History GameBreaker / FireEmblem

** In certain games, there exist secret shops near the end of the game that have buyable stat-boosting items; in combination with the abusable arenas, the player can purchase a virtually unlimited quantity. The same applies for ''The Sacred Stones'' after the main game has ended. Some even let you buy Boots, the item which increases Movement; in such games, it's not unheard of for players to sell ''every item they own'', buy a few dozen boots, and then enjoy their units zipping across the battlefield like rockets.

* The Wrath/Resolve combo, generally considered the last word with regard to skills. Resolve significantly increases a unit's Strength, Skill, and Speed while they're below half health, while Wrath increases critical rate--resulting in a unit that dodges everything, kills most enemies in one shot, and has a colossal crit rate on whatever can survive one shot. It's actually much more common to see than any of the Mastery skills, even the PurposefullyOverpowered Aether.

** Oifey, though not as absurdly broken as some of the later characters sharing his sub-archetype, still set a pretty big standard when he arrived in the second generation's first chapter. Oifey shares many traits with his old master, including sword access, excellent weapon ranks, Pursuit and 9 Movement at base, and extremely high base stats with no real weak points--he even boasts rather good Magic and Resistance, and absurdly high Defense. His growths, though actually somewhat low by second-generation standards, are also decent enough to keep him going, meaning that he only grows stronger as the campaign runs on. The ridiculous potential of the second-generation kids will cause them to outclass Oifey eventually, but he will be one-rounding enemies to the end of the game, and though he doesn't handle bosses quite as well, by the time they can threaten him, you have other options to deal with them.

->''"So, if you've been around any discussion involving ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]'', you've probably heard of Haar. In [[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance the last game]], he was simply an average late-game prepromote; [[TookALevelInBadass in this game, he may as well be a god]]. Haar is an almost perfect combination of everything that can make a ''Fire Emblem'' character good. His bases are amazing, his growths are amazing, his availability is amazing [...] he uses the [[AnAxeToGrind best weapon type]] in the game, his class is amazing, his movement is amazing as a consequence of that, he's only weak to a [[ShockAndAwe weapon type]] that [[{{Nerf}} sucks]], he gets [[OldSaveBonus transfer bonuses]]... really, the only thing that could make him more perfect is if he had Earth affinity."''

** Rutger can be recruited very early and combines solid bases (which go up significantly on Hard Mode) and growths with a Killing Edge that he can wield at base. He will usually be one of the few units with 100% hit rates, which is especially important in a game where many enemies have high Avoid. Promote him to [[CriticalHitClass Swordmaster]] and his already high crit rate goes up by ''30%.'' When properly specced and leveled, he will crit on almost every attack, and with a [[FanNickname full Critger setup]] (A support with Clarine, B support with someone else, given the Wo Dao), he can reach [[UpToEleven more than 100% crit]]. In a game where mounted units rule the roost, Rutger stands out for being able to one-round even bosses sitting on thrones, and some consider him arguably the best on-foot combat unit in the entire franchise.

** Warp returns from ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'', but given that magic is no longer limited by charges but is CastFromHitPoints, this means that a Warp/Physic user can cast the spell as many times as they have the HP needed for it. Getting Warp is also much easier given that the first cleric you get learns it at level 8, which may be as early as the first act of the game.

* Ballisticians were pretty useless in the original NES game (pretty much a Bow Armor but worse). This meant the DS remake of ''Shadow Dragon'' saw little problem with reworking them to be more fitting with the later conception of ballistae--upping their range from the bow-sized 2 to an artillery-sized 3-10. It worked, and then some. Due to the mechanics of the ballista, they can reach out and snipe enemies from frightfully long distances. Some ballista types also include effective weapon varieties (which, as mentioned, is key in ''Shadow Dragon'', and one of them happens to counter ''other ballistas'') and come in both physical and magic varieties, so even on very high difficulties, they can manage some hefty damage--and since the users have little reason to move, they can simply park next to each other and pass their weapons back and forth before shooting, changing things up for the optimal strategy at will. They can be used to focus fire and delete an enemy off the map, soften up targets for your other units, or simply nuke them one by one with effective damage, all while never risking a counter. It's very common in high-level play to see Jake, Beck, and Xane sitting on the backlines, playing hot-potato with their forged weapons and clearing the way for their melee fellows. Sadly, this was the only time the class was ever done in this fashion; ''New Mystery'' cut the class entirely and reclassed Jake and Beck.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Three Houses'']]
* As per later-series tradition, all of the main characters are excellent:
** [[AnAxeToGrind Edelgard]] has no low growths, with her lowest being 30% Lck. She's got unusually decent Res growth with high Spd and Dex to boot, making her a bonafide LightningBruiser and she is one of two characters (the second is Lysithea mentioned below) who can learn the dark magic spell [[ArmorPiercingAttack Luna]] so her magic attacks have very high damage potential if you go down that route. Her axe Aymr allows her to use the unique combat art Raging Storm, which is essentially Galeforce ''[[UpToEleven on command]]''. As long as it hits, Edelgard will be able to act again. With its low durability cost, Edelgard can perform such nonsensical feats such as soloing entire maps by herself, up to and including [[spoiler:[[https://i.redd.it/drbp2mv4w4f31.png her route's final boss in one turn]]]]. You probably don't want to bother with her unique class, though, which is weirdly disappointing (Emperor isn't all bad as Flickering Flower is incredibly useful in Maddening difficulty as it is a melee Encloser combat art but it is also exclusive to Emperor and your movement range is very limited because it is a [[TierInducedScrappy Heavy Armor class]]). Now a ''Wyvern Lord'' Edelgard on the other hand... see the Fliers entry below.)
** [[BladeOnAStick Dimitri]] has exceptional growths, with 40% Def, 50% Spd and Dex, 55% HP, and a whopping ''60%'' Str. His Mag and Res are low, but he doesn't need magic, and he can rely on his HP and Spd to just tank oncoming damage. His lance, Areadbhar, has the unique combat art Atrocity, which deals effective damage (3x damage) to all foes. He also packs the unique combination of Battalion Vantage and Battalion Wrath, which lets him attack first and with greatly increased Crit on the enemy phase if you set him up with a low health Battalion. Give him the Retribution Gambit for long-range counterattacks, and watch as Dimitri ''kills every last one of 'em''.
** [[DragonRider Claude]] combines ranged archery backed by solid strength with unmatched mobility. Claude is the master of cheesy hit-and-run tactics with his unique, flying classes Wyvern Master and Barbarossa which pack Bowfaire, Canto, and high Movement. Fallen Star, unique to his bow, gives him a turn of perfect evasion on his next combat, if it hits, making it safe for him to still be in enemy range. He also comes with a boon in swords and a hidden talent in axes for easy access to the dreaded [[TurnsRed Wrath]] / [[ActionInitiative Vantage]] combo, making it possible to turn him into an enemy phase CriticalHitClass.
** [[MasterSwordsman Byleth]] has amazing stat growths that allow them to excel in whatever role you want to put them in. Their exclusive class, Enlightened One, is Mortal Savant [[TierInducedScrappy but good]], granting Byleth a versatile set of spells and plenty of physical offensive options. Meanwhile, their exclusive Relic is a ranged sword with a high critical hit chance -- and because it can be repaired simply by taking a rest, it isn't relegated into TooAwesomeToUse territory.
* Other characters of note:
** Lysithea. While her GlassCannon nature is there, it's easily forgiven since she has a ridiculous magic growth and incredibly good set of spells. Dark Spikes is essentially an instant "kill cavalry" attack, making her one of the few units capable of taking on the Death Knight long before you're supposed to defeat him, which alone is great; however, her faith line makes it even better by giving her the bane of Demonic Beasts, Seraphim, as well as the ever powerful series GameBreaker Warp. Did we even mention she's the only character bar Edelgard who learns [[ArmorPiercingAttack Luna?]] Done right, she can outright OneHitKill the FinalBoss of Verdant Wind [[https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lysithea+one+shot+nemesis+ shown here]]. Her personal skill Mastermind only furthers this by allowing Lysithea to master classes at a faster rate than others, allowing some experimentation in other classes to add to her firepower. Lysithea's hypothetical weakness is that she's locked to 2-range spells. But this is not a weakness at all if you give her the Thyrsus staff which gives her an extra ''2 range'', letting her engage foes more safely. She'll even get the boost from having the Crest of Gloucester for some free defensive skills. She's probably the most sought-after Mage in the game.
** [[spoiler:After all of the trouble he put you through as the Death Knight]], Jeritza does not disappoint when he joins you at the beginning of Crimson Flower. He has a LightningBruiser statline and excellent weapon proficiencies across the board right out of the gate, most notably an A+ in lances. He has the Mastermind skill in his skill pool, allowing him to master classes and weapons at an amazing rate. The strongest thing about him, however, is his unique personal class, [[spoiler:the Death Knight]]. It's a mounted unit with the ability to use magic, and its mastery skill is ''Counterattack'', which allows him to counter no matter how far away his enemy is attacking from. Jeritza is perfectly capable of smashing his way through anyone dumb enough to try to fight him, including [[SquishyWizard spellcasters]] using Bolting who would otherwise be safe from retaliation.
** Seteth has [[LightningBruiser great stats and growths]], but what truly earns him his spot in this category is the combination of him starting out as a Wyvern Rider, and is quite easy to make him a Wyvern Lord, learning Swift Strikes at A rank with spears ''and'' being one of the two characters (the other being Flayn) that has access to ''two'' Relics, which means that he will be recovering ''21 HP per turn''.
** If the player chooses the Black Eagles, Ferdinand, especially if the player [[spoiler: gets railroaded onto or chooses the Silver Snow route instead of Crimson Flower.]] While a JackOfAllStats (and even a bit of a GlassCannon), he compensates with his ''lack of skill weaknesses'' and personal skill, Confidence, which grants him +15 Hit and Avoid when at full health. While this ability seems bad on paper, it stacks with other evasion bonuses, which can literally make him impossible to hit. His lack of skill weaknesses combined with four starting proficencies (sword, lance, axe, riding) and budding talent (heavy armor) make him capable of reaching most non-magic classes without much difficulty, and his budding talent ability, Seal Speed, combines with his dodging ability to make him an excellent bait unit. His list of combat arts also includes ''Swift Strikes'' (see below), and his axe boon allows him easy access to Brigand and Death Blow. To top it all off, as he has a Crest of Cichol, he has access to ''two'' Sacred Weapons, granting him increased HP restoration, which keeps his personal skill active. On the Silver Snow route, he effectively gets the best of both worlds, as he gets the entire pre-timeskip minus the prologue to grow, but his main competition either leaves ([[spoiler:Edelgard]]) or never joins ([[spoiler:Jeritza]]), allowing him to shine. [[note]]He's more of a "both" TierInducedScrappy if recruited out of house, however.[[/note]]
** For Blue Lions and Golden Deer players, Catherine can be one hell of a DiscOneNuke, as she can be recruited as early as Chapter 4 with the only requirement being that Byleth is Level 15 (though Chapter 5 or 6 is more feasible unless you do a fair bit of grinding). She comes in as a Swordmaster, an Advanced-tier class when the students will likely only just be getting to their Intermediate classes, has fantastic bases which mean she can one-round almost any enemy at the point where she joins, and has a very similar growth spread to Felix with great Strength and Speed growths. She also comes with Thunderbrand, a Hero's Relic which is simply overpowered for the early game - not only does it have a Brave effect, but her Crest of Charon allows her to use its unique Combat Art Foudroyant Strike, which will destroy any armoured or dragon foes effortlessly. The only thing to really hold Catherine back is her poor skill proficiencies (her only boons are Swords and Brawling), making it hard to get her into a Master class without grinding her proficiencies up, but she'll do fine as a Swordmaster anyway. She's not nearly as broken for Black Eagle players, as [[spoiler: she can only be recruited in Chapter 12 if the player sided against Edelgard in Chapter 11]], but she still comes in with high bases and can be used immediately with no investment needed.
** Leonie, especially if the player starts with the Golden Deer. Leonie has comparable offensive growths to ''Claude'' and some of the highest base stats of the students, especially once her personal skill, Rivalry (+2 Atk and +2 Def/Res in-combat when adjacent to male ally) is taken into account. She starts with Tempest Lance for immediate damage output, and lategame gets Point-Blank Volley, which allows her to double anything combined with her high Speed for slow enemies. Even if recruited out of house, Leonie grows well in all stats save Magic and Resistance (the former she doesn't need, and the latter is hardly unique), and is fairly easy to recruit, due to at least one lance tutor (Seteth, Gilbert, Shamir, Jeritza) always being available on top of lances being a solid weapon in ''Three Houses'', in addition to her Strength requirement being easy to reach. [[note]]Leonie wants 15 Str, and Byleth starts with 13, meaning just two points are needed.[[/note]] She doesn't even have to play catch-up as hard in skills, as she can already train riding as a Cavalier and naturally trains lances and bows, meaning she only truly needs to focus on riding and authority.
* Abilities and Combat Arts:
** Death Blow is gained shockingly early off mastering Brigand, but is one of the best skills in the entire game. +6 Strength on attack makes a lot of physical bruisers scarier, and combined with a Brave weapon, a Gauntlet, or a skill that forces a double attack? That's +12 damage, a huge gain for a single ability slot. Nothing else comes close to that kind of efficiency.
** What Death Blow is to physical fighters, Fiendish Blow is to magic-users, granting them +6 Magic when attacking, and it can also be gained early on by mastering Mage. Once your Mage of choice gets this, they'll be able to one-shot a whole lot of enemies for a long time - and if it's on somebody with access to siege magic, like Dorothea with Meteor or Constance with Bolting, they can do it from halfway across the map.
** Swift Strikes is probably the best lance combat art, changing your Silver Lances / Killer Lances / Horseslayers / etc. into better Brave Lances that don't require rare ore to maintain. Sylvain, Ferdinand, and Seteth all learn this one, and all three have boons in axes that allow them to grab Death Blow for even more insane damage and Crests that allow them to safely wield Heroes' Relics.
** Related is Point-Blank Volley, learned by Leonie and Cyril. Like Swift Strikes, this turns any bow into a better Brave Bow that can be maintained by common material. Notably, Blue Lions and Golden Deer players can recruit Cyril as early as Chapter 5, and with some luck and focus, can get this combat art in time for the mission, as Cyril learns it at C+ Bows.
** The humble Curved Shot is learned exceptionally early, but is relevant throughout the entire game. Bows are balanced by eating large accuracy penalties at long range; Curved Shot nicely extends your range by an additional space while offering +30 Hit. Curved Shot lets you safely chip away at enemies outside of counterattack range and ensure the shot actually hits. This is especially helpful on Maddening, as this is the only safe way to attack enemy Mages without risking a retaliatory hit.
** It's possible to acquire the Lance of Ruin at the end of Chapter 5 if Sylvain is in your house, and with his Crest of Gautier, he can unlock its unique Combat Art, Ruined Sky. This is an amazing DiscOneNuke for that point in the game, as not only is it a very powerful attack that boosts Sylvain's Avoid in combat, but it's effective against flying and dragon enemies - which can be a huge annoyance in the early game due to their great movement and generally high Speed, but Ruined Sky can eliminate them with no trouble. The only drawback is that it consumes four uses of the Lance of Ruin, and it's quite expensive to repair. As an added bonus, Sylvain can use Knightkneeler to become a very effective Death Knight check if you don't have Lysithea.
** While only learned by Bernadetta and the route-locked Claude, the Encloser bow combat art can be a massive lifesaver, especially on Maddening. This ability reduces the movement of a hit enemy to zero for a turn, effectively "killing" them for that turn. This can save a squishy unit, or even immobilize a DemonicSpider. Because of it being a combat art, this can be used so long as Bernadetta/Claude has spare weapon durability, and it saves gambits for groups of enemies instead of wasting a charge on a lone enemy.
** Tempest Lance is learned early at D Lances, and gives '''+8''' Atk and +10 Hit. This effectively doubles damage output early in the game, and is essential for earlygame Maddening. Ferdinand, Dimitri, Sylvain, Ingrid, Lorenz, and Leonie all come with this combat art right out of the box, and Bernadetta, Dedue, and Hilda can learn this as early as Chapter 2.
* Gambits:
** Stride boosts the Movement of all your allies in range by +5 for one turn, and with how the maps work, the mobility it provides is massive, allowing your units to cover large areas and secure objectives much faster. The best part is that it's available in an E-ranked Battalion, meaning that it's available as soon as you unlock Battalions for hire. Even better, if you use it on Edelgard and she uses Raging Storm, the movement boost will still apply on her ExtraTurn, enabling her to fly around the map if you have her in a Flying class.
** Impregnable Wall is another low-level Gambit that can break the game in half with proper usage. It inflicts a status effect on three allies in front of you that reduces ''any'' damage (even from boss units and monsters) they give or receive to 1HP, basically turning them into undefeatable tanks for one turn. That, combined with [[ArtificialStupidity the AI's inability to work around the buff]], opens countless possibilities for abusing the game — from luring in more problematic enemy units to gang up on them on a safe territory, to sending the "walled" unit to distract all the strong enemies and clear the path for attacking their leader in one swoop. Wall comes with 5 usages per battalion, unlike the usual 1-2. The only drawback is that the caster can still be attacked and suffer full damage, but throw it on a mounted unit or a flyer and have them Canto-retreat after using it, problem solved. Good luck baiting Maddening bosses without using this! Even allows for some hilarious cheese strats, like breaking the Death Knight's weapon by smashing him with Wall'd characters repeatedly.
* Classes:
** Flyers are so powerful that hardcore fans have taken to calling the game [[FanNickname "Wyvern(/Flyer) Emblem"]]. Flying units have the same Mov as mounted units, but have the benefit of ignoring terrain. The lack of weapon restrictions means that, once certified, any unit can use any non-gauntlet weapon, allowing for insane hit-and-run abilities with bows. The ability to dismount is just icing on the cake, allowing enemy archers to be baited safely without the Aurora Shield. As an added bonus, upgrading a unit's flying ability gives them Alert Stance (and later Alert Stance+), which in exchange for simply waiting on player phase, turns all but the slowest units into dodge tanks. The Wyvern Lord class in particular has the second highest Str class mod, highest Str growth, second highest Spd class mod and growth (and huge base of 20), second highest Def (losing only to [[MightyGlacier Great Knight]]), a random evade boost, and huge Mov. It's essentially the LightningBruiser class, considered to be the best Master class in the game by a wide margin, and the second-best class in the game after Claude's exclusive Barbarossa. Pegasus Knight / Falcon Knight are perfectly fine too for female characters who prefer lances and want somewhat better Resistance, if not quite at Wyvern Lord level. Really, the only downside to fliers is that your choice of battalions becomes very restrictive, only being able to equip flier battalions, but given how absurdly good fliers are anyway, plus with most flier battalions being amazing too, it's still very much worth the investment.
** Dancer, as usual, is excellent. Aside from the usual Dance goodness, Dancers can use magic, letting them utility heal and smash armor knights at the very least. Their physical stats are legit as well.
** Horse-mounted units, while not quite as broken as fliers, are generally considered extremely solid. They still have high movement, and unlike fliers, some mounted classes can use magic such as Dark & Holy Knight. For physically oriented characters, Paladin offer solid hit-and-run options with Canto.
*** Bow Knight is even more broken with the right skills and equipment. Not only are they a mounted unit with Canto (which would make them strong in their own right), their class skill is ''Bowrange +2''. ''It's just as broken as it sounds''. Combine that with a Longbow (which has +1 to range) and the bow's various combat arts, and they can hit anything in a 7 cases range. ''Then'' you can combine that with the movement speed inherent to all cavalry classes and various items to get a whooping 11 movement range (one for an A+ in Riding, one when a March Ring is equipped and one from the Shoes of the Wind consummable item), giving them an effective range of ''18'' cases. Even their poor growth rates don't make up for that, since it's unlikely your units will have the necessary level to promote into the class until the end of the game.
** War Master is agreed to be one of the best foot-locked classes in the game, not because of Axefaire or Fistfaire, but because of its innate Critical +20 skill, which turns anyone into critical-hitting monsters. The War Master class also has growths on par with ''Wyvern Lords'', which means that you can expect some characters' Speed and Strength stat to be boosted up a lot. The cherry on the top, however, is that the War Master's mastered skill is Quick Riposte, which essentially allows a unit to perform follow-up attacks regardless of their attack speed, and never allows them to get doubled unless if it's by Brave weapons or Gauntlets, which essentially eliminates the weaknesses of both [[MightyGlacier Raphael and Dedue]]. The only downside to that skill is that it will most likely be obtained late, but given a Knowledge Gem, it will be worth it as an InfinityPlusOneSword.
** The Gremory is one of the best infantry classes for female mages. Gaining doubled uses on ''all'' their spells, whether it's attack, healing, or support magic, is already amazing from the get go, and massively improves their longevity in longer maps, as well as gaining improved movement from being a Master class. Combine this class with incredibly powerful mages like Lysithea and Mercedes, and you have yourself a goddess of magic.
* NewGamePlus lets you buy crests for characters, buy back previously achieved aptitude levels, support levels, and professor levels, while maintaining statue bonus ranks. Makes even Maddening a lot more tolerable on a replay. Each time you start a New Game+, you also gain 10,000 Renown plus however many you got for starting the previous file (e.g., replay 3 gets you 20,000 Renown), in addition to however much you had unused when you finished the previous playthrough. This means that by your fourth or fifth playthrough, you can start with a substantial boost in skill levels, support ranks, mastered class abilities, and so on.
* Expansion Pass:
** The item gained from clearing ''Cindered Shadows'', the [[spoiler:Chalice of Beginnings]], is practically a InfinityMinusOneSword. Granting Counterattack to the unit that's holding it would be very good on its own; what makes it ''amazing'' is that it also ''[[KryptoniteProofSuit nullifies every weakness an Armored, Mounted or Flying unit would have]]''. This means that various units, such as the aforementioned Wyvern Lords, can go in blazing without fear of any attempt to exploit their weaknesses. And if you put on the aforementioned Game Breaking units such as Dimitri? The game wouldn't be broken, it instantly blows it up into pieces! Granted, this does require you to clear ''Cindered Shadows'' and [[BribingYourWayToVictory purchase the expansion pass]], but it's so good that it's worth your money.
** Yuri keeps up the game's tradition of overpowered house leaders with flying colours - while he might not have the absurd combat potential of Edelgard, Claude or Dimitri, he makes up for it with sheer utility. He has the highest Speed growth in the game, which easily compensates for his relatively low Strength and defences by making him a ridiculous dodge tank, and he even has a solid spell list to boot. Given that his personal ability Honorable Spirit boosts his attack when fighting without any allies nearby, he can go off on his own and handle himself just fine. In his default Trickster class, he gets access to Foul Play, a combat art which allows him to swap positions with any ally within five spaces, making him invaluable for getting units to safety or pulling off tricky manoeuvres. Then there's his Hero's Relic, the Fetters of Dromi, which grants him +1 movement, Canto, Pavise ''and'' Aegis! Taken as a whole, the possibilities for cheesy hit-and-run strategies, especially working alongside a unit or two with Warp, are endless. The Fetters of Dromi mixed with his stats, natural boon towards swords, and his personal ability also arguably allows Yuri to be the best potential Dancer in the game.
** With NewGamePlus effectively allowing you to equip any crest to any character, the Fetters of Dromi quickly moves up to being one of the best relics in the game. With it's ability to give a non Calvary or Flying unit Canto, while also boosting their defenses. Pairing this item with the designated dancer can further boost their already ridiculous utility, but you are also able to experiment with this for other classes as well.
** Out of the four Special classes, Dark Flier gets the lion's share out of them. Why? Because it's essentially a Falcon Knight class with magic. '''That's as broken as it sounds.''' The movement range for Dark Flier is high enough that it surpasses the Black/Dark Magic Range +1 of the Valkyrie class. And keep in mind, the Valkyrie class is ''supposed to be the more ranged option for mages''. Furthermore, its usage of Canto allows for various hit-and-run tactics against the enemy. Finally, even though it doesn't offer any growths in magic, most of the magically-orientated characters have a good magic stat and growth anyway, and the 20% HP growth and 10% Speed growth are nice bonuses. The only downsides are that it's exclusive to females, and only a few magically-orientated females can smoothly get into the class [[note]]Manuela has proficiencies and growths suited for the Trickster class, Dorothea has a bane in flying, Hilda (who deserves a special mention as she learns Bolting) is a MagicallyIneptFighter, Marianne, though she ''does'' have a proficiency for flying, is more suited towards the Holy Knight class, and Flayn and Mercedes have spell lists more suited for Gremories[[/note]].

** Felix is basically required if you want to have as much as a chance at winning any of the Inter-House tournaments. He has excellent growths in Speed & Strength, always the right stats to pick. But more interestingly, he also has talent in archery, despite his character preference for swordsmanship. Most of the other would-be archers pack subpar Strength growth; Felix is a rare exception, and since ranged attacks are excellent in ''Three Houses'', he makes a surprisingly dangerous archer. He's a very solid assassin packing both Bow & Sword (along with Petra). Also helping his case, are his skills. His personal skill allows him to have a permanent boost to strength if his battalion is either entirely wiped out, or he doesn't have one (seeing as most battalions are optional this is a plus, that and battalions are disabled in the inter-house tournaments) and his crest has a chance to raises his already ridiculous strength even further.
** Lysithea. While her GlassCannon nature is there, it's easily forgiven since she has a ridiculous magic growth and incredibly good set of spells. Dark Spikes is essentially an instant "kill cavalry" attack, making her one of the few units capable of taking on the Death Knight long before you're supposed to defeat him, which alone is great; however, her faith line makes it even better by giving her the bane of Demonic Beasts, Seraphim, as well as the ever powerful series GameBreaker Warp. Did we even mention she's the only character bar Edelgard who learns [[ArmorPiercingAttack Luna?]] Done right, she can outright OneHitKill the FinalBoss of GD [[https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lysithea+one+shot+nemesis+ shown here]]. Her personal skill Mastermind only furthers this by allowing Lysithea to master classes at a faster rate than others, allowing some experimentation in other classes to add to her firepower. Lysithea's hypothetical weakness is that she's locked to 2-range spells. But this is not a weakness at all if you give her the Thyrsus staff which gives her an extra ''2 range'', letting her engage foes more safely. She'll even get the boost from having the Crest of Gloucester for some free defensive skills. She's probably the most sought-after Mage in the game.

** Ingrid, when recruited out of house. On paper, she doesn't seem like she'd be this thanks to her poor Strength growths, something her suggested Pegasus Knight class doesn't fix, and when playing as the Blue Lions, this can easily regulate her to the bench. This changes when you recruit her on routes outside Azure Moon thanks to the way the game calculates stat growths for units you recruit; the game uses ''enemy'' stat growths for its calculations, and the Pegasus Knight happens to have excellent growths in this context, including +30% to HP, +15% to Strength, and +25% to both Defence and Resistance. Recruit her late into Part 1, and you will be given a tanky flyer with incredible stats out the gate.
** Petra has the highest base Speed among the students, and a 60% base growth in the stat (tied for highest with Ingrid, Leonie and Manuela), along with great Dexterity. Together, this more than compensates for her relatively average Strength and low Defence, as she can double just about anything and have no problems dodging. If you keep her in her default classes of Thief and Assassin in particular, they'll get pushed through the roof, and thanks to the massive boost to Dexterity she'll get from being an Assassin, she'll be able to activate Lethality a lot and one-shot even the toughest enemies. With her boons in Axes and Flying, she can become a great Wyvern Lord as well (see Classes below), and once she gets Alert Stance, she'll become an absurd dodge tank that will barely ever get hit. Then there's her personal skill, Hunter's Boon, which boosts her crit chance by 20% if an enemy is at half health or less - and considering that this applies to Demonic Beasts with their massive amounts of HP as well, she can easily become the best Beast killer in the game.

** Flyers are so OP that hardcore fans have taken to calling the game [[FanNickname "Wyvern(/Flyer) Emblem"]]. Flying units have the same Mov as mounted units, but have the benefit of ignoring terrain. The lack of weapon restrictions means that, once certified, any unit can use any non-gauntlet weapon, allowing for insane hit-and-run abilities with bows. The ability to dismount is just icing on the cake, allowing enemy archers to be baited safely without the Aurora Shield. As an added bonus, upgrading a unit's flying ability gives them Alert Stance (and later Alert Stance+), which in exchange for simply waiting on player phase, turns all but the slowest units into dodge tanks. The Wyvern Lord class in particular has the second highest Str class mod, highest Str growth, second highest Spd class mod and growth (and huge base of 20), second highest Def (losing only to [[MightyGlacier Great Knight]]), a random evade boost, and huge Mov. It's essentially the LightningBruiser class, considered to be the best Master class in the game by a wide margin, and the second-best class in the game after Claude's exclusive Barbarossa. Pegasus Knight / Falcon Knight are perfectly fine too for female characters who prefer lances and want somewhat better Resistance, if not quite at Wyvern Lord level. Really, the only downside to fliers is that your choice of battalions becomes very restrictive, only being able to equip flier battalions, but given how absurdly good fliers are anyway, plus with most flier battalions being amazing too, it's still very much worth the investment.

* While you can't use them in the main storyline, Ashnard in the Trial Maps of ''Path of Radiance'' and Gharnef in a DLC chapter of ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' are playable. Both men retain their inability to be damaged by anything other than a few specific weapons, and since said weapons are player-exclusive, both men are completely immortal while under your control.

** [[DragonRider Claude]] combines ranged archery backed by solid strength with unmatched mobility. Claude is the master of cheesy hit-and-run tactics with his unique, flying classes Wyvern Master and Barbarossa which pack Bowfaire, Canto, and high Movement. Fallen Star, unique to his bow, gives him a turn of perfect evasion on his next combat, if it hits, making it safe for him to still be in enemy range.

** [[spoiler:After all of the trouble he put you through as the Death Knight]], Jeritza does not disappoint when he joins you at the beginning of Crimson Flower. He has a LightningBruiser statline and excellent weapon proficiencies across the board right out of the gate, most notably an A+ in lances. He has the Mastermind skill in his skill pool, allowing him to master classes and weapons at an amazing rate. The strongest thing about him, however, is his unique personal class, [[spoiler:the Death Knight]]. It's a mounted unit with the ability to use magic, and its mastery skill is ''Counterattack'', which allows him to counter no matter how far away his enemy is attacking from. Jeritza is perfectly capable of smashing his way through anyone dumb enough to try to fight him.

** The humble Curved Shot is learned exceptionally early, but is relevant throughout the entire game. Bows are balanced by eating large accuracy penalties at long range; Curved Shot nicely extends your range +1 while offering +30 Hit. Curved Shot lets you safely chip away at enemies outside of counterattack range and ensure the shot actually hits. This is especially helpful on Maddening, as this is the only safe way to attack enemy Mages without risking a retaliatory hit.

** Stride boosts the Movement of all your allies in range by +5 for one turn, and with how the maps work, the mobility it provides is massive, allowing your units to cover large areas and secure objectives much faster. The best part is that it's available in an E-ranked Battalion, meaning that it's available as soon as you unlock Battalions for hire.

** The ''Three Houses'' equivalent of arena abuse is mock battle abuse. Although many mock battles consume activity points, some don't, meaning you can fight them again and again to grind levels. Moreover, as long as you refrain from using the best weapons, you can repeatedly replenish your weapons from the armory's never-ending supplies. Since mock battles award money, even with replenishing your weapon supply and battalions, you will gain not only experience, but money through this method.

* Rigging level-ups is another common and accessible method of powering up playable units. This method does not require a large source of EXP, but it does require a time investment on the player's part in most cases. Due to ''Fire Emblem'' relying solely on a [[RandomNumberGod RNG]] to determine parameter gains from level ups, this method allows for characters whose parameters greatly exceed their expected values at a given level.