if the user starts their turn either only adjacent to Beast or Dragon allies, or not adjacent to any ally.
• Situational Sword: Some skills and Sacred Seals are effective against certain enemies and skill sets, but not so much against others. For example, the Deflect Seals reduce the damage of any consecutive attack they receive by up to 80%, which makes it useful against weapons and skills that allow the user to attack twice in one round and enemies with Desperation. It can also work if the user cannot counterattack and the enemy is faster, but if the user can counterattack, the damage reduction does not activate because the second enemy attack is not a consecutive one, and therefore receive full damage from that attack.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • Most units have relatively normal death quotes that fit the character in question. Bridal Ninian's death quote?
    Bridal Ninian: My dress!
  • Halloween Kagero's flavor text states that she is ready to put her life on the line to get candy.
• Skill Slot System: Each unit has slots for a weapon, Assist, Special, Sacred Seal, Blessings, and A, B, and C skill. Certain skills can only be equipped in the A, B, or C-skill slot, and certain skills and Seals can only be equipped by certain unit types.
• SNK Boss:
  • In general, bosses in Abyssal difficulty Legendary and Mythic Hero Battle maps are this. On maps where the mooks are already very powerful, the actual bosses themselves are on another level. They usually pack precharged Specials and have stats that are incredibly high, especially HP which is usually way, way higher than the player would normally have access to, reaching the 70s and even 80s. Some of these bosses even use skills that put that HP to great use like Panic Ploy or the normally underutilized Boost skills.
  • Ashnard is this in his initial Grand Hero Battle release in May 2020. On Hard and Lunatic difficulties, his Dragon Fang is at 1 maximum cooldown where it should be at 4, and on Infernal, it is at 0 maximum cooldown. Because of this, his special is immune to the likes of Pulse Smoke and Witchy Wand+/Melancholy+ on Infernal difficulty, while at the same time making sure that he Dragon Fang is always active, making it unfair. However, in his Grand Hero Battle reruns, his maximum cooldown is at the correct number, while his initial special cooldown is at those numbers at those difficulties, nerfing him to a more reasonable level.
  • Both Fallen Male Robin and Fallen Female Corrin, like Ashnard above, are this in their initial Bound Hero Battle release in May 2020, as alongside their inflated stats, they also have their maximum special cooldown lowered, with on Infernal Robin having his Ignis be at 1 cooldown, where it should be at 4, and Corrin has her Dragon Fang be at 0 cooldown, where it should be at 4 as well, while at the same time they don't have skills in their kit that actually lowers their maximum cooldown like the Killer/Slaying weapons, and like Ashnard above, Pulse Smoke and Witchy Wand+/Melancholy+ will not work on them. In Corrin's case, because she's a Lightning Bruiser, she can potentially fire off Dragon Fangs consecutively in a single round of combat, meaning if somehow one of your heroes survives the first Dragon Fang, they're not going to survive the second one. However, their Bound Hero Battle reruns now have their initial special cooldown be at those charges in all difficulties, and not their maximum special cooldown as well, nerfing them both to more reasonable levels.
• Socialization Bonus:
  • Each day, you can get a small amount of feathers for greeting your friends, and up to five friends greeting you also gets you some feathers.
  • You can get a higher score per round in the Voting Gauntlet for the amount of friends you have, with the cap being 100 for 10+ friends. During a Gauntlet battle, you also have the opportunity to utilize the lead unit of a friend who is in the same army as you, although the unit is chosen at random.
  • You can use your friends' shared units for your Brigades, which can be used in Rival Domains, Grand Conquests, and Pawns of Loki, so having more friends gives you a larger stable of powerful units to form brigades with. You can use your friend's shared units in Binding Worlds, where there is a chance to select them from Divine Askr Gates, where if they were selected players will level up that unit 1 higher than one from a random player's unit.
  • Allegiance Battle:
    • You can use one of your friend's allies to use as a paired up unit, but you can only use an ally from that specific friend once per day.
    • The Quest Bonus, which is the tally of everyone on your friend's list eliminating a specific hero in that season, capping at 25, is added to your score at the end of the season.
    • The Friend Bonus, which is the top three of your friend's final score, divided by 100 and rounded down, capping at 8 per friend, is added to your score at the end of the season.
• So Last Season: Early's in the game's life, many heroes came with Silver weapons (essentially blank weapons, with only stats), while exclusive weapons would only have one skill built in that's the equivalent of the Tier 2 version of a skill, such as Renewal 2 on Marth's Falchion. Heroes would also only come with pretty plain skills that only boost up to +4 to a single stat, like Hone, Spur, and Rally skills. As the game went on, starting from version 2.0.0 onward, heroes would come with weapons that have more effects, with many inheritable weapons having the equivalent of one or two Tier 3 skills built into them, while exclusive weapons would have even more effects, sometimes even having the equivalent of up to a few skills built into them. Inheritable skills would have also have stronger Tier 4 versions, such as Hone Atk 4 boosting Atk by +7, while more and more skills that boost two stats like Brazen, Menace, and Rally+ would be introduced. These stronger skills eventually phased out the old ones, which would only get reserved for free units or demotes.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Each Big Bad of the series is more dangerous and powerful than the last. Veronica's a princess that can use magic, Surtr's a mighty king with dominion over flames, Hel is literally death incarnate, Freyja gains the powers of dreams, nightmares, and reality itself, Fáfnir can combine magic with the powers of science (as can Eitri), Embla is the game's first Greater-Scope Villain who can erase parts of the world without a trace, and Gullveig has control over time itself.
• Sound of No Damage: Initially, there was no unique sound effect to indicate if a unit dealt zero damage, but the Book II update added a special "ting" sound to indicate as much.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The final map in a Tempest Trials is usually given the appropriate music. As these maps are usually based on where a Big Bad or a villain is fought, the music has been sinister and foreboding, determined and serious, or even grand and epic. Then there is the theme for the final map of "To Die on the Battlefield" and it's... rather jovial instead. Over a year later, "Before We Met..." would begin, and thanks to a glitch, its final map played the prologue map theme for the first three days of its run, instead of Desire Below (Flow) like it was supposed to.
• Speak in Unison: Downplayed, but Duo and Harmonized heroes have the pair speak one of their Pre-Mortem One-Liner like this. Young Duo Palla & Catria & Est is a unique case in Heroes, where not only they're a trio, but they speak in unison with two of their Pre Mortem One Liners.
• Spell Blade:
  • Hel Scythe and Hel's Reaper for Hel, and Petrine's Flame Lance allow the user to target the foe's Res during combat if they meet a certain condition, with Hel Scythe and Hel's Reaper able to target the foe's Res if they do not wield a Tome or Staff, and Flame Lance able to target the foe's Res, as well as inflicting -5 Spd/Res on the foe during combat, if the user is at 50% HP or above at the start of combat.
  • Sorcery Blade, exclusive to Infantry Sword, Lance, Axe, Bow, and Dagger units, allows the user to target the lower defensive stat of a foe during combat if they are adjacent to a Tome-wielding ally. Inf. Hexblade, exclusive to Infantry Tome units, allows the user to give adjacent Infantry allies that wield Sword, Lance, Axe, Bow, or Dagger weapons +2 Atk/Spd and the ability to target the lower defensive stat of the foe during combat.
• Splash Damage: Savage Blow inflicts 3, 5, or 7 damage (depending on the tier) on all enemy units within 2 spaces of the user's primary target, if the user initiated combat. Regular Jaffar with a refine on his Deathly Dagger, as well as units with Pain+, deal 10 post-combat damage to their opponent and other enemies within two spaces of their opponent, if they landed an attack. Rhajat with the unique refine for her Obsessive Curse only deals 7 damage to her opponent and other enemies within two spaces of her opponent if she attacked, but those enemies are also afflicted with a status effect that prevents them from counterattacking.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Starting from the "Ice & Flame" Tempest Trials+, the story of each TT+ involved a Book protagonist having a dedicated story told through several trials over several sets of seasonal heroes getting their own little beginning and ending scenes (though the seasonal heroes were still bonus heroes to use in the very unrelated story). Starting from "Life & Death," this was remedied by including midpoint beginning and ending scenes with the seasonal heroes sandwiched between the TT+'s main story scenes (however, neither the main Book protagonist or the seasonal heroes ever interact with each other).
• Starter Mon: At the beginning of the game, you are provided with Anna, Virion, Raigh, Matthew, Alfonse, and Sharena for free. In version 2.4.0 and earlier, you got them at 2* rarity; from 2.5.0 onward, you get them at 4* rarity, and Regular Takumi joins the party, also at 4*.
• Status Buff: There are various positive status buffs and bonuses that units can get in Heroes, and are usually classified as [Bonus], which can affect certain weapons and skills.^note Status effects with * next to them are fan-terms
  • Field stat buffs, or "bonuses", give units extra stats that last until the start of the next turn, but only the highest value will apply. Common sources include the Hone, Fortify, Rally, and Tactic skills.
  • In-combat buffs give units stats that only are active during combat, and can be stacked. Common sources include the Blow, Stance, Push, Solo, Unity, Spur, Drive, Goad, and Ward skills.
  • Extra movement gives the user one extra space to move until the start of the next turn. Such sources include Odd/Even Tempest, Armored Boots, Armor March, Armor Stride, Infantry Boots in Arena Assault and Resonant Battles, Duo Ephraim & Lyon's Duo Skill and Legendary Sigurd's Holy-Knight Aura.
  • The [Orders]* status effect allows the user to warp to an adjacent space of an ally within 2 spaces of them. Such sources include Ground Orders, Air Orders, Regular and New Year Duo Peony's Gentle Dream, New Year Duo Peony & Triandra's Duo Skill, Brave Edelgard's Flower Hauteclere, Harmonized Bridal Catria & Thea's Wedding Bell-Axe, and the unique refine for Spring Veronica's Veðrfölnir's Egg.
  • Regular Naga's Divine Fang(+) is currently the only source of "effective against dragons" status effect, giving it to adjacent allies at the start of the user's turn.
  • The [Bonus Doubler] status effect allows the user to gain stats during combat equal to each of their field stat buffs they have at the start of combat. Sources of this status effect include Legendary Eliwood's Ardent Durandal, Astrid's Damiell Bow, Winter Duo Marth & Elice's Duo Skill and Winter Harmonized Lysithea & Lute's Harmonized Skill.
  • The [Svalinn Shield]* status effect allows the user to neutralize 'effective against armored' bonuses on the foe. Sources of this status effect includes Spring Duo Idunn & Fae and Winter Duo Male & Female Byleth's Duo skills.
  • Spring Duo Idunn & Fae's Duo skill is the only source of the "'effective against dragons' bonuses" status effect, giving it to all allies within 5 columns and 5 rows centered on the user when it activates.
  • The [Dominance] status effect allows the user to gain damage during combat equal to the total debuffs on the foe's stats. Sources of this status effect include Jugdral Hilda's Fiery Bolganone and Bridal Duo Micaiah & Sothe's Duo Skill.
  • The [Resonance: Blades] status effect grants user and all allies on the map +4 Atk/Spd during combat. Sources of this status effect include Askr's Opened Domain and Harmonized Summer Harmonized Mia & Marth, Winter Harmonized Altina & Sanaki, and Harmonized Scion Leif & Seliph's Harmonized Skills.
  • The [Desperation] status effect allows the user to have any of their follow-up attacks go before the foe's counterattack if they initiate combat, regardless of their HP. Sources of this status effect includes Firestorm Dance 3, Summer Duo Female Byleth & Rhea's Duo Skill and Harmonized Bridal Catria & Thea's Harmonized Skill.
  • The [Resonance: Shields] status effect gives the user +4 Def/Res during combat, as well as denying any of the foe's follow-up attack for every first battle the user participates in at each player and enemy phase. Sources of this status effect include through Askr's Opened Domain and Pirate Harmonized Veronica & Xander and Plegian Harmonized Dorothea & Lene's Harmonized Skills.
  • The [Vantage] status effect allows the user to counterattack first if the foe initiates combat, regardless of the user's HP. Sources of this status effect include Winter Harmonized Altina & Sanaki's Harmonized Skill and Legendary Caeda's Faithful Loyalty.
  • Legendary and Summer Claude's Fallen Star is the only source of the [Fallen Star] status, which allows the user to reduce damage taken by 80% from the foe’s first attack for the first combat the user participates in each player and enemy phase for one turn.
  • [Follow-Up Denial]* prevents the foe from performing any follow-up attacks against the user for one turn. Sources of this status effect include Atk Smoke 4, August's Diplomacy Staff, and Harmonized Spring Myrrh & Nah's Harmonized Skill.
  • [Iote's Shield]* nullifies the user's flying weakness for one turn. Sources of this status includes Harmonized Spring Myrrh & Nah's Harmonized Skill, as well as Giliam's Frelian Lance, which provides it to nearby flier allies.
  • The [Dodge] status effect allows the user to reduce damage taken from attacks and non-Røkkr AOE specials by 4% for every point of Spd they have over their foe, up to 40% damage reduced. Sources of this status effect include Spd Smoke 4, Young Duo Eirika & Ephraim's Duo Skill and Young Mia's Sharp War Sword.
  • The [Triangle Attack] status effect allows the user to strike twice consecutively when initiating combat if the user has at least two users near them. The only source of this status effect is Harmonized Bridal Catria & Thea's Wedding-Bell Axe.
  • The [Follow-Up]* status effect allows the user to perform a guaranteed follow up attack when initiating combat. Sources of this status effect include Legendary Lucina's refined Thögn and Harmonized Bridal Catria & Thea and Harmonized Scion Leif & Seliph's Harmonized Skills.
  • The [Null Panic] status effect allows the user to negate the reversing field stat buffs of the [Panic] status during combat. Sources of this status effect includes the Tier 4 Rouse skills, Ashera's Order's Restraint and Legendary Azura's Gray Waves II.
  • The [Cancel Affinity] status effect allows the user to reverse triangle advantage granted by the foe's skills and status effects if the user is at a weapons triangle disadvantage. The only source of this status is the unique refine for Maribelle's Punishment Staff.
  • The [Null Follow-Up] status effect allows the user to ignore skills that guarantee the foe's follow-up attack and deny any of the user's follow-up attacks if the user has more Spd than the foe during combat. Sources of this status effect includes Inf. Null Follow skill, Halloween Duo Sothis & Male Byleth's Duo Skill, Legendary Female Byleth's Goddess Bearer and Legendary Xander's Ebon Bölverk.
  • The [Pathfinder] status effect allows any allies passing through the user to move 1 more space, but the space the user is occupying must be able to move on by that ally's movement type, where for example Cavalry units cannot pass through if the user is on a woods tile. Sources of this status includes the Def/Res Smoke 3 skill and New Year Duo Dagr & Nótt's Duo skill.
  • The [Dull]* status effect allows the user to ignore field stat buffs the foe has during combat. Sources of this skill include Valentine Lucina's Gerbera Axe and Regular Velouria's refined Wolfpup Fang.
  • The [Grand Strategy] status effect allows the user to effectively reverse any field stat debuffs they have during combat, where for example if the user has -7 Atk and -5 Spd, the user gains +14 Atk and +10 Spd during combat, effectively gaining +7 Atk and +5 Spd during combat, and any field stat debuffs still remains on the unit until the status effect is neutralized. Sources of this status effect include Legendary Male Robin's Master's Tactics and Valentine Duo Chrom & Male Robin's Duo Skill.
  • The [En Garde] status effect has the user be unaffected by non-AOE skills that damages the user outside of combat, such as Poison Strike, the Bolt Tower Structure and even self inflicted ones such as Atk/Res Push and Fury. The only source of this status effect is with Medeus' Shadow Breath.
  • The [Pledge]* status effect has the user have +1 special buildup per attack during combat. Sources of this status effect include the Dauntless Captain Skill, Fallen Ninian's Call to Flame, Legendary Xander's Ebon Bölverk and the Pledge skills.
  • The [Treachery] status effect allows the user to deals damage equal to the total field stat buffs the user has during combat. Sources of this status effect include Groom Harmonized Roy & Eliwood's and Winter Harmonized Cordelia & Fates Selena's Harmonized Skills.
  • The [Warp Bubble] status effect allows the user to prevent foes from warping within 4 spaces of the user without Pass or using the warp spaces in Rival Domains and Grand Conquests. The only source of this status effect is with Legendary Myrrh's Darkling Guardian.
  • The [Charge] status effect allows units to move 3 spaces in any cardinal directions, but is treated as a warp movement when moving spaces beyond the user's initial movement and as such is affected by Warp-reliant effects, such as [Warp Bubble] and Brave Gatekeeper's Detailed Report. Sources of this status effect includes Regular Female and Male Alear's Libération, Legendary Hinoka's Rallying Cry and the Assault Troops skill.
  • The [Canto (1)] status effect allows units to move 1 space after attacking either a foe or structure or using an assist skill once per turn. Sources of this status effect include Legendary Eliwood's Vision of Arcadia II, Flame Harmonized Tana & Peony's Kindling Taiko and the Alarm skills.
  • The [Foe Penalty Doubler] status effect allows the user to inflict Atk, Spd, Def, and Res during combat equal to the value on those foe's field stat debuff during combat. Sources of this status effect includes the Panic Smoke 4 skill and Spring Triandra's Nightmare's Egg.
  • The [Dual Strike] status effect allows the user to attack twice if the user is adjacent to an ally that also has the same status effect. Sources of this status effect include Winter Harmonized Cordelia & Fates Selena's Inseverable Spear and Regular Heiðr's Gold Serpent.
  • The [Acrobat]* status effect allows units to pass through terrain that normally slows down the user's movement such as Forest tiles for Infantry and Trench tiles for Cavalry, but does not affect tiles that are the user cannot traverse through. Sources of this status effect includes Khadein Nino's Child's Compass and Khadein Male Byleth's Guide's Hourglass.
  • The [AOE Damage Reduction]* status effect allows the user to reduce damage taken from foe's non-Røkkr AOE specials by 80%. Sources of this status effect includes Gotoh's Brilliant Starlight and Winter Male & Female Byleth's Duo Skill.
  • The [Neutralizes Penalties]* status effect allows the user to ignore field stat debuffs on the user during combat. Source of this status effect include Regular Peony's Gentle Dream+ and Bridal Harmonized Adult Tiki & Young Tiki's Harmonized Skill.
  • The [Hexblade] status effect allows the user to target the lower of the foe's defenses, including using AOE specials. Sources of this status effect includes the Hexblade skills, Regular Plumeria's Sweet Dreams+ and Mauvier's Penitent Lance.
  • The [Rally Spectrum] status effect grants the user +5 Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat, and grants -X special cooldown before the unit's first attack, where X = 1 if the user has an effect that either allows the unit to attack twice in one round or has -1 maximum special cooldown, or 2 otherwise. Sources of this status effect includes Brave and Young Male Robin's Tip the Scales! and Young Duo Female Robin & Chrom's Duo Skill.
  • The [Assign Decoy] status effect allows the user to trigger [Savior] if the unit and foe share the same attack range and the foe initiates combat on an ally within 2 spaces of the user. Sources of this status effect includes the Impregnable Captain skill and Brave Soren's Arch-Sage Tome.
  • Wind Claude's Deep Star is the only source of the [Deep Star] status effect, where it reduces damage taken from the foe's first attacks by 80%, including both attacks from effects that attacks twice in one round, if it is the first combat the user has entered in each enemy phase.
  • The [Time's Gate] status effect allows allies within 4 spaces of the user to warp to an adjacent space of the user. Sources of this status effect includes Kvasir's Light is Time and New Year Duo Seiðr & Heiðr's Duo Skill.
  • The [Incited] status effect allows the user to gain +1 Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat for each space the user moved before combat if the user initiates combat, up to +3 Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat. Source of this status effect includes the Incite skills and Attuned Azura's Changing Waters.
  • The [Duelist's Blow]* status effect allows the user to reduce damage taken from the foe's first attack by 40% during combat if the user initiates combat. Sources of this status effect includes Rearmed Lucina's Future Sight and Spring Harmonized Chloé & Cordelia's Sky-Hopper Egg.
  • The [Pierce]* status effect reduces the foe's non-Special Damage Reduction skills by 50% during combat. The only source of this skill is with Legendary Camilla's Spoil Rotten.
• Status Effects: Heroes has a handful of status effects that are inflicted by certain weapons, items, and structures. They're usually classified as [Penalty], which can affect certain weapons and skills.^note Status effects with * next to them are fan-terms
  • Field stat debuffs, or "penalties", are where a unit's stats get dropped, which lasts until the end of the user's action, but only the highest value will apply. Common sources include Daggers, and the Seal, Threaten, Smoke, Chill, and Sabotage skills.
  • In-combat debuffs will reduce the affected unit's stats during combat, and can stack. They're not as common, but sources include the Lull, Trace, Flight, and Rein skills, and various weapons and Secret Arts.
  • The [Panic] status converts an afflicted unit's field stat buffs into debuffs, and can stack with debuffs for an even greater effect. It is inflicted by the C-skills Panic Ploy and Panic Smoke, Aether Raids' Panic Manor, Arena Assault's Panic Charm, and various weapons.
  • The [Gravity] status brings down a unit's movement range to 1 space, and has priority over buffs that increase movement. It is inflicted by the Gravity(+) staff, Regular Leo's unrefined Brynhildr, Regular Loki's Thökk, Regular, Bridal and Hatari Nailah's Glare, Brave Camilla's Sanngriðr, Veld's Petrify, Legendary and Summer Claude's Fallen Star, Duo Pirate Hinoka and Camilla's Duo Skill and the Heavy Trap and Tactics Room from Aether Raids.
  • The [Counter Disrupt]* status prevents the unit afflicted from counterattacking. This status is inflicted by Candlelight(+), Flash(+), Gharnef's Imhullu, Kempf's Venin Edge, Solon's Banshee Θ, Young L'Arachel's Staff of Rausten, Regular Nifl's Frostbite Breath, the unique refine for Rhajat's Obsessive Curse and Walhart's Wolf Berg and the Fear Charm in Arena Assault.
  • The [Triangle Adept] status grants the Triangle Adept effect to the afflicted unit, which amplifies the effects of the colour triangle during combat. This status is currently only afflicted by Trilemma(+) and Maribelle's Punishment Staff.
  • Units with the [Guard] status are inflicted with -1 Special charge per attack during combat, making them unable to charge their Specials unless they have skills that grant them extra Special charges for each attack given or taken or ignore this effect during combat. This status is inflicted by the Witchy Wand(+), Melancholy(+), Iago's eponymous Tome, Regular Triandra's Frightful Dream(+), Regular Fáfnir's Hreiðmarr, Solon's Banshee Θ and the Ruse Skills.
  • Units with the [Isolation] status cannot perform or be the target of assist skills, such as Reposition, Rally, Dance, or even any healing assist skills from staff users. Due to being unable to use Restore+ or Harsh Command+ to remove, this status is hard to dispel outside of having an ally effects like Odd/Even Recovery, using Valentine Duo Alm & Celica's Duo Skill or Regular Sara's Kia Staff. This status is inflicted by Bridal Fjorm's Gjallarbrú, Mila's unique C skill Mila's Turnwheel (II), and Summer Duo Hilda & Marianne's Duo Skill. Legendary and Valentine's Chrom's unique Assist, To Change Fate! (II), as well as Brave Chrom's A Fate Changed! and Fallen Rearmed Chrom's Fate Unchanged... also inflicts Isolation, but on himself and his Pair Up ally after using it, just to prevent him from abusing his Assist too much.
  • Units with the [Deep Wounds] status cannot recover HP during their next actions. This status is currently inflicted by the Múspell's Flamelick Breath, Serpentine Staff(+)/Incurable(+) and the Fatal Smoke skill.
  • The [Stall] status effect allows the user to only move 1 space if the user has +1 movement. This status is currently inflicted by the Stall Ploy skill, Riev's Argent Aura, Regular Loki's refined Thökk and Summer Thórr & Loki's Divine Whimsy.
  • The [False Start] status effect prevents the user to activate all start of turn effects, such as skills like Time's Pulse or Armoured Stride, but does not affect the transformation of Beast units and Duo and Harmonic Skills that can be refreshed, and effects that can either recover HP or deals damage such as Renewal and Fallen Takumi's Skadi can still be activated if the [False Start] status effect was neutralized at the same time by skills from other unaffected allies such as Regular Sara's Kia Staff and the Odd/Even Recovery skills. In Summoner Duels, the opposite happens where the start of turn effects that are negated are those that recover HP and deals damage. This status is currently only inflicted by Elimine's Staff of the Saint.
  • Units hit by the [Canto Control] status and activate Canto will only be able to move 1 space if they are a melee unit, and their action will end right there if they are a ranged unit. This status is inflicted by Canto Control and the unique refine for Mikoto's refined Doting Staff.
  • The [Exposure] status effect has the unit inflicted with it receive 10 extra damage from attacks during combat. Sources of this status effect include the Tier 4 Ploy skills, Summer Thórr & Loki's Divine Whimsy and the unique refines for Hubert's Retainer's Report and Kronya's Athame.
  • The [Undefended] status effect has the one affected by it unable to be the target of [Savior]. The only source of this status effect is with Regular Embla's Severance.
  • The [Feud] status effect has the one affected by it disable all ally's skill during combat, such as the Spur and Rein skills. Sources of this status effect include Regular Embla's Severance and Summer Duo Shamir & Catherine's Duo Skill.
  • The [Sabotage] status effect as the one affected by it be inflicted penalties to their Atk, Spd, Def and Res during combat equal to the highest field stat debuff between the unit and allies within 2 spaces of that unit. Sources of this status effect include the Tier 4 Snag skills, Young Duo Mark & Lyn's Total War Tome and the unique refine for Kiria's Mirage Rod.
  • The [Discord] status effect has the one affected by it inflict -2 Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat and an additional -1 Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat for each of their ally within 2 spaces of the unit, up to -5 Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat. Sources of this status effect include the Tier 4 Ruse skills, Summer Duo Shamir & Catherine's Partnership Bow and the unique refine for Kempf's Venin Edge.
  • The [Ploy] status effect has it disables the effects of [Bonus Doubler], [Treachery] and [Grand Strategy] on the one affected by it. Sources of this status effect include the Tier 4 Ploy skills and Mythic Loki's Divine Deceit.
  • The [Schism] status effect has it disables the effects of [Triangle Attack], [Dual Strike] and [Pathfinder] on the one affected by it, does not count as a valid unit to trigger [Triangle Attack] and [Dual Strike] with other allies, and removes all three status effects if [Schism] is also removed. The only source of this status effect are the Tier 4 Ruse skills.
  • The [Anti-Miracle]* status effect has it disable non-Special effects that allow the user to have a Last Chance Hit Point if they are above a certain HP threshold and are hit by a lethal attack. Source of this status effect includes the Fatal Smoke 4 skill and Fallen Julia's refined Dark Scripture.
  • The [Time's Grip] status effect has the one inflicted with it be inflicted with -4 Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat and have their skills disabled during their ally's combat. The only source of this skill is with New Year Duo Seiðr & Heiðr's Future-Sighted.
  • The [End Action]* status effect has the one inflicted with it have their turn end immediately after start of turn effects trigger at the start of their turn. The only source of this skill is with Valentine Duo Lyon & Eirika's Gray Illusion and Duo Skill.
  • The [Hush Spectrum] status effect has the one inflicted with it have -5 Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat, inflicts +1 special cooldown before the user's first attack if the user has an attack special, and if the user has -1 max special cooldown and their has an attack special their foe gets -1 special cooldown before the user's first attack. The only source of this status effect is with Young Duo Female Robin & Chrom's Draconic Pacts.
• Stealth Pun: The intro of Book III shows off characters from Hel, the land of the dead. Later on in the intro, the music changes to metal music. Specifically, Death Metal.
• The Stinger:
  • The Feh Channel broadcast in November 2018 has one announcing Book III, showing the text "That day, the light died.", before showing Sharena injured, crying, and reaching out to someone.
  • The video Remembering Book I & II on the official Nintendo Mobile channel has one showing the continuation of last Book III teaser, with Alfonse with his back to the camera in a castle hallway, standing and looking upon two people on the floor, heavily implied to be dead.
  • The Book IV Ending Movie video shows "Líf" and "Thrasir" inviting both Triandra and Plumeria to the abode of gods to have their wish to revive Freyja come true, before a metal leg stomps on the ground in a rocky landscape covered in smoke, with having "Líf" warn Alfonse about the Niðavellir, the home of the Norse Dwarves, called "Dvergar" in Heroes, while Freaky Electronic Music plays.
• Stone Wall: The Fortress skills grant a flat boost to Def and/or Res at the cost of Atk. Fortress Def 3 gives +5 Def but -3 Atk, Fortress Res 3 gives +5 Res but -3 Atk, and Fort. Def/Res 3 gives +6 Def/Res but -2 Atk. These can stack with the Seals, so a unit could go all in on Def or Res with double Fortress Def or Res, granting +10 Def or Res at the cost of -6 Atk, or if the unit has Fort. Def/Res 3, equipping the Fort. Def/Res 2 Seal will grant +10 Def and Res but at the cost of -5 Atk.
• Stop Poking Me!: When looking at a Hero's stat page, you can tap on the touch screen to trigger a response from them. Nearly every Hero has a voice line where they get irritated about being touched or poked, as it's implied that the Summoner is going up to actually poke or touch them. Some highlights include:
  Cecilia: Now, now. You have my attention.
  Raven: Is this touching stuff some sort of amusement?
  Michalis: How DARE you lay a finger on me?!
  Boey: Cut it out! What are we, kids?
  Berkut: Again? How infantile.
  Ayra: Huh? Do that again and you'll pull back a stump.
  Spring Marisa: (gasp) R-Rabbits...are skittish animals.
  Freyja: (gasp) Unforgivable! You're not Freyr!
  Ike (Brave, Resplendent): Didn't I talk to you about this? Speak up before you touch me.
  Hatari Xane: Hey, what was that? You lookin' for a fight? This seems to be the place! (chuckles)
  Young Ilyana: Did you just push me? ...Give me a snack and I'll forgive you.
• The Strategist:
  • The Summoner acts as the main tactician for the Order of Heroes.
  • The player can summon heroes with great tactical prowess such as Robin, Soren, and Saias, who will sometimes ask if you'd like them to help in dialogue outside of battle.
• Stripperiffic
  • Most of the characters are mostly sensibly dressed or are justified in their skimpiness (e.g. summer units and dancers). On the other hand, there's Winter Tharja, who wears a Fur Bikini while out in the freezing snow. She's classified as an armored unit, to boot.
  • Silvia, a dancer who wears a scant top and miniskirt, has something to say about her outfit on her profile page.
    Silvia: Are you kidding? Of course this isn't underwear. This is how dancers dress!
• Strictly Formula: Every Book in the game follows a basic story structure, but with new characters and a new setting. While there have been some deviations to the formula (such as Surtr being the sole main villain who is male), those are the exception rather than the rule:
  • The character that is given out for free is always female, and is either a princess or a retainer to a Big Good who is royalty in some way, shape or form.
  • If there are any male characters in the game, they will die sooner or later. Additionally, one of them will not be released as playable until 3 years after their respective Book ended.
  • Whenever there are siblings, all but one of those siblings (usually the youngest) are fated to die as well.
  • The villain is always female as well, usually with a much more sexy-looking appearance, and are completely invincible without the help of a MacGuffin needed to revert the invincibility.
• Strong Family Resemblance:
  • A lot of second generation characters from Genealogy of the Holy War (and Saias from Thracia 776) look similar to one of their parents as they are drawn by the same artists.
  • Zig-Zagged with siblings—some are drawn by the same artist (especially if they are twins), others have different artists, especially those with 2 or more siblings. For example, both the regular variants of Michalis and Minerva from Mystery of the Emblem are drawn by Daisuke Izuka, but the regular variant of their younger sister Maria is drawn by kaya8.
• Suddenly Voiced: Every character except Mark has voiced lines, which means a lot of characters from games before Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance will have voice actors for the first time.
• Summon Bigger Fish: The point of the game is to summon various heroes to build an army. However, during the "Turn of Fate" Forging Bonds event, regular heroes aren't going to be able to stop Gullveig, so instead the heroes try to summon another version of Gullveig, and hope that she'll help them fight the first Gullveig. Or maybe she'll turn on them and they'll have two Gullveigs to deal with.
• Summon Everyman Hero: Kiran is from present day Earth; fortunately, the process of being called to the World of Zenith gave them the power to summon other Heroes.
• Summon Magic:
  • While many tomes conjure elements for the user to strike their foe, all of the Norse color prefix tomes summon ethereal objects or animals for the user to attack the enemy, which have some specific effects tied to them as well:
    • -blade: Summons a storm of blades from above. Grants Atk equal to the total amount of field stat bonuses on the user during combat.
    • -owl: Summons a flock of owls to dive-bomb the enemy. Grants the user +2 Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat for each adjacent ally to the user.
    • -raven: Summon a large amount of ravens from below the enemy. The user gains triangle advantage over colorless enemies in addition to the color they normally have advantage against.
    • -serpent: Summons a serpent upon the enemy. The user gains +6 Def/Res during combat if they are attacked by an enemy with a 2 range weapon.
    • (Keen)-wolf: Summons a large wolf head to bite the enemy. User gains effective damage against cavalry units.
    • -blooms: Summons a storm of flowers upon the enemy. User gains +3 Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat if the user is adjacent to an ally.
    • -fox: Summons a fox to leap upon the enemy. If the user initiates combat, inflict -4 Atk/Spd/Def/Res on the target during combat.
    • -rabbit: Summons a bunch of rabbits to charge the enemy. At the first combat the user participates in each player and enemy phase, the user gains +5 Atk/Res during combat and recover 7 HP after combat.
    • -lion: Summons a giant lion head to bite the enemy. At the start of the user's turn, grant +6 Atk to all adjacent allies and grants +5 Atk/Res to the user during combat if the foe is at 75% HP or above at the start of combat.
    • -vulture: Summons a large vulture to swoop onto the enemy. If the user is not adjacent to an ally, inflicts -5 Atk/Res on the foe during combat, as well as further reduce the foe's Atk and Res during combat equal to the field stat debuffs the foe has on those stats during combat, where for example if the foe has -5 Atk and -7 Res, it will inflict an additional -5 Atk and -7 Res on the foe during combat, and with the -5 Atk/Res, inflicts a total of -15 Atk and -19 Res on the foe during combat.
    • -deer: Summons a deer that leaps into the area before ramming and goring the enemy with its antlers. Grants +5 Atk to the user during combat and inflicts -5 Atk during combat and -1 special buildup per attack on the foe if the foe either initiates combat or is at 75% HP or above at the start of combat.
  • This can even apply to character-unique and seasonal tomes, which includes summoning powerful dragons, presents, fishes, and even tomatoes, to name a few.
• Super-Deformed: Characters appear as chibi models on the map and in battle animations.
• Support Party Member: Staff users aren't very good in fights due to reduced damage output without Wrathful Staff (whether it's as a B-skill or weapon refinement) or with Staff-only attack specials such as Holy Panic or Light's Restraint, but they can heal your other units, provide Status Buffs, and their weapons have secondary effects that can inflict debuffs on foes. Even after weapon refinery allowed staff users to craft a Wrathful Staff effect onto their weapon, their colorless weapon-type removes them from the weapon triangle (unless they're fighting a -raven tome user, which turns the weapon triangle against them). However, the increased area of effect granted by the + versions of their staffs as well as the ability to prevent counterattacks by crafting the Dazzling Staff effect onto their staffs gives them much more viability for support combat.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • At the Tenth Stratum of Training Tower, randomly generated heroes will match the movement type and attack range of the heroes who were there on the original story and paralogue maps. Some of these random heroes even have at least one of the skills of the original heroes.
  • Some Hero Battle maps have generic units that fill in for and are meant to be units that would represent specific allies for the Hero in question. Some examples: a cavalry healer spawns next to Legendary Leif in his Legendary Hero Battle, and is meant to be a stand in for Nanna; said healer also has Restore+, just like her. In Leif and Nanna's Bound Hero Battle, a lance cavalry starts next to them wielding a Brave Lance+, just like their guardian Finn, while Julius's Grand Hero Battle sees him aided by a bunch of generic units that all have movesets and skills that evoke the 12 Deadlords that fought alongside him during the final map of his home game.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  • After Leo asks you to inform him if his collar is ever inside-out, he quickly does a Verbal Backspace and insists that it never happens.
  • If you check on Nina in the Home screen, you'll sometimes catch her reading a book she'll claim is "totally normal" and isn't worth asking her parents about. She'll then go on to say that "anything you hear about [her] books or reading habits is a complete lie."
• Switch-Out Move:
  • Swap allows the user to switch positions with a friendly target 1 space away from the user. Legendary and Valentine's Lucina both have Future Vision, while Legendary Lucina also has Future Vision II. Both of these assists allow their users to switch positions with an ally 1 space away, like Swap, but also let the user take another action, with Future Vision II additionally inflicting -7 Atk/Def on the nearest foes within 4 spaces of the user and target ally after movement. Regular and Legendary Yuri's Foul Play allows him to switch places with a target ally 3 spaces away from him instead of 1 from Swap.
  • Regular Leila's Constant Dagger allows her to switch positions with her support partner if she is within 2 spaces of them after she initiates combat, but is unable to if there is another copy of said support partner within range.

T

• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors:
  • Like Fire Emblem Fates, the Weapon Triangle consists of one set of weapons being effective against another set of weapons, granting +20% Atk on the advantage and inflicting -20% Atk on disadvantage. Red weapons^note Swords, Fire/Dark Magic, Red Bows, Red Daggers, and Red Breath beat green weapons, green weapons^note Axes, Wind Magic, Green Bows, Green Daggers, and Green Breath beat blue weapons, and blue weapons^note Lances, Thunder/Light Magic, Blue Bows, Blue Daggers, and Blue Breath beat red weapons, and the color scheme makes it similar to the Fire, Water, Grass triangle from the Pokémon series. Colorless weapons^note Colorless Bows, Staves, Earth Magic, Colorless Daggers, and Colorless Breath are excluded from the weapon triangle, although weapons like the -raven tomes, Lyon's various tomes^note his regular variant's Naglfar, his Fallen variant's Blood Tome, and his younger self's Tome of Grado (but only if his foe also uses a bow, dagger, tome, or staff), Henry's Corvus Tome, Bridal Sophia's Dragon Bouquet^note provided she is at at least 25% HP and Nagi's Ethereal Breath give their users an advantage against colorless weapons.
  • The gem weapons (Ruby Sword, Sapphire Lance, and Emerald Axe), the Triangle Adept skill and effect, Regular Palla's Whitewing Blade, Seth's Silverbrand, Stahl's Panther Sword, Sully's Bull Spear, Regular Titania's Draconic Poleax, and the unique refine for Regular Alfonse's Fólkvangr, Regular Cecilia's Tome of Order and Legendary Azura's Prayer Wheel exaggerate this; while a favorable match-up will boost damage dealt and reduce damage received even further, an unfavorable match-up will also apply the changes against the user.
• Tag Team: The Pair Up mechanic returns in a limited fashion. Only certain Legendary Heroes and the fourth team member during Allegiance Battles can use it, the pairs have to be pre-set before battle, and Pair Up can only be used in certain modes on top of all that. In Mjölnir's Strike, four of the five heroes in the team are able to pair up, with one more extra pair if there is a Mythic Hero with the Special Slot blessing and is in the matching season, with the only one unable to pair up is the Summoner in that mode.
• Take That!: In the English version of the "Family Bonds" paralogue chapters, Ephraim gives his opinion on rumors about him and his sister Eirika, dismissing them as disgusting lies. Then he promptly jumps into Not Helping Your Case.
• Taking the Bullet: There are skills that grant the [Savior] status such as the Near/Far Save skills and Legendary Young Tiki's With Everyone! II, where the user takes the place and space of an ally within 2 spaces of the user if the foe initiates combat and uses a specific weapon depending on which skill is used, treat as if the unit is adjacent to an ally, and return to their original position after combat, but cannot activate if the user cannot occupy that space such as an Armor unit unable to go on water and mountain tiles, and if there is at least one other unit that can grant [Savior] with similar or identical conditions that can also within the same range of that ally. However, they will not take their place of their ally from enemy AOE specials before the start of combat.
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That: A written version occurs in one of the Learn With Sharena segments, where Alfonse gives Sharena a letter and says if she ever needs help, she should open it. Later Sharena is stumped at constantly losing her Aether Raids defense matches, and opens the letter to find Alfonse's advice on strengthening her defense map by testing it.
  Sharena: Thank you, Alfonse! ...But why didn't he just tell me that in the first place? And how did he know to put those specific details in his letter?
• A Taste of Power:
  • Some of the Tactics Drills challenges gives players some powerful units and/or skills to use to solve the maps, especially those who have yet to summon those units and/or refine their weapons.
  • Hall of Forms is where players are limited to 4 units to use in a 2 week period, most of which are rare units, but can give them any skills and weapons that they can inherit as well as merges if that unit was able to get the first kill, including the 300 SP skills like Distant Counter and it variants, Wings of Mercy 4 and Joint Drive Atk, the 400 SP assist skills like Harsh Command+ and Rally Atk/Spd+, the 500 SP specials like Ruptured Sky and No Quarter, and refines for certain weapons.
• Tech Points: In this game, characters obtain new weapons, learn new skills, and upgrade weapons at the Weapon Refinery by spending Skill Points. Each character has their own SP, which is increased by defeating enemies, leveling up, merging with duplicates, or for healers, healing allies.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Choose Your Legends 4 group consists of post-timeskip Three Houses characters who faced antagonistic versions of each other in their own timelines. While their initial meetings in their Forging Bonds puts everyone at unease, they all agree to set aside their conflict while they're in another world.
• Teleport Gun: Breidablik summons Heroes by drawing them through portals it creates.
• Terrain Sculpting: Certain skill and weapons apply terrain effects that alters tiles to change the tides of battle, and the latest one overrides any previous terrain:
  • [Divine Veil (Stone)] allows the user and their allies to gain +6 Def/Res during combat, reduces damage taken from enemy specials by 10, and reduces damage taken from the foe's non-Røkkr AOE specials by 50%.
  • [Divine Veil (Flame)] needs +1 movement needed to move into for ranged foes, but cannot bar foes from entering into it if it is adjacent to them and exceeds their movement limit, and inflicts 7 damage to the foe at the start of the foe's turn and as combat begins during combat.
  • [Divine Vein (Green)] prevent the foe from warping from and into the affected space, as well as inflicts -1 special buildup per attack during combat if a foe is inside of it.
  • [Divine Vein (Haze)] inflicts -5 Atk/Spd/Def/Res and ignore the foe's field stat buffs during combat if a foe is inside of it.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Clothing (or lack thereof) aside, the primary difference between the male and female chibi sprites are that female characters have eyelashes, with the exceptions being Lucius, Libra, Reyson, Forrest, and Rafiel - men who have very feminine features. Some male characters, namely Walhart, Garon, Duma, Mordecai, Caineghis, and Ashnard, have rugged facial features in their chibi sprites.
• That Came Out Wrong: On his status page, Legendary Claude will sometimes say he wants to know more about you... only to hurriedly clarify that he did not mean it in a creepy way.
• Theme Naming:
  • The Specials that ignore Defense/Resistance have names related to the moon, Specials with a Life Drain effect have names related to the sun, Specials that increase damage dealt have names related to stars, and specials that increase Attack have names related to dragons.
  • Each stat is associated with an element, and some skills are named accordingly. For instance, both Fire Boost and Blaze Dance boost a unit's Atk. Sometimes they can be combined, such as Geyser Dance which boosts Def (like Earth Boost) and Res (like Water Boost).
  • Original Generation locations, weapons, and characters from Book II onwards derive their names from Norse Mythology.
  • The names of unique weapons that increase stats of Dance/Sing target are named after the Norns.
  • The Whitewing sisters all have variants depicting their appearance in Shadows of Valentia, and each of their titles follow the same theme: An adjective and their age in comparison to the other sisters. Palla is the Kind Eldest Sister, Catria is the Mild Middle Sister, and Est is the Sweet Baby Sis.
• Third-Option Adaptation: In New Mystery of the Emblem, Kris' default class can be chosen by the player. In this game, Female Kris is made a lance infantry unit, which is not possible in New Mystery since all playable lance classes there are either mounted (Cavalier, Pegasus Knight) or heavy armored (Knight).
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman:
  • Some heroes who are considered either on par or subpar to other heroes can be built to counter specific heroes usually common on enemy defense teams in Arena and Arena Assault thanks to either their default weapons and/or statspread, and especially so when they inherit the -breaker skills. For example, Leon equipped with Bowbreaker and Bonfire to go along his refined +Def Slaying Bow+ or refined Bow of Beauty can hard counter other Colorless Bows common in the early Metagame, such as Brave Lyn and Claude.
  • The Røkkr Siege modes sees a lot more use of skills that are otherwise considered subpar or useless in other modes due to countering how the Umbra specials works and the Umbra weapon's Scratch Damage to allow survivability, and to an extension more damage, against the Røkkr, the big examples being Guard and Noontime.
• Timed Mission:
  • Some story and paralogue chapters force you to win in 3-6 turns, otherwise you fail.
  • All of the Tactic Drills are timed as well, except they count phases, including the enemy phase, so some missions need to end at the enemy phase for the player to succeed.
  • Battles in Aether Raids require players attacking keeps to rout the enemy within 7 turns; otherwise, they fail. This can get raised up by +1 for every Mila with Mila's Turnwheel equipped on the offense team, but during only the Light seasons.
  • Battles in Heroic Ordeals requires players defeat at least two enemies with the required heroes within 20 turns; otherwise, they fail.
  • Battles in Allegiance Battles requires players to rout all the enemies within 10 turns; otherwise, they fail and don't get scored.
• Time-Shifted Actor: In the Japanese version, many heroes who appear as both children and adults are given different voice actors to sound younger.
  • Tiki is voiced by Ikue Otani as an adult and Sumire Morohoshi as a child.
  • Zephiel is voiced by Kenichiro Matsuda as an adult and Jun Endo as a teenager.
  • Marth is voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa as a young adult and Yuu Kobayashi as a child.
  • Merric is voiced by Soichiro Hoshi as a young adult and Juri Nagatsuma as a child.
  • Ephraim is voiced by Taku Yashiro as a young adult and Ai Kakuma as a child.
  • Lyon is voiced by Yuichi Nakamura as a young adult and Mutsumi Tamura as a child.
  • Innes is voiced by Jun Fukuyama as a young adult and Yumiri Hanamori as a child.
  • Ike is voiced by Michihiko Hagi as a young adult and Miho Miyagawa as a child.
  • Eliwood is voiced by Takahiro Sakurai as a young adult and Asami Yaguchi as a child.
  • Hector is voiced by Kosuke Toriumi as a young adult and Yo Taichi as a child.
• Token Evil Teammate: Beating Grand Hero Battles will reward you with new Heroes, which are typically various villains from the franchise. Their dialogue makes it clear that most are still pretty evil, and at best only listen to you out of a very slight degree of respect. Then there are the units from Fallen Heroes banners as well as Legendary Female Robin, all of whom have succumbed to darkness.
• Too Awesome to Use:
  • Light's Blessings, which fully heal units, revive any downed ones, instantly ready all Specials, and can be used even if everyone has fallen started at this. They were somewhat uncommon from launch to the end of April, but from May to July 2017, you could only get Light's Blessings through the My Nintendo rewards system, and were limited to three at that. They eventually came back as a quest reward in August 2017, and have become a monthly reward since. That being said, they've lost a lot of their value over time as they can't be used for the harder content like Grand Hero Battles and Squad Assaults which left a lot of players using them just to win Voting Gauntlet battles or to revive characters when grinding levels or SP. However the Voting Gauntlet was eventually changed to allow you to immediately fight again if you lose, while the 2.5 update made it so characters don't lose all EXP and SP gained upon death causing many to see them as useless beyond clearing quests that require all units to survive or that specific unit and getting Hero Merit for surviving allies.
  • Leveling up past 20 using crystals requires a large amount and obtaining new crystals is a slow process, most save crystals for whenever a quest requires a hero (that is usually not the greatest to begin with) to slay high level foes and will rarely use this method to level up units they plan to use.
  • Legendary and Mythic Blessings, which double the SP a unit earns, and grants them a stat bonus if they are deployed with a Legendary or Mythic Hero with a matching blessing on the respective season (e.g. water-blessed units who go into battle with the water-aligned Fjorm during a water season get +3 HP and Spd) and specific mode (Aether Raids for Mythic, and everything else for Legendary). Once a blessing is used, it can't be removed, and there are very few ways to earn extra blessings outside of Aether Raids, so it can be hard to decide who should get what blessing.
  • Defied with First Summon Tickets, which let you perform the first summon of a session without spending orbs. Normally, these tickets would be the kind of thing to hoard, but they are only usable on certain focuses, and any unused tickets disappear once those focuses rotate out, so there's little reason to save them. Players also cannot choose to use a ticket or spend orbs—if they have tickets for a focus, they have to use those tickets before they can start spending orbs on the first summon of any session started on that focus.
  • Units with hard-to-get skills, like Spurn 4 or Distant Counter and its variants. There are several levels of agonizing decisions to make - keep the unit or fodder them off for their valuable skills? If you choose to fodder them, who should get the skill?
  • Using Forma Souls. While one was given as quest rewards for the each Anniversary starting at the 4th and another in Summoner Duels, more are behind a paywall and one can be gained by exchanging 3 Celestial Stones around every several months since update 5.4.0 in April 2021, they let a player be able to let a Forma that players used in the Hall of Forms to join your barracks, but only one Forma each for every Forma Soul. Not only that, but it's a Luck-Based Mission to get those units desirable skills such as Distant/Close Counter and their variants and the Tier 4 Skills, while still having their entire base skill kit at their disposal when you add them to your barracks, and they're available for a limited time after the event has finished. Do you get one rare unit that has no assets and flaws, cannot be turned into a combat manual, and cannot be used as a source for Skill Inheritance, but can be used as a base for merges of other copies of the hero and get skills from other heroes, or do you wait for a future Hall of Forms with more desirable heroes and get more Forma Souls in the future so you can get more than one Forma added to your barracks from one event?
  • Using 100 Trait Fruits to change the traits of a hero in your barracks, outside on free, gifted, and Forma units who start with the Normalized Trait. With the Trait Fruits players usually gain every week are in the single digit without the Loyalty Perks of Feh Pass giving more Trait Fruits per subscription refresh every month, with only players in the top tiers of multiple gamemodes reaching the double digits each week, and a few events giving more, do you use those Trait Fruits to give one of your units a more desirable Asset now, do you wait to see if you can summon copies that have that desired Asset first, or wait until one of your favorite heroes will be released and use it on them?
• Took a Level in Badass: In Three Houses, the Hegemon Husk form used by Edelgard at the end of the Azure Moon route was implied to be dangerous for Edelgard's health and potentially irreversible, hence why she uses it as a last resort. In Heroes, not only is this alt considered an absolute beast that's the strongest of Edelgard's other already-powerful variants due to its high stats and incredibly powerful skills, Edelgard can change into it freely with zero negative effects afterwards.
• Trail of Bread Crumbs: In one of the Forging Bonds events, Alfonse discusses this with Keaton to help the latter who often gets lost. Keaton mentions that animals could eat said bread crumbs and defeat the purpose of the tactic, but Alfonse replies alternate objects can be substitute for the expression.
• Trick Arrow:
  • Summer Gaius is an archer that uses arrows with popsicle tips.
  • Summer Noire shoots coconut-tipped arrows from her bow.
  • Summer Takumi shoots fish-tipped arrows from his bow.
  • Spring Loki shoots carrot-tipped arrows from her bow.

U

• Unbreakable Weapons: Like in Gaiden/Shadows of Valentia and Fates, none of the weapons are breakable.
• Unconventional Wedding Dress: In stark contrast to everyone else going in white formal attire for their Bridal versions, Tharja's Bridal variant wears a black dress.
• Underdogs Never Lose: Due to the way Voting Gauntlets work, sometimes a character with a notable disadvantage will win:
  • Shanna took home the win in November 2017's "Short-Haired Ladies vs. Long-Haired Gents" Voting Gauntlet while outmatched in all three rounds, eliminating Hinoka, Amelia, and Takumi in that order.
  • Played entirely straight in the 2018 "Heroes and Legends" Voting Gauntlet, with the minority party Alfonse winning each time, until the majority-supported Gunnthrá defeated Alfonse in the final round.
  • Wrys was able to achieve victory in March-April 2021's "Healer Royale!" Voting Gauntlet while outmatched against Flayn and Silque for the first two rounds, and with Rhys initially edging over him in the final round, eliminating all three to win the Gauntlet.
  • Summer Caspar fought hard for 1st place in August 2021's "Water Fight" Voting Gauntlet while heavily outmatched by Summer Mercedes, Summer Ashe, and Summer Freyja and eliminating all three to win the Gauntlet, with the last one being a photo finish with Caspar winning by 56 million points ahead of Freyja with over 45 billion on each side at the end, where the last hour of that round was with them entering with around 39 billion for Caspar and 41 billion for Freyja.
  • Brave Ephraim snagged the victory in the September "Chosen Family" Voting Gauntlet after being outmatched by Brave Eirika, Brave Marth, and Brave Marianne, all of which were released no less than a month before the event began. This isn't the first time where Brave Ephraim has won a Choose Your Legends-themed Voting Gauntlet, either, making Ephraim one of the few units to have won more than one Voting Gauntlet events.
  • Valter became the victor of early-July 2022's "Dragoon Duels" Voting Gauntlet after being outmatched by Cormag, Jill and Altina, with just finishing 180 million points over Altina at the end, where the previous hourly score displayed was just over 36 billion for Valter and nearly 38 billion for Altina.
  • Summer Dimitri got to take home the trophy in July-August 2022's "Sea-Spray Skirmish" Voting Gauntlet after being outmatched by Summer Claude, Summer Micaiah, and Summer Duo Thórr & Loki, where Dimitri just snagged the last hourly multiplier and ending with over 47 billion points compared to Thórr & Loki's 43 billion.
  • Ash managed to win April 2023's "Divine Hair Duels" Voting Gauntlet, while at a noticeable disadvantage against Askr and at a huge disadvantage against Female Alear. While she was not at a disadvantage against New Year's Yarne in Round 2, the fact that she won against the brand new Lord from the latest Fire Emblem game in both of their first Voting Gauntlets was a surprise to behold.
  • Despite being the only male character in the "Beachside Brouhaha" Voting Gauntlet in August 2023, Summer Ephraim was able to emerge victorious against all of his contenders despite being at a notable disadvantage between them (except Summer L'Arachel), beating out Summer Ivy in Round 2 and Summer Ymir in the Final Round.
  • Brave Soren was at a huge disadvantage going up against Brave Female Corrin and Brave Gullveig in the "Battle Beyond Time" Voting Gauntlet in September 2023 at the semifinals and finals respectively, and managed to just barely win against them both.
  • Halloween Naga triumphed against Halloween Harmonic Anna and Halloween Timerra despite being at a significant disadvantage between them both. Granted, she had the advantage against Halloween Duo Duma due to having slightly less than double the supporters Duma had, but many thought she would have been eliminated by at least one of her opponents, which makes her victory all the more surprising.
  • Despite placing last in the top 8 of the 2024 edition of A Hero Rises, during the finals voting gauntlet, Attuned Peony won against first place winner Winter Edelgard in the first round, and later won against Winter Dimitri in the second round, and Legendary Female Alear in the final round, both of who placed higher than her. This makes Attuned Peony the first hero to finish last place in the top 8 of an AHR event to win an AHR voting gauntlet.
• Underground Monkey:
  • The Book II update introduced enemy Dragon Riders; they are functionally mostly identical to the previous enemy Pegasus Riders, differing only in their typical stats^note Dragon Riders have more HP, Atk and Def, but less Spd and Res.
  • The version 5.6.0 update introduced Steam enemies which are functionally identical to the melee Cavaliers, with them differing by having the Gullinbursti Sacred Seal almost always equipped and a different statline^note Steam units have more HP, Atk, Spd and Def, but less Res.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Tap Battles trade the turn-based tactics for a Rhythm Game mode where you knock away enemies to the music.
• The Unfought:
  • Felicia and Gunter are both never encountered in the story, but are in the rotation for normal Hero Battles and can be fought in the Training Tower.
  • Nifl, Múspell, Ymir, Draug, Sheena, Igrene, Perceval, Echidna, Chad, both Regular Corrins, Regular Jakob, Male Byleth, Regular Ylgr, Ascended Fjorm, Ascended Laegjarn, and Ascended Eir are never encountered as enemies in the game's Story Mode or regular Hero Battles, but can still be fought as randomized enemies in other modes.
  • Arvis, Valter, Regular Berkut, Gharnef, Julius, Saias, Regular Lyon, Walhart, Garon, and Fallen Takumi are absent from the story, but are all in the weekly rotation for Grand Hero Battles.
  • Fallen Delthea, Fernand, the Brigand Boss, Jugdral Hilda, Travant, Díthorba, Veld, Orson, Ashnard, Haar, Jorge, Fallen Muarim, Yen'fay, Kronya, Nemesis, Solon, and Aelfric are absent from the story and are only fought in Grand Hero Battles that have not entered the weekly rotation yet.
  • Regular Fjorm, Legendary Ike, Brunnya, Thórr, Rearmed Líf, Ganglöt, Eitr, Rearmed Plumeria, Attuned Peony, Attuned Triandra, and Ginnungagap are never fought in the story, and aside from Heroic Ordeals, special maps, and PvP modes, they have only been fought as bosses in certain Tempest Trials.
  • All Legendary Heroes (except Eitri and Legendary Veronica) are absent from the story, but (with the exceptions of Fjorm, Gunnthrá, Ike, and Ephraim) can be fought in Legendary Hero Battles that recur every few months. Of these, the only Legendary Hero that can't be fought at all outside of PVP content and Heroic Ordeals is Ephraim, though his other variants are still fought in Story Mode. Likewise, most Mythic Heroes, the majority of which are non-Heroes original, are absent from the story and can be fought in a Mythic Hero Battle under similar circumstances (with the exceptions of Eir, Peony, Mirabilis, Reginn, Nótt, Ash, Seiðr, Heiðr, and Ratatosker).
  • Downplayed with all seasonal heroes, brave heroes, heroes obtained through Tempest Trials (Except Regular Sigrun, Masked Marth, and Young Azura), the rest of the GHB heroes, dancers (except Regular Larum, and both Regular and Young Azura), and those from either the Farfetched Heroes or Brave Redux banners, as well as Regular Surtr, Duo Ephraim & Lyon, Fallen Edelgard, and Fallen Dimitri. While none of these heroes appear as randomly-generated enemies, they can still be fought through other means.
  • Regular Anna, Regular Alfonse, Regular Sharena, Regular Larum, Regular Sigrun, Masked Marth, Regular Azura, Young Azura, Regular Gunnthrá, Legendary Ephraim, Regular Peony, Regular Mirabilis, Regular Ash, and Seiðr are never fought as standard enemies; they can only be battled in PVP modes, Heroic Ordeals, or limited-time special maps.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: A glitch in version 4.1.0 prevented Mordecai's personal weapon from debuffing enemies when movement assists were used on him, rendering Grandmaster 44 impossible to complete. This was fixed in 4.1.1.
• Unique Enemy: The enemy has no access to generic ranged armors, dagger fliers and cavalry, armored, cavalry or colorless manaketes, infantry, armored, cavalry, or colorless beast units, or colorless mages, so any such Heroes they field against you are unique among their ranks.
• Units Not to Scale: Downplayed as the units are individual people, aside from a few that have two or three people in a group, but on the battlefield, all the units shrink down to fit inside the grid. This is especially noticeable with Surtr, who has the tallest sprite when viewed in the castle, and transformed Fallen Edelgard and Fomortiis, who are over double in height compared to their untransformed sprites in battle; on the map, they shrink down to match the Infantry and Armored units. Fáfnir's Dragon form in Book V also shrinks his body down to near the size of other Armored units on the map, while his mechanical dragon form in battle only shows 1/3 of his entire body and is easily double the height of other untransformed units in battle.
• Unlockable Difficulty Levels:
  • At launch, each Story Mode chapter could initially only be played on Normal, but completing the chapter would unlock the Hard and Lunatic versions of their maps. Update 3.0.0 eventually removed this restriction.
  • The special maps that have Abyssal difficulty requires beating Infernal to unlock.
  • Grand Conquests have difficulties unlock when you reach a certain tier, with 8th being the highest tier needed to unlock them all.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment:
  • The Mysterious Man's Valaskjálf, Bruno's Veiled Valaskjálf, Regular Veronica's Élivágar, Hel's Hel Scythe^note Playable Hel has Hel's Reaper, regular Gustav's Glitnir^note Fallen Gustav has Headsman Glitnir, Ótr's Lofnheiðr^note Playable Ótr has Auto-Lofnheiðr, Fáfnir's Hreiðmarr, Kvasir's eponymous weapon^note Playable Kvasir has Incipit Kvasir and Regular Gullveig's eponymous weapon^note Playable Regular Gullveig has Quietus Gullveig are unobtainable by players.
  • Downplayed by Thoron+ and Atlas+, which cannot be obtained under normal circumstances. One can get it for Forma in Hall of Forms, though only if a unit has that weapon at the end of that event and that unit is added to one's barracks with a Forma Soul during the recruitment period. The tome is also locked to that specific unit due to the restrictions of Forma Heroes added to one's barracks.
  • Players do not have access to the Sacred Seals Embla's Ward, Múspellflame, Niðavellir Axiom, or Gold Perfection; such Seals would completely trivialize nearly all of the game's content otherwise, especially the maps and quests in which no units are allowed to fall in battle. Players also do not have access to the Gullinbursti Sacred Seals wielded by the Steam units.
  • All of the Umbra Burst weapons ^note which allow their users to counterattack regardless of range and will always deal at least 1 damage (with the Staff version having in-built Wrathful Staff), Umbra Specials ^note Umbra Blast, Umbra Calamity, and Umbra Eruption, and the Røkkr Sacred Seal^note which negates out-of-combat damage except from AoE Specials, prevents its user's HP from being reduced to 0 except by allied armies, and prevents the user from healing itself are only available to the Røkkr in Røkkr Sieges.
  • All of the Sacred Seals on the enemies in the Resonant Battles mode^note Guardian, Blade, Charm, Elixir, Boots, Veil, and Horn Seals are available only to those enemies.^note The thieves possess all such Seals except for the Guardian Seal, while the named enemies only possess the Guardian Seal. The thieves' Seals cause the thieves, upon defeat, to drop the Seals' respective items, while the Guardian Seal acts as Obstruct to foes equipped with ranged weapons. All of these Seals heal 10 damage but also inflict Special cooldown count +1 on units who defeat those equipped with these Seals.
• Unusual Chapter Numbers: Book VII, which focuses on time travel, starts with Chapter 13, with Chapter 5 following it. After normally advancing to Chapter 8, the story jumps to Chapter 2.
• Useless Useful Spell:
  • The Absorb staff has a Life Drain effect, healing the user for 50% of the damage (s)he deals. The problem is that it has a very low Might stat of 4 and staff users are Support Party Members with reduced damage output on top of that, so the healing barely makes a difference. Absorb+ is much more viable, which has 7 Might, also heals 7 HP to allies within 2 spaces of the user after battle, and can be upgraded with the Wrathful Staff refine so the user's damage output is no longer reduced.
  • The Gravity staff reduces the movement range of the enemy unit hit by it to one space. While this is a powerful effect since most units move 2-3 spaces, this leaves the squishy healer exposed to the enemy struck by [Gravity], unless the healer is behind an obstacle the target can normally go around or has an ally that can move him/her out of the way with Reposition/Shove/Smite/Swap/Draw Back or get in between them with Pivot. Furthermore, it doesn't do much damage as the staff's Might is low. Gravity+, on the other hand, is far more effective. In addition to having more respectable attack power, it also inflicts [Gravity] on all enemies adjacent to the target, meaning it can potentially inflict the entire enemy team with [Gravity].
  • Harsh Command allows a unit to reverse a friendly unit's debuffs into buffs. Only Daggers, Staff and certain units focus on debuffs, outside of Seal/Threaten/Chill/Ploy/Sabotage skills. Harsh Command takes up the slot for more valuable Assist skills like Draw Back, Dance, or any Rally. Should the user use it, it will also eat up his/her turn, which (s)he could've spent attacking or healing, and the user must be adjacent to an ally to use it. Harsh Command+, however, allows the user to also remove negative status effects on top of inverting stat debuffs into buffs, so removing status effects on an ally is no longer limited to Staff allies with Restore(+).
  • Obstruct prevents enemies from moving through spaces adjacent to the user so long as the user is above or at a certain HP threshold. While it can prevent Wings of Mercy teleportation, the skill is useless the vast majority of the time since it accomplishes barely anything more than a unit sitting in a chokepoint can. Furthermore, the small maps and low collective movement of units prevents the skill from actually doing much to limit enemy movement, and is heavily outclassed by the Bulwark skills, which, although only on Infantry Melee units, does the same thing Obstruct does without the HP threshold for melee units, extends the range to 2 spaces for ranged units, and adds debuffs, after combat healing, and, in the tier 4 versions, damage reduction.
  • Pass allows the user to move through enemy units as long as the user is above or at 75%/50%/25% HP. Like with Obstruct, the small maps and limited movement prevent this skill of being much use to any unit at all, and moving through the enemy team generally means leaving that one unit at the mercy of the rest of the surrounding enemy units. A weaker version is built into Regular Takumi's Fujin Yumi, freeing up the B slot, but it's still useless on its own merits. Pass is even more useless for armor units because they are typically limited to one movement, preventing them from passing through other units and thus having no effect whatsoever. However, it can actually be useful on Aether Raids defense teams involving Legendary Sigurd, whose team-wide movement buff can allow cavalry units to unexpectedly slip past powerful tank units and take down enough squishies that the offence player would rather just surrender. Here's how it would play out in practice.
  • Brash Assault 1~3 is the full inverse of Quick Riposte, granting a followup attack regardless of Speed if the target can counter. Problem is, it is only usable at half health or less (if the skill is maxed out) and requires the enemy to counterattack, meaning the attacker is highly likely to be KO'ed before the skill can activate. However, Brash Assault got more viable when it became available as a Sacred Seal, since now units can combine its effect with Desperation, meaning Brash Assault users can attack twice before the opponent can counterattack, and Brash Assault 4 added a damage-reflection effect to make it stand out and desirable from other Tier 4 skills.
  • The mode Hall of Forms invokes this on otherwise practical skills. Since you're restricted to specific units, the skills offered after a map clear can present some questionable options. For example, Tactic skills (stat boost that require no more than 2 units per movement class) could appear as options even if the Formas are all infantry units.

V

• Variant Chess: The gamemode "Pawns of Loki" in the 4.11.0 update is a variant of the "Auto Chess" genre like from Dota Underlords, the Teamfight Tactics mode from League of Legends, and the Battlegrounds mode from Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, where players play 9 rounds of combat with units automatically combating the enemy team of units, with teams from other players being the opposition from Tier 2 up and on Intermediate to Advanced difficulty, order of their attacks depending on their Level, Spd, and placement, with each round getting increasingly harder, and can select from 5 Forma of heroes per round from the player's selected Brigade (which can be mulligan to get 5 new Forma, but costs 2 War Bonds after the first), which have varying costs depending on their level, and merging 3 of the same hero increases their level, skill and weapon levels, and stats.
• The 'Verse: As opposed to Awakening establishing every Fire Emblem as being in the same world, this establishes a multiverse. These may not be mutually exclusive, however, as the multiverse is used to explain how you're able to have multiple versions of the same person in your barracks.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Players can set their defense teams in Arena and Aether Raids to be weak by equipping them with first tier weapons, such as Iron Swords and Thunder, or unequipping their weapons altogether, to let other players facing against them have free wins. In Aether Raids, players can also remove all the obstacles, traps, and Defense Structures on the map, move the Defense Fortress out of the way, and have the Aether Amphorae and Aether Fountain be close to the attacking team to give other players a bone as well while also caring less about losing lift, considering the highly competitive nature of that mode.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • Because the game uses many characters from their respective games, you could have certain characters attack another significant character like Lilina killing Hector (daughter and father) or Lucina killing Chrom (not only daughter and father but she came to the past to prevent his death).
  • You can make Eliwood kill Ninian again, except unlike in The Blazing Blade it won't be an accident.
  • You can send Fjorm acquired from the story home. The concept of sending her home, which is razed and occupied with her enemies, alone, is cruel enough on it's own. Not that sending her home affects the story of Book II in any meaningful way.
  • You can deploy the Black Knight in the final part of the Greil's Devoted paralogues, just to watch him kill Greil all over again.
• Video Game Delegation Penalty: In Aether Raids, you can use the Auto-Dispatch feature up to 3 times each season to send one of your attack teams to automatically fight another player's defense team with reduced structure and unit numbers, but there is a 20 hour delay before you get the results and can use the Auto-Dispatch feature again (meaning that you cannot do this on the last day each season), you get 75% of the Lift you would have originally gained if it succeeds, and the Aether you spend sending those units cannot be refunded with the Escape Ladder if the attack fails.
• Viewers Are Goldfish: During the Feh Channel, Feh constantly clarifies the types of units and weapons, even if it's plainly obvious what they're holding. For example, during the Choose Your Legends presentation, she repeatedly points out the colors of the respective heroes, even when their faces are shown on the summoning screen (and they were presented a few minutes ago).
• Villain Episode:
  • Tempest Trials+: Loki's Flames is one from the perspective of Múspell, focusing on Loki instead of Masked Marth.
  • The Regal Rabbits paralogue is one that involves the Embla royals and Loki, with the Askr royals not even making a single appearance.
• Villains Out Shopping: Some paralogue events have antagonists such as Ursula and Narcian take part in the relaxation and festivities.
• Violation of Common Sense:
  • In normal cases, merging a unit is a no-brainer as it increases their stats. However, certain units (Ninja Duo Lyn & Florina and Regular Eir in particular), want to keep their HP stat low to activate Wings of Mercy, which requires the user to be lower than half their total HP. Using a combination of Fury 4 and Sing/Dance users, they'll easily reach this threshold after one or two combats and allow their allies to teleport next to them. In other words, you don't want to merge these Heroes as the merges will increase their HP and make the Wings of Mercy threshold harder to reach.
  • Most of the time unequipping a weapon from a unit means that unit cannot counterattack enemies at all and will actually hurt the score of those units in some competitive modes. However, it is a viable strategy for refresher units to do so on defense teams, especially on Aether Raids. If the refresher is under the computer's control and can deal 5 or more damage to a foe within range, they will prioritize attacking over refreshing an ally, even if said ally can do much more damage than the refresher. It is also a viable strategy in Summoner Duels, since the refresher unit shouldn't see combat, as well as the dent in scoring actually working out in the player's favor as it allows them to fight against teams with lower scoring, and therefore likely match up against a weaker team where the other four heroes can outmatch the opponent's five.
• Voice for the Voiceless: Mark from The Blazing Blade is not voiced with their release in Heroes, but their Young variant is accompanied by Young Lyn as a Duo unit, and so all their voicelines are from Lyn herself.

W

• Wake-Up Call Boss: The first few bosses from the "Labyrinth of Mists" Tap Battle are easy enough to defeat if you know what you're doing. Then Sophia comes... with her flunkies. Suddenly you have to pay attention to the whole screen while beating her attacks back.
• Walking Swimsuit Scene: Summer units wear their swimsuits wherever they go, but they're no less capable in battle for it.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: When Katarina from the Dark Desert Ritual banner reaches level 40, her conversation with the Summoner starts with the latter pointing out that part of her outfit has come undone, and if it hadn't been pointed out it could've fallen away completely.
• Warrior Prince: Of the Original Generation characters, Alfonse is both the prince of the kingdom of Askr, and a swordsman of the Order of Heroes. Many summoned heroes are princes and fight as well, including Marth, Ephraim, Chrom and male Corrin. Sharena, Eirika, Caeda and female Corrin are gender-flipped examples.
• Weapon of X-Slaying:
  • Manaketes (namely and specifically ones that use Breath weapons) and Julius with the Loptous tome equipped take extra damage from the Falchion (wielded by Marth, Alm, Chrom and Lucina), Regular Julia and Deirdre's Book of Naga and Divine Naga, Regular Young and Regular Adult Tiki's Breath of Fog, Summer Young Tiki's Summer's Breath, Legendary Young Tiki's Divine Mist, Fallen Young Tiki's Razing Breath, Naga's Divine Breath, Legendary Julia's Virtuous Naga, Nagi's Ethereal Breath, any unit with the "effective against dragons" status effect granted by Naga's Divine Fang, Roy's refined Binding Blade, Legendary Roy's Dragonbind, Brave Alm's Dracofalchion, Brave Lucina's refined Geirskögul, the Cloud Maiougi dagger, the Splashy Bucket dagger, the Dragonslasher dagger, Regular Thrasir's Ífingr, Itsuki's Mirage Falchion, Halloween Harmonized Young Tiki & Ninian's Frostfire Breath, and Brave Marth's Genesis Falchion.
  • The -raven tomes, in addition to Regular Male Robin's Tactical Bolt, Regular Female Robin's Tactical Gale, Regular Lyon's Naglfar, Regular Sophia's Eternal Tome, Nagi's Ethereal Breath, Fallen Lyon's Blood Tome, and Regular Cecilia's Tome of Order are downplayed examples. They have triangle advantage over Colorless units, but do not deal effective damage against them. Bridal Sophia's Dragon Bouquet has the same effect, except it activates if the user is at 25% HP or above at the start of combat. Young Lyon's Tome of Grado has a weaker effect, where the user will have triangle advantage over Staff, Colorless Tomes, Bows and Daggers if the foe either initiates combat or is a full HP at the start of combat.
  • The -wolf tomes, Ridersbane, Zanbato, Poleaxe, Dusk Uchiwa, Caltrop Dagger, Panne's Taguel Fang, Yarne's Bunny Fang, Raigh's Hermit's Tome, Brave Lysithea's Dark Spikes T, Rhajat's Obsessive Curse, and Gerome's Masking Axe do effective damage against Cavalry.
  • The Armorslayer, Hammer, Heavy Spear, Sky Maiougi, Pegasus Carrot, Armorpin Dagger, Regular Nephenee's Dauntless Lance, Regular Bartre's Axe of Virility, Regular Florina's Lance, Regular Est's Whitewing Spear, Regular Idunn's Demonic Breath, Regular Selena's eponymous Blade, Regular Frederick's eponymous Axe, Halloween Duo Hector & Lilina's Conjurer Curios, Spring Fir's Bun-Bun Baton, Spring Duo Idunn & Fae's Zephyr Breath, Thórr's War-God Mjölnir, and Ascended Idunn's Dew Dragonstone deal bonus damage to Armor units, as do the upgraded versions of the first three.
  • Regular Caeda's Wing Sword, Regular Micaiah's Thani, Clair's Rhomphaia, Festival Micaiah's Dawn Suzu, Brave Micaiah's Light of Dawn, Phina and Young Marth's Rapier, Duo Ephraim & Lyon's Reginleif, Tsubasa's Mirage Feather, Bridal Duo Micaiah & Sothe's Joyful Vows, Brave Eirika's Binding Reginleif, Legendary Micaiah's New Dawn, Legendary Caeda's Wing-Lifted Spear, and Summer Micaiah's Moonlight Drop all deal bonus damage against both Armor and Cavalry units.
  • Kinshi Hinoka's Warrior Princess, Summer Lyn's Deep-Blue Bow, Legendary Chrom's Randgríðr, Pirate Duo Hinoka & Camilla's Mermaid Bow, Valentine Duo Chrom & Male Robin's Destiny's Bow and Legendary Hinoka's Fujin-Raijin Bow are effective against Armor and Flying units.
  • Young Rebecca's Gusty War Bow deal effective damage against Flying and Beast units.
  • Poison Dagger(+) is effective against Infantry.
  • The Kitty Paddle(+), Regular Guinivere's Auerola and Legendary Guinivere's Radiant Aureola are effective against Tomes.
  • The Assassin's Bow imparts a Daggerbreaker effect, allowing its wielder to always double attack Colorless Dagger wielders and disallow them from making follow-up attacks.
  • As in the main series, bows are effective against Fliers. Regular Merric's Excalibur, regardless of whether it's refined, Young Merric's Winds of Change, Regular Cecilia's Tome of Order, and Asbel's Grafcalibur are also effective against Fliers.
  • Picnic Flora's Sæhrímnir, Picnic Felicia's Eldhrímnir, Petra's Hunting Blade, and Petrine's Flame Lance deal effective damage against Beast units.
  • Brave Eliwood's Ninis's Lance, Hapi's Demonic Tome and Harmonized Groom Roy & Eliwood's Blazing Polearms has dual effectiveness against Beast and Dragon units.
  • Young Caeda's Feather Sword and Summer Harmonized Caeda & Plumeria's Dolphin-Dive Axe are effective against Armor, Sword, Lance, Axe, and Colorless Bow units.
  • Ruptured Sky allows the user to boost their damage equal 20% of the foe's Atk and Legendary Male Byleth's Sublime Heaven allows the user to boost the user's damage equal to 25% of the user's Atk, but Ruptured Sky goes to 40% instead of 20% and Sublime Heaven goes to 50% instead of 25% if the foe is a Dragon or Beast unit instead.
  • Legendary and Summer Female Shez's Swift Slice allows the user to deal effective damage to all weapon types if the user initiates combat and has a certain amount of Spd over the foe during combat depending on the foe's weapon and movement type combination^note 20 or more Spd against Infantry non-Dragon or Beast foes, or 5 or more Spd against Cavalry, Armoed, Flying, and Dragon or Beast Infantry foes.
• Weapon Tombstone: After the explosion of the Røkkr on the result screen, its weapon is lain standing on top of a pile of dark fiery rubble.
• We Are as Mayflies: Discussed by the winter variants of Cecilia, Eirika, and Ephraim during the Tempest Trials "Life Is But Fleeting". They comment on how they will not have enough time to do everything they wanted, while manaketes like Fae will live for centuries. The Renais twins even worry that Fae will miss them once they're gone.
• Wedding Episode: The annually occurring bridal event is not a wedding, but a festival that is meant to bring good luck for wannabe brides or to celebrate those already married, complete with the catching of a bouquet.
• Wham Episode:
  • Book I Chapter 10 begins with Veronica directly invading Askr with Heroes from the World of Radiance, and the Askr trio are actually unnerved by the idea of facing Ike and his group. This time, Veronica somehow obtained a seal that makes Heroes invincible and until it wears off, the Summoner's units can't damage Ike at all. In the last chapter, the Summoner and the Askr trio follow the Heroes of Radiance into their world, and just as they claim victory the gateway between the worlds begins to close, and the player ends up temporarily trapped and very nearly killed by Veronica, only managing to return to Askr due to a timely rescue by Zacharias. Not only is this a shift in tone for the main story, but it's also a Wham Episode from a gameplay standpoint; this chapter had new objectives, such as surviving the battle for 6 turns and having a limited amount of time to defeat all enemies.
  • Book I Chapter 11 has a big story revelation at the chapter's end: Bruno states that he killed Zacharias and next on his list is Anna, Alfonse, Sharena, and you.
  • Book I Chapter 12 one-ups it again by revealing that Bruno possibly is Zacharias, and he's either suffering from Demonic Possession or is otherwise Not Himself.
  • Paralogue 10 also drops a huge one on us in the meanwhile: while all that's going on, another team of your army tries to free some Magvellians who have fallen under Veronica's sway. Veronica, however, gets what she was looking for: the tome of Naglfar that Lyon once wielded. She then gives this to Loki, who says it's a key to freeing her "king", revealed later to be Surtr.
  • Book II Chapter 7 gets very dark near the end where Surtr actually burns Gunnthrá to death in front of the heroes, making Gunnthrá the first character in the game to actually die in the story.
  • Book II Chapter 8: Surtr officially turns on Veronica, overpowers Xander and leaves him for dead, and forcibly takes control of Veronica's Hero Contracts before ordering her sent to Múspell to become a Human Sacrifice. In addition, it is heavily, heavily implied that Fjorm is now slowly dying as a result of the Rite of Frost needed to defeat Surtr. It was later proven true at end of Book II, where Hríd said that just like the Rite of Flames, the Rite of Frost also requires a sacrifice.
  • Book III Chapter 4: Alfonse has been cursed by Hel with 9 days left to live. Eir explains to the party that there is no escaping the death curse, and Gustav appears to be accepting of Alfonse's death. The Askrans are determined to spend Alfonse's last days trying to kill Hel and break the curse, to no avail. After 9 days pass, Hel comes to kill Alfonse, but Gustav, the king of Askr, pulls a Heroic Sacrifice at the last second and is murdered by Hel, branding Alfonse as the new king.
  • Book III Chapter 8: The Askr trio learns that the Sharena of the alternate Askr they've arrived in is dead, and that the cost to defeat Hel would kill nearly all life. Alfonse realizes that "Líf" is, in fact, the alternate Alfonse.
  • Book IV Chapter 11: Sharena was originally supposed to be an álfr like Peony and Triandra, but abandoned the World of Dreams, Sharena could possibly be a Changeling and might not actually be Alfonse's sister after getting her memories of the World of Dreams back, and Alfonse figures out that they did not really wake up and are in another layer of dreams after being chased by Freyja in the "real world".
  • Book IV Chapter 12 drops one of the biggest bombs in the entire story: The Alfonse that was there through the entirety of Book IV is actually the summoner, dreaming as they were Alfonse. The real Alfonse died after his final encounter with Hel. Subverted in the next chapter when it turns out Freyja was lying her ass off.
  • In Book VI Chapter 3, Veronica starts losing control of herself to Embla's curse, which compels her to kill the people of Askr. After the Order of Heroes escapes her, she comes to her senses to learn that she has been accused of murder, treason, and stealing a forbidden tome... and that Letizia, someone she saw as an older sister, is responsible for framing her.
  • Book VII, Chapter 9: Heiðr's curse has worsened, turning her into a giant orochi beast, forcing Seiðr to Mercy Kill her before things get out of hand. Unfortunately, doing this was exactly was King Njörðr needed to transfer the curse to Seiðr, as part of his plot to turn her into the Golden Seer, Gullveig.
• Wham Line:
  • The final line of Book IV Chapter 12. The next chapter reveals she's lying through her teeth.
    Freyja: I don't suppose you CAN remember what happened... If you could recall, the dream would likely collapse. Be that as it may, the truth is that this mortal you care so much for, Prince Alfonse, defeated death... And with that, He Who Created Everything, Alfaðör, has decided... Prince Alfonse could no longer be allowed to exist. [...] Prince Alfonse is gone. You will never see him again!
  • The final line of the Book IV Ending Movie.
    "Líf": On your guard, Alfonse... Niðavellir is at hand.
  • At the end of Book VI, Chapter 3, Veronica learns that she has been accused of murder, treason and stealing a forbidden tome. She is then told that someone is trying to frame her.
    Veronica: Wh-Who would do something like that to me?
    (the music stops)
    Letizia: I would.
  • In Book VI Chapter 6, after Letizia is defeated, the villain receives the following news about Veronica's fate.
    Embla Soldier: I have a report! The princess has been removed from her cell, and...and-The guards released the princess! They let her go!
  • In Book VII, Chapter 2 (which is sixth due to Anachronic Order), the heroes find Kvasir, a mysterious girl who found the Summoner, but Kvasir introduces herself as an enemy.
    Kvasir: Do you not recognize me? Then let me explain in plain terms. I will not always take this childish form; I will grow... and when I've grown, I will take another name. I will be known as Gullveig, the Golden Seer.
  • At the end of Book VII, Chapter 4, Seiðr, after cornering Kvasir, realizes that if Kvasir is Gullveig in the past, and Gullveig exists in the future, there is only one person Gullveig can be in the present.
    Seiðr: When performing the Rite of Light, I was unable to sense her at all. No matter how I searched...I could not find her. Which means... ...Which means...I am her. Kvasir is...me. And I...become Gullveig.
  • At the end of Book VII, Chapter 9, King Njörðr has the following revelation. It's even highlighted by the sinister "Coming Demise" track from Fates playing.
    Njörðr: You have played your part well, Seiðr.
    Seiðr: My part? What do you mean, King Njörðr?
    Njörðr: The golden serpents that grew in Heiðr now grow in you. All is as I have planned.
  • At the end of Book VII, Chapter 10, Gullveig arrives and turns on King Njörðr
    Gullveig: Gullveig: To destroy the world, kill the mortals, and... I am here to end you as well.
  • In the Forging Bonds event for Chrom: Fell Exalt, Chrom and his companions seemingly defeat Validar, but Chrom sees that his friends are all dead, except for Robin, much to Chrom's horror.
    Robin: What are you going on about, Chrom? There's no need to act so surprised. (Robin's sprite changes to that of a Grima-possessed Robin) After all... You're the one who killed them.
• Wind Is Green: The wind-based tomes are Green Tomes, and their magic is depicted with green effects. The same can be said for the wind insignia for Legendary Wind Heroes and the Wind Blessings, as well as Skills that usually named with wind or something wind-related.
• Wolverine Publicity:
  • Characters from Fire Emblem: Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates are put front and center in the intro movie (largely because they already had cutscene models and it was cheaper). They and characters from other high-selling games, such as Mystery of the Emblem, Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, and Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, are also prominent in the trailers, the early story chapters, and the early gacha focus banners.
  • Ike and Eirika, who are both featured in the main promotional image, were not in the game upon release. Eirika was added two weeks after launch, and Ike was added 2 months after launch along with fellow Tellius characters Mist, Soren, and Titania.
• World's Strongest Man: According to the Askrans, Ike is said to be the strongest hero of all worlds. Anna and Alfonse have an Oh, Crap! reaction at the idea of fighting him, and he's formidable in the story levels since you can't even damage him until the last stage of his world because of Veronica's wards.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In Paralogue 79, Selena attempts to fall over on purpose to dupe Bruno and the Black Knight into delivering her Winter Festival gifts on her and Cordelia's behalf. The tactic fails as the two men mistake it for an ambush and scold her after the battle.
• Wound That Will Not Heal:
  • Downplayed with skills such as Regular Múspell's Flamelick Breath, the Fatal Smoke skill, and Serpentine Staff/Incurable+, which inflict the [Deep Wounds] status effect on a target and other foes within two spaces of the target, preventing them from being able to recover HP through their next actions. There are skills and weapons that reduces the effectiveness of this, however, where for example Brave Claude's refined Wind Parthia reducing their effects by 60% and Forsyth's Sol Lance and Special Fighter 4 reducing their effects by 50%.
  • Story wise, Múspell's flames are intense enough that those burned by it are in immense agony, and its heavily implied that the damage never heals or stops. When Múspell burned Hvergel many years ago, Nifl was unable to heal Hvergel and had to Mercy Kill her to end her suffering.

Y

• You Mean "Xmas":
  • The Spring Festival is an Easter counterpart, featuring painted eggs and characters dressed up like bunnies.
  • At the end of October, the characters go to an event involving pumpkins, dressing up as monsters, and playing tricks if not given candy. It's not Halloween, but "the harvest festival."
  • There's also the winter festival, an Askran holiday about their death gods that just happens to involve gift giving, decorated trees, and all the trappings of Christmas. This is even lampshaded when Sharena starts to tell the Summoner (who is from our world) about the celebration, only to get cut off because the Summoner already gets the gist just from hearing her mention presents.
  • The Day of Devotion is a festival dedicated to giving gifts to those you love, usually candy and flowers, just like Valentine's Day.

Z

• Zerg Rush:
  • Some story and paralogue maps have reinforcements spawn after a certain number of turns, all of which rush to attack your units.
  • Some Grand Hero Battles and other special maps employ a near constant amount of reinforcements that immediately rush towards you. Others have them appear when a certain amount of turns pass, or when a certain enemy is eliminated. Managing these reinforcements without losing any units is part of the challenge of the maps, especially on higher difficulties.
  • The special Fire Emblem Warriors maps pit the player against a large amount of weak enemies. These enemies lack skills, and instead try to wear the player down through their sheer numbers.
  • The Relay Defense maps have constantly spawning enemies aiming to take down your camps and fortress. However, they also follow Numerical Hard levels of stats on the higher difficulties, so be prepared to be overwhelmed by enemy units much stronger than yours.
  • The Shield Phase of Mjölnir's Strike mode has constantly spawning enemies aiming to destroy your Gateways at Midgard's Shield within 7 turns. Unlike Relay Defense, players have access to activatable structures with varying effects to give them the upper hand, and, with update 5.2.0, access to the Summoner (who can use seven different versions of the Breidablik^note as a sword, axe, lance, or red/blue/green/colorless tome as well as all equippable skills that are on the player's units) and an extra hero slot if there is a Mythic Hero with the Special Slot blessing and is in the matching season.

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