Video Game / Fire Emblem Warriors

Heroes from across the Fire Emblem universe collide.

Fire Emblem Warriors, known as (ファイアーエムブレム無双 Fire Emblem Musou) in Japanese, is a Spin-Off of the Fire Emblem franchise produced by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems in collaboration with Koei Tecmo, and developed by Dynasty Warriors developer Omega Force and Ninja Gaiden developer Team Ninja. Announced by Nintendo during the Nintendo Switch Presentation on January 12, 2017, Fire Emblem Warriors takes the gameplay of Dynasty Warriors and gives it a Fire Emblem theme, similar to sister game Hyrule Warriors being modeled off of The Legend of Zelda.

Once, a Divine Dragon blessed the world and its people, but without warning a powerful evil Dragon named Velezark appeared and waged war against the people and the Divine Dragon. To defeat Velezark, the Divine Dragon created the Shield of Flame and with it, the people sealed Velezark away and brought peace to the world. Many years later, there exist two kingdoms, the small kingdom of Aytolis, and the larger kingdom Gristonne. Without warning the king of Gristonne invades Aytolis and tries to steal the Shield of Flame, forcing the queen of Aytolis to send her two children, the twin prince and princess Rowan and Lianna, to safety with it to prevent the revival of Velezark. Without allies beyond the prince of Gristonne Darios, the twins must set up on a quest to awaken the power of the Shield of Flame and save their home. Along the way, the duo are aided by heroes from the many Fire Emblem games, all of whom are pulled into the world of Warriors as well.

Fire Emblem Warriors features characters from Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Gaiden and its remake, Shadows of Valentia, The Blazing Blade, Awakening, and Fates.

Fire Emblem Warriors is compatible with amiibo from the Fire Emblem and Super Smash Bros. lines. Up to five times a day, you can scan a figure to gain a random material or weapon. The Chrom and Tiki amiibo (launched alongside the game) also grant exclusive equipment.

Fire Emblem Warriors was released on Nintendo Switch and New Nintendo 3DS on September 28, 2017 in Japan and October 20th in western countries. Three DLC packs have been released, each one titled after one of the three main represented games and all three include new characters, History modes, and costumes.

Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo would later collaborate again for the following mainline Fire Emblem game, Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Three Houses later received its own spin-off, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, another Warriors game focusing specifically on the Three Houses universe.

Playable Characters

Base game:

• Original Generation: Rowan, Lianna and Anna
• Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light: Marth, Caeda, Tiki
• Gaiden and its remake: Celica
• The Blazing Blade: Lyn
• Awakening: Chrom, Lucina, Robin, Lissa, Frederick, Cordelia
• Fates: Corrin, Ryoma, Hinoka, Takumi, Sakura, Xander, Camilla, Leo, Elise

Downloadable Content:

• Fates Pack (released December 21, 2017): Azura, Niles, Oboro
• Shadow Dragon Pack (released February 15, 2018): Navarre, Minerva, Linde
• Awakening Pack (released March 29, 2018): Owain, Tharja, Olivia

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Fire Emblem Warriors contains the following tropes:

• Absurdly High Level Cap: In the initial release of the game, the maximum level any character can reach is 99. Story Mode can reasonably be completed with a team of characters around level 30. With the release of the DLC, the updates also up the max level limit to 110 (1.3/Fates), 130 (1.4/Shadow Dragon), and 150 (1.5/Awakening).
• Achievement System: Rare for a Nintendo game, completing certain tasks or hitting milestones will earn you Badges as proof of your hard work.
• Actually a Doombot:
  • When you defeat Gharnef in Chapter 15, you quickly learn that you were just fighting a magically-created shadow of him. The real deal is still lurking about somewhere nearby.
  • This happens several times in History Mode with various characters (eg, Validar in the final battle of Land of the Gods); often the character then duplicates himself and you often have to fight three or four more copies to find the real one.
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: Since the History Mode scenarios are very condensed retellings of specific parts of past Fire Emblem games that each take place in one location, the outcomes of some stories differ from the originals.
  • In the first ending of Invisible Ties, female Robin (acting as Grima's Vessel from the future) is defeated before she can restore Grima's power and ends up winning an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight, freeing herself from Grima. In Awakening, the future Robin is never freed, Future Grima succeeds in resurrecting his past self and the game goes on for a few more chapters.
  • In The Path Is Yours, Corrin is quickly able to reconcile his two families at the Plains of Hoshido. In the Revelation route of Fates, convincing everybody to team up takes significantly longer.
• Adapted Out: History Mode recreates scenarios from previous Fire Emblem games, but a number of characters from the original stories are missing.
  • Azura and Felicia aren't present in The Path is Yours — the Fates History Mode — when they're supposed to be the only ones that side with Corrin initially in the Revelation route.
  • Libra is not represented in the Emmeryn map.
  • None of the characters from The Blazing Blade or Gaiden appear in their History Modes outside of Lyn and Celica, respectively. Other playable characters fill in for the missing characters when appropriate, such as Marth taking Eliwood's place in the scenario for The Blazing Blade.
• Alternate Self: The male and female incarnations of both Robin and Corrin appear as playable characters, though only male Robin and female Corrin are present in the main story.
• Alternate Timeline: The playable versions of the characters are basically alternate versions from the canon timelines. The Altean Army's events will go on pretty similarly (as they seem to be pulled late from their game), while the Shepherds will have Lucina and Owain on their side much earlier. The royals of Hoshido and Nohr leave on much better turns, possibly leading to a version of Revelations where they fix things more easily.
• Always Chaotic Evil: There is exactly one character from Gristonne with any characterization beyond "conquer the world": Darios. And he gets possessed halfway through the game.
• Anachronism Stew: In-universe.
  • Robin is the official tactician of the Shepherds and acquainted with Cordelia, but it seems none of them have met "Marth" yet.
  • Arguably more baffling is the placement of Corrin and her siblings. This version of them comes from between the time she attains Yato, and before she has to make the big choice. But the problem isn't that these two events happened consecutively, it's that these events immediately followed the death of Mikoto. Yet while the Hoshidan family all believe Nohr to be responsible her death, neither the event, or Mikoto herself, is ever once mentioned, even in supports where the Hoshidan siblings interact with the Nohrian ones.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes:
  • Clearing Invisible Ties and The Path Is Yours unlock Female Robin and Nohr Prince Corrin, which effectively are clothes with different voice actors and occasional different voice lines.
  • Unlocking the costumes that are part of the Downloadable Content packs require beating their associated History Mode maps or certain battles within them. Getting Camilla's Meido costume requires getting an S-Rank on one of the hardest missions.
• Anti-Air: Weapons with the Wingslayer attribute deal extra damage against fliers. All bows have the attribute by default.
• Anti-Armor: Weapons with the Armorslayer attribute deal extra damage against armored units.
• Anti-Cavalry: Weapons with the Mountslayer attribute deal extra damage against horse riders.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • If the game camera focuses on a battlefield event, the camera itself has a map icon, making it easier to figure out where the change took place.
  • Objective pings are still visible in fog and sandstorm areas if the relevant mission is viewed in the pause menu, making it easier for the player to find anything time-sensitive hidden within.
  • When playing on Classic, injured characters can be healed for a hefty fee at the shrine.
  • History Mode missions keep track of how much damage you take for Gameplay Grading, and receiving too much damage will lower your ranking. However, any damage taken by player units under temporary AI control or from using the Vengeance skill doesn't count against you.
  • If you're performing a Critical Hit on an enemy and the animation gets interrupted by a cutscene, the enemy's Stun Gauge will remain empty and instantly trigger another Critical Hit the next time you expose it.
• Anti-Infantry: Trample lets a character deal extra damage to non-mounted units.
• Anti Poop-Socking: When you navigate the main menu, whatever character you've assigned as the System Voice may occasionally remind you to take breaks.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can never have your full team deployed for battle. Character restrictions vary depending on the game mode and map, but Story Mode typically allows you to choose up to 8 characters. When 8 are allowed, 4 are player-controlled and 4 are AI-controlled.^note This doesn't count Guest-Star Party Members, who are considered part of a different allied faction. History Mode may restrict you to smaller teams, with some missions only allowing a single character.
• Arbitrary Mission Restriction: Some History Mode missions impose restrictions, such as limiting your party to characters originating from the same game or wielding a specific weapon type. Many go away by getting a S-rank Clear on that battle.
• Armor-Piercing Attack:
  • The Luna skill lets a character ignore a percentage of the enemy's Defense or Resistance, with the amount ignored increasing based on the user's Luck stat.
  • Fang Crests let a Promoted character deal some damage to guarding enemies, while one of the Blessings you can get from the Temple lets all of your characters deal full damage.
• The Artifact: Cavaliers and Paladins still wield lances in their recycled map sprites despite being locked to swords in this game.
• Artificial Stupidity: Allied (blue) units that don't have any active orders will do one of the following: clear the area and then stand around uselessly, run back to the nearest allied base, follow your currently active unit (or move towards your current character if you changed units), or charge forward to the nearest enemy base, ignoring all forces in the way and probably getting surrounded. Justified as these are meant to be holding patterns until you give them new, smarter orders. Guest (green) units have the same more useful AI as NPC allies in other Warriors games.
• Assist Character:
  • The supporting unit in a Pair Up stops acting as an independent unit and disappears from the battlefield, but they'll occasionally show up to block attacks and can be temporarily re-summoned for Dual Strikes and Dual Specials.
  • Cordelia and Sakura have Awakening Specials that summon generic Pegasus Knights and Snipers, respectively, to launch an attack.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: While your character is in Awakening Mode, a rock version of the main Fire Emblem theme plays as a Power-Up Motif.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Topsy-Turvy attribute swaps the original offensive stat the user is currently using for the other. So non-Tome users are using their Magic stat while Tome users are using their Strength stat. Tiki however swaps her two stats around for her attacks that regularly use Strength or Magic. This is particularly useful for characters who have either relatively high and balanced Strength and Magic or if their actual better stat isn't the one they specialize in initially. This helps the likes of Lissa and Sakura who can use their much better Magic than their average Strength as they can actually hit harder. The downside is that Topsy-Turvy also swaps the stat that the user's new attacking stat runs off of. So those who are now using their Magic stat are now powerless to properly defeat Tome users (and occasional aerial knights) who pack a very high Resistance stat unless they have something to give them an edge such as a weapon advantage or bonus damage. It's also very impractical for Tome users as their Strength stat tends to be below average or rather lackluster.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: The Pair Up mechanic lets you pair units together, allowing them to switch between each other on a whim and perform Dual Strikes and Dual Guards.
• Badass Family: Three families at that. First, there's have Marth and Caeda, and their descendants Chrom, Lissa, Lucina, and Owain. Then, Corrin and her siblings from both Hoshido and Nohr. And finally, Rowan and Lianna themselves.
• Bandit Mook: Thieves will spawn on certain maps to try to steal the contents of the local treasure chest or nab any gold found in forts. You need to take the Thief out before they reach their destination if you want the items, especially since killing the Thief is sometimes the only way to retrieve chest keys.
• Black-and-White Morality: The teams are divided between Aytolis and Gristonne. Aytolis is the kingdom which Rowan and Lianna are from and every hero that joins them is considered a part of it for the duration of the story. Gristonne is the evil kingdom, the crossover characters on their side is made up of some of the vilest villains in the franchise and, with the exception of Darios (Demonic Possession not withstanding), everyone from the power-hungry king to the lowest soldier is evil.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: Dual Guards and the normal guarding action negate any damage or potential knockback from being hit by an attack, though a Dual Guard will leave you momentarily stunned. You can purchase Fang Crests to allow your characters to still deal some damage to guarding enemies.
• Bonding over Missing Parents: Niles and Linde's support conversation ends in them vowing to protect each other after they learn that they both lost their respective parents.
• Boss-Only Level: Arena levels in History Mode are comprised of nothing but fights against captains and bosses.
• Boss Subtitles: All enemy generals have introductory cutscenes which display their names, followed by their rank or title.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: In Chrom and Elise's support, Chrom mentions the kinds of pranks by Lissa he's on the lookout for: digging pitfalls in hiding places, releasing frogs, and pitfalls full of frogs.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: All of the System Voices, naturally, though Tharja kicks it up a notch:
  Tharja: Be sure to play in a bright room, and keep a fair distance from the screen. Don't want to get too close to my curses...
  Tharja: Good afternoon! Are you feeling alright? My hex should be kicking in soon... Hmhmhmhmhmmmmm...
• Break Meter: When attacking an enemy, it's possible to stun them with some Strong Attacks and cause the Stun Gauge to appear. You can deplete the Stun Gauge by dealing more damage, and emptying it completely will allow you to execute a Critical Hit.
• Brother–Sister Team: The protagonists Rowan and Lianna are twin siblings. Corrin is also accompanied by her siblings from both Hoshido and Nohr, who fit this trope by themselves. As for Chrom, he appears alongside his sister, Lissa.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The Anna missions unlocked on each History Mode map by collecting all of that map's respective illustration tokens. The recommended level for even the easiest one is 80 with each map containing several objectives and Anna herself summoning her sisters if she's not dealt with quickly, making them some of the hardest History Mode levels to S-rank without a solid strategy.
• Bumbling Sidekick: In her Support conversation with Frederick, Hinoka mentions she does her own laundry because she can't have her retainers doing it. Setsuna nearly drowned once, while Azama is a Jerkass who won't stop complaining when doing the chore.
• But Now I Must Go: After the downfall of Velezark, the heroes of Shadow Dragon, Awakening, and Fates all return to their respective home worlds, their duty in Aytolis complete.
• Calling Your Attacks: Spellcasters will yell out the names of the spells they cast with Strong Attacks. There's also Owain and his over-the-top names he gives to his attacks, both while preforming his Warrior Special and in his mission clear cutscene.
• Can't Drop the Hero: The royal sibling you choose as your main character is required to be in the party for most story missions. This restriction is done away with in Free Mode replays.
• Character Customization: Each character has access to at least 2 costumes (default and post-Class Change outfits), while select individuals get extras via DLC. You can also toggle between Corrin and Robin's male and female counterparts after clearing the first two History Mode maps.
• Clothing Damage: The "Armor Strike" weapon attribute allows for destroying a unit's armor by hitting them wit a powerful attack, reducing their Def and Res. When used on some playable characters, they are reduced to their undergarments.
• Color-Coded Armies:
  • Each of the six kingdoms has a color scheme for its generic mooks:
    • The Aytolisian army wears blue.
    • The Gristonne and Dolhrian armies wear red.
    • The Ylissean Army wears green.
    • The Hoshidan Army wears white and red.
    • The Nohrian army wears black and purple.
    • The Altean Army wears bright blue.
    • The Chaos Army is completely black.
  • On map sprites, blue represents playables, red is for enemies, green is used by allies, and yellow is reserved for a separate enemy faction.
• Color-Coded Elements: Elemental attacks have a color or two associated with them: Fire attacks are orange, Thunder attacks are blue, Wind attacks are green, Light attacks are yellow, and Darkness attacks are purple. Water attacks, which was added with the release of Azura and are is unique to the character, are teal.
• Color-Coded Item Tiers: Weapons are divided into six tiers, each of them defined by a distinct coloration, to help with visually identifying their attack power.
  • Tier-1: Bronze Weapons are Dark Green which is the color that the metal takes during the process of oxidation. (10 Atk + 1 per Star)
  • Tier-2: Iron Weapons are Dark Grey with blue effects. (20 Atk + 2 per Star)
  • Tier-3: Steel Weapons are Black with white edges. (40 Atk + 4 per Star)
  • Tier-4: Silver Weapons are Silver with red trimmings. (80 Atk + 8 per Star)
  • Tier-5: Legendary/Brave Weapons. The default brave weapons are Steel with blue and gold trimmings. (160 Atk + 16 per Star)
  • Tier-6: Hero Weapons are made with the colors of the rainbow. (480 Atk + 48 per Star)
• Combination Attack: If both characters in a Pair Up have full Warrior Gauges when you activate a Special, the two will team up to execute an extra-powerful attack.
• Coming of Age Story: The main plot has Lianna and Rowan torn from their peaceful lives and finding themselves fighting to take back their homeland. Driven home when Darios says they're still nothing more than mere children because they refused to make a tough decision and their hesitation only made things worse for everyone.
• Composite Character: In terms of location, the entire continent seems to be this. While it is not the kingdoms the heroes hail from, there are similarities:
  • The Fire Emblem is a shield with 5 orbs, the sacred blades are made with a divine dragon ruler's fangs just like the Archanea games.
  • There is a table for a dragon-resurrecting ritual just like in Awakening.
  • There is a sacred tree said to have had a role with the Divine Dragon of the land, similar to Awakening.
  • There are two conflicting castles: one a dark themed medieval European fortress near volcanic ground, and the other a light themed medieval Japanese temple, as well as Dragon Veins. Not unlike the kingdoms of Fates.
  • The army of the main villainous force is composed of Fire Dragon Manaketes like in the Archanea games.
  • The main lords are a pair of opposite gendered twins, similar to Sacred Stones and Heroes.
  • The Divine Dragons and their late leader are unique among manaketes for being allied with humanity and stand against the rest of dragon kind similar to the Archanea duology, The Binding Blade, and Awakening.
• The Computer Is a Lying Bastard: Arena-style missions in History Mode can have enemies exceeding the listed difficulty level, going over by as much as 20.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Characters can stand on lava-heated rock and only take a bit of Damage Over Time. Fliers are just immune to the damage and receive no ill effects.
• Credits Montage: As the credits roll, a montage of various cutscenes plays.
• Crippling Overspecialization:
  • Archers can destroy flying enemies, even stage bosses, in one or two shots, but are soft-countered by anything with a defense score worth writing home about (that is, pretty much everything except mages).
  • "Slayer" Weapons, which are designed to specifically target a certain class of enemy (such as heavy armor, dragons and mounted units), are typically weaker than other weapons of their class, and forging these qualities on other weapons in turn will make them weaker. Exemptions come when those attributes are locked to the weapon, such as the three Falchions, which are most deadly against dragons but are still effective against other enemy types, and if the player has unlocked the True Power and Divine Favor weapon attributes on any given unit's personal weapon, which negates the weaker damage penalty from foreign Slaying attributes.
• Crisis Crossover: The influence of an evil dragon has caused temporal and dimensional anomalies in the world of Fire Emblem Warriors, which summons Fire Emblem characters from Shadow Dragon, Awakening and Fates. The various heroes team up with the Original Generation characters to defeat the dragon and save the kingdom of Aytolis from destruction.
• Critical Hit Class: The tome- and bow-users can all force the Stun Gauge to appear (and be treated as having Weapon Advantage for a short time) by using their fully-charged basic Strong Attack. This gives them an easier time triggering Critical Hits.
• Critical Status Buff: The Desperation+ weapon attribute increases damage dealt while the weapon's wielder is at low HP.
• Cutting Off the Branches:
  • Subverted with female Corrin. She comes from before the route split in Fates to preserve the game's theme of choosing your path, and her bio hints that her male counterpart still exists in Fates' multiverse.
  • The default History Mode level based on Fire Emblem Fates follows the Revelation path, where Corrin refuses to choose a side. That being said, the Fates DLC Pack do have two History Mode maps from a specific point from both Birthright and Conquest paths.
• Cycle of Hurting: "Juggling" is a special tactic that requires knocking an enemy into the air and keeping them airborne by continuously performing attacks with little starting or ending lag. The primary benefit is that the airborne enemy cannot block or dodge until they touch the ground which makes this the best way to whittle down an elite mook's or playable character's health to nothing.
• Damage-Increasing Debuff: The Armor Strike weapon attribute can lower an opponent's defenses after the user successfully lands a Critical Hit.
• Damage Over Time: If you have a character standing in a poison cloud or on lava-heated rock, they will slowly take damage.
• Damage Reduction:
  • You can unlock Crests that reduce damage taken from specific weapon types. For example, one will reduce damage taken from swords.
  • Pavise and Aegis may reduce damage taken from specific weapon types (swords, lances, and axes for Pavise; magic, bows, and dragonstones for Aegis), with the activation chance being based on the character's Luck stat.
• Demoted to Extra: In a class example, this is the first game where the Knight class line is unplayable. The closest equivalent, is Frederick, a dual cavalry/armored category unit.
• Defeat Means Friendship:
  • The Hoshidan and Nohrian royal siblings join your party and become friends with the other characters after being bested in battle. This also ties into The Path is Yours History Mode map and its Anna Battle
  • Beating female Robin in Invisible Ties causes her to undergo a Heel–Face Turn, and she proceeds to join the party.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In a Xenologue within Noble Lady of Caelin, Iago vows to kill Elise because she insulted his hair.
• Double Unlock:
  • Unlocking the full power of a character's unique weapon can be quite the ordeal. First, you must purchase the mastery crest for that character, which requires collecting enough materials to create not only that crest but all the weapon skill crests before it. This also involves collecting that weapon's scroll, which is done by completing a high-level mission in history mode with an S-rank. Even after all that, you still need to grind out 10,000 kills with that weapon, some of which can have an attack power as low as 30^note Most players will have unlocked weapons with attack powers into the 200's by this point. Complete all this, and you'll have the equivalent of a 5-star A-rank weapon with full attribute slots, possibly with a bonus effect such as dealing extra damage to dragon enemies.
  • DLC updates have further added onto this with the addition of Sanctuary Crests, which require performing all of the above weapons unlocks in addition to collecting even more rare materials, specifically that unit's materials and the mission-exclusive Opus items. Some of said missions are only available upon either completing or getting an S-rank in every mission on a history mode map, just like their Scroll counterparts. Purchasing the crest will triple the weapon's attack power yet again to a whopping 720 points, far stronger than any weapon you can obtain randomly and effectively making that weapon an Infinity +1 Sword.
• Downloadable Content: For the game's English version, you can download the entire Japanese voice track for free. An update allowed the Japanese version to download the English voice track as well. Also, Lucina can get a Bride costume by purchasing the Season Pass.
  • In addition to that was the DLC Packs based on Fates, Shadow Dragon, and Awakening, which each containing three additional Units^note Fates had Azura, Oboro & Niles, Shadow Dragon Navarre, Minerva & Linde, and Awakening had Owain, Tharja & Olivia three additional History Mode maps, costumes for specific Units both made immediately available and only available by completing objectives in History Mode maps, and an Illustration for each Pack.
• The Dragonslayer: While anyone can be this if they have the Dracoslayer attribute, Marth, Chrom, Lucina, Lyn and Tiki's personal weapons have natural Dracoslayer attributes.
• Dub Name Change: The sibling royals are named Zion and Lian in Japan, whereas their English names are Rowan and Lianna.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Marth, Corrin, Xander, and Ryoma were all heavily teased during the first reveal trailer where their respective weapons were all briefly seen.
  • Robin, Lissa, and Lucina's sprites were all noticed on an image of the Treasure Box from the Japanese special edition a few days before their official reveal trailer.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The twins go through a lot of crap, but they ultimately go home with their heads held high while Oskar and Velezark go home in coffins. They even defy every Fire Emblem game ever and manage to save their mother from imminent death! Though you can thank Takumi for that.
• Easter Egg: If Caeda maxes out her Supports with both Cordelia and Hinoka and all three are deployed on the same map, the animation for Caeda's Triangle Attack changes from having her summon clones of herself to summoning her fellow Pegasus Knights. This is a purely cosmetic alteration, though it does earn you a Badge.
• Elemental Powers: Most characters can use at least one of the main Fire Emblem elements as their main element:
  • Camilla, Minerva and Anna can use Fire.
  • Chrom, Lucina, Lissa, Owain, and Ryoma can all use Electricity.
  • Frederick, Lyn, Navarre, Oboro and all bow users by default can use Wind.
  • Rowan, Lianna, Marth, Cordelia, Hinoka, Caeda, Tiki, and Sakura can use Light.
  • Corrin, Xander and Tharja can use Darkness.
  • Azura is the only person to use Water.
  • Robin, Linde, Leo, and Elise wield all of the above through their spells.
  • A few non-tome characters use multiple elements in addition to one primary one. Celica uses Light like Marth, but uses all the elements save Darkness. Azura uses Water, but also uses Light and Darkness in her Dual and Awakening Specials.
• Elite Mooks: Captains are stronger than your average garden-variety mooks. They have far more HP than normal and are able to take advantage of the Weapon Triangle.
• Enemy Mine: As the Fates characters get involved before Corrin chooses which side to join, the Hoshidans and Nohrians still consider each other enemies. However, they're willing to call a truce and work together for this conflict.
  Ryoma: We're fated to meet in battle. But it doesn't have to be today. Let's sheathe our swords in pursuit of a shared goal.
  Xander: Yes... We must protect our siblings and return to our homelands.
• Enemy Summoner: Summoners appear as enemies in some History Mode missions to continuously call in reinforcements.
• Epic Fail: When Owain first appears, he tries to pull a Big Damn Heroes moment and save Lissa after she gets surrounded. He jumps from atop a rock to slice at Lissa's assailants... only to completely miss them. The soldiers proceed to do a Double Take and checked themselves to see if Owain actually did anything.
• Escort Mission:
  • In Chapter 14, you need to defend Darios and escort him to a fort so he can lower a drawbridge. While the travel distance is extremely short, you have to deal with an endless barrage of mooks that spawn close to Darios' starting position.
  • History Mode missions may have an optional objective where you need to escort a Villager to a specific spot on the map. Occasionally enemies spawn right on top of them along the way.
  • The DLC brings recruitment battles, which require you to protect the mission's commander as they go around the map to recruit rival captains to your side. These captains can also simply be defeated, but recruited captains will help protect the commander against particularly tough enemies that spawn once the enemy commander's fort opens.
• Evolving Weapon: Some weapons have special traits that are locked off, but they can be unlocked by killing a large number of enemies.
  • Personal weapons also invoke this by the creation of Mastery and Sanctuary Crests, improving their power after the True Power/Divine Favor weapon attribute is unlocked.
• Excuse Plot: The game's Crisis Crossover plot is very simple. It largely exists to justify having characters from several different Fire Emblem titles team up and interact with each other.
• Experience Booster:
  • One of the bonuses you get from Awakening Mode temporarily increases EXP gain.
  • Paragon, Marth's personal Boost Crest, increases EXP gained from killing enemies.
• Faceless Mooks: The generic mooks and nameless officers, friend or foe, all have the top half of their faces obscured by masks, helmets, or hoods. This might be a Mythology Gag to how many games have nameless characters have their eyes covered in shadow.
• Fake Longevity: Some History Mode mission have 2 Anna's Mementos to find, but it's impossible to grab both in one go. You have to complete the mission while grabbing the first Memento, and then replay the mission (with no changes) to be able to grab the second.
• Fighting a Shadow: Gharnef employs two Sages to create shadow copies of himself, which you end up fighting. Killing the shadows won't do much, as they'll quickly respawn as long as their corresponding Sage is still alive.
• Fighting Your Friend:
  • Frederick challenges the Aytolisian twins to mock combat to test their worthiness during Chapter 2, and ends up going against his lieges in the process.
  • Lucina (in her Marth disguise) infiltrates the Gristonne army during Chapter 4 and comes to blows with her father Chrom.
  • Robin gets brainwashed by Validar during Chapter 5, forcing you to fight him.
  • Chapter 7 involves Sakura and Hinoka getting into a fight with Takumi and Oboro after a misunderstanding on the latter's part causes them to assume the former have been kidnapped. Chapter 10 involves Elise and Camilla fighting Leo and Niles under much the same circumstances.
  • Ryoma, Xander, and Corrin get brainwashed during Chapter 13, forcing you to fight them.
  • In Chapters 17 and 18, the party must battle Darios after he suffers Demonic Possession from Velezark.
• Fog of War: Some levels have sections that are covered in fog or a sandstorm. These sections are always obscured on your map so you don't know the geography, enemy captains present in these sections are not visible on your map, and you are unable to give commands to allies within.
• For Want Of A Nail: Heavily implied to be why the Awakening characters are in a state of Anachronism Stew. "Marth" showing up to help the twins at the start is implied to have thrown off the events of the base game in addition to the heroes being pulled into a separate world. This results in Robin becoming the group's main strategist and Cordelia joining the Shepherds before even meeting "Marth".
• Friendly Enemy: The Hoshidan and Nohrian characters from Fire Emblem Fates still consider themselves enemies after teaming up, but that doesn't stop the two groups from acting cordial to each other. Many opposing pairs (e.g. Camilla and Sakura) can even reach the maximum Support rank together.
• Game-Breaking Injury: Much like specific examples in more modern Fire Emblem games, characters defeated in Classic mode do not die, but will be incapacitated and cannot be used. However, as this restriction is mostly unheard of in a Dynasty Warriors title, injured characters can be healed for a price at the convoy's shrine.
• Gameplay Grading: Each History Mode mission grades your performance, with each mission having somewhat different criteria (damage taken, time taken, etc.) to pull from. You are ranked for each one with B, A, or S, with B as the lowest and S the highest. Getting an S rank for each criteria of certain applicable missions can also earn you a rare item as a bonus.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The game's swords, Enliron and the Facinna is the series' "Kill Final Boss with this divine weapon". However, any character can kill the Final Boss if they have the right skills. In addition, the Final Boss doesn't have any sort of Weaksauce Weakness.
• Geo Effects:
  • Sandstorms and fog reduce vision, preventing you from issuing orders to your allies unless you switch to them if playable, and make enemies within it invisible on the map.
  • Poison fog slightly reduces vision and deals Damage Over Time to your units.
  • Non-fliers will take Damage Over Time as long as they stand on lava-heated rock.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Marth, Corrin, and Ryoma knock some sense into Rowan and Lianna when the twins are doubtful that they'll be able to save Darios.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: When fighting Iago in Chapter 13, he'll end up fleeing to another part of the map once you've taken him down to half health.
• The Ghost: Quite a few characters are mentioned in the Support conversations, but are never seen. Examples include Emmeryn, Laslow, Hinata, and Jagen.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: The only change with promoted generic enemies is that parts of their outfit have gold highlights instead of silver. Fafnirs (promoted Manaketes) have the gold color restricted to their wing membranes and spinal ridges.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: Throughout the game, you can purchase items from Anna called Anna's Mementos. These mementos are small parts of illustrations based on scenes from previous Fire Emblem games, with there being 5 pictures (8 with DLC) made up of 20 pieces each. Completing a picture unlocks Harder Than Hard levels in History Mode within that specific map, and reaching specific totals will allow for more things to do at your camp^note 5, 10, 25, and 50.
• Gradual Regeneration: As long as a character stands in a fort their army controls, they will slowly recover HP. The amount can increase via Crests.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • You can actually change which units you control long before you get a tutorial about it, if you figure out you can swap starting positions with green tiles on the pre-battle map. Similarly, it's up to the player to figure out they can also issue map orders to blue units they can't actively switch to.
  • Class Change works simply in this game — the unit retains their level and gets an enormous boost to their stats, and there's exactly one Master Seal available per character. This runs counter to everything a Fire Emblem veteran would expect^note  Exact effects vary by game, but characters typically get a Class Change Level Reset with small bonuses to stats. This more or less encourages waiting as long as possible before Class Change to maximize stat gains., which can lead to them delaying promotion for an unnecessarily long time and make the game harder for themselves because the game wasn't very clear. It doesn't help that the relevant tutorial slide heavily implies there aren't enough Master Seals to go around — there are, but only a handful can be achieved through playing the Story Mode^note Six in total; the rest are obtained through History Mode, and the majority of those Master Seals are found in the two scenarios exclusive to post-game^note 8 of 17, so even if you complete the first three History Modes before beating the final level of the Story Mode, you'll need to beat it to promote your last few characters.
  • To get an S rank for most History Mode missions, you need to beat a specific amount of enemies to obtain an S rank in that field, usually at least 2,000. Before the game was patched, there was no way to know how many enemies were defeated in general since the KO counter only displayed the player's personal kill count not the AI's, meaning you could kill at least 1,000 enemies, and still get only an A rank because your allies didn't get enough kills. On levels where you had a time-limit this was worse since you had no way of knowing if they could reasonably make up the kills needed with how little was left. After the first patch, the total combined kill count now displays in the pause menu.
  • Archers and Mages can use a Charge Attack 1 with a full gauge to make an advantaged critical hit meter appear for any enemy commander. This is vital to making them most of them (particularly archers, who otherwise struggle with the 75% of units that have decent defense scores) but nothing in the game explains this property.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Inverted. This dynamic applies to both of the Avatars, whose default appearances here have different genders. It's the female Corrin who serves as a primarily-melee fighter with her emphasis on swordplay with the Yato and her dragon form powers while the male Robin makes use of a tome that allows him to cast different elemental spells.
• Hard Mode Perks: If you complete a map on Hard or Lunatic, the gold you've earned is multiplied by 1.5 or 2, respectively.
• Heir Club for Men: While the royal line of succession in Aytolis doesn't restrict a firstborn female from inheriting the throne, preference may be given to the oldest male anyway.
• Hitbox Dissonance: The hitboxes for melee attacks go way beyond what would be logical when considering the general weapon length, which is par for the course for a Dynasty Warriors game. The first gameplay trailer shows Chrom hitting enemies that are nowhere near where he's swinging the Falchion.
• Holy Burns Evil: This rendition of Beastslayer is this, as weapons with this attribute deal extra damage against Monsters. By default, the Aytolis twins' swords Enliron and Facinna have this naturally, as does Azura's own personal Blessed Lance.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: In Chapter 13, Ryoma, Xander, and Corrin all get brainwashed and you're forced to fight them. They are all Immune to Flinching and have very high HP to make taking them on difficult (unless you have Dracoslayer for Corrin and Mountslayer for Xander), and even if you knock them out they'll just get back up again after a short time. The only way to stop them permanently is to rush towards Iago's base (who is responsible for the brainwashing) at the edge of the map and do significant damage to him.
• I Call It "Vera": In Owain and Niles' support, Niles asks Owain for help in naming the sword Prince Leo gave him. Owain suggests "The Nightmare Sword of Gloom" because he thinks it should have a "dark" name to go with it.
• Infinity -1 Sword: Chapters 13 through 15 give you the base forms of Siegfried, Raijinto, Yato, Exalted Falchion, Enliron, and Facinna. All six swords have 80 might, which is the most you can realistically acquire during your first playthrough of the main storyline. In addition, Exalted Falchion deals bonus damage against dragons, four of whom need to be killed in order to break the Final Boss' health regeneration, and Enliron and Facinna deal bonus damage against monsters, which are very heavily deployed in the final chapters.
• Infinity +1 Sword:
  • The base game allows you to obtain scrolls for everyone's personal weapons, buy a mastery crest, and grind out 10,000 kills to turn said personal weapons into 240 might/6 skill slot engines of destruction.
  • With the DLC installed, you can collect opuses to further enhance your weapons into 720 might weapons of mass destruction.
• Immune to Flinching: Some Strong Attacks will grant super armor while the attack animations play, while Armored Blow and Awakening Mode grant it for all attacks. Super armor can also be applied for movement with Pass.
  • Velezark cannot flinch no matter how he's struck. While he can still be hit with a critical, fighting him head-to-head on higher difficulties and lunatic-difficulty missions can make him a chore. The refight with Darios grants him super armor as long as the dark crystals are active, allowing you to dispel it, but if you want Anna's second memento, you have to fight him this way on Hard or Lunatic.
• In Medias Res: Story Mode starts off during the final chapter just before the fight against the Big Bad. After you play for a bit but before you get to do much of significance, the game stops and then rewinds to the actual beginning.
• Item Crafting:
  • The Material drops you get from enemies can be used to create Crests and upgrade your characters.
  • The Smithy lets you can destroy weapons to take one of their attributes and place them onto another weapon of the same type.
• Interface Spoiler:
  • You can get the gold drop "Lucina's Mask" when you defeat her when she's disguised as "Marth". Though even if you're completely new to the series and don't know that she's Lucina, she still reveals herself in the cutscene immediately after the next level.
  • Certain missions in History Mode (namely most of the main final battles on each map) will have the interface remain on-screen after defeating the enemy general, indicating that the battle is not quite over yet.
• Kill Enemies to Open: You'll occasionally come across large gates that are closed and prevent you from going through. To open them, you need to find and kill a specific Captain, usually a Gatekeeper. Barring those, Fort Captains will do.
• Last Chance Hit Point: The Prayer Crest lets a character survive an otherwise fatal blow with 1 HP once per battle. It can later be upgraded to activate twice, then upgraded again to three times after the character has gone through their class-change.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • The game openly assumes Fire Emblem: Awakening is well-known by the playerbase and makes no bones about revealing Lucina and Owain's parentage in the first act.
  • Major spoilers regarding Robin are also mentioned casually in Awakening's History Mode and alluded in the main story, with Female Robin being the main antagonist of said History Mode.
• Leaked Experience: Despite technically not being an active combatant, the support unit of a Pair Up will still gain experience.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Lyn and Robin's Support conversation has Lyn talk about "Mark", the Player Character Tactician from The Blazing Blade, noting many of their similarities with Robin. She also mentions how Mark rarely says anything, but still manages to give orders easily, and being around them makes her see "invisible arrows" that point her in the direction she needs to go in.
  • Robin and Corrin's Support conversation involves them discussing the possibilities that their actions are not their own, and that a "god-like being" might be controlling them. Very fitting, considering that they are the Player Characters of their respective games.
  • After Gharnef is defeated in Chapter 15, he declares "I'll bring this chapter to a close, myself." Fittingly enough, shortly after this, the end of chapter cutscene plays.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: After completing Chapter 5, the party receives intel that two armies (the Hoshidans and Nohrians from Fates) are fighting each other nearby. Robin suggests that the group split into two so they have an easier time sneaking past the warring factions. Rowan takes Chrom, Lucina, Frederick and Robin into Hoshidan territory while Lianna leads Darios, Lissa, Cordelia and Owain into the Nohrian area.
• Let's You and Him Fight:
  • You end up having to fight Hinoka in Chapter 6 because she mistakes Rowan's party for a group of kidnappers going after Sakura. Takumi makes the same mistake the very next chapter, and it happens again in Chapter 9 when Camilla thinks Lianna's group has kidnapped Elise.
  • In Chapter 10, Leo assumes Lianna's group is allied with Hoshido and has somehow convinced Elise and Camilla to turn traitor, so he attacks them.
• Level Limiter: You can reset your levels to get character-specific materials for a hefty fee.
• Limit Break:
  • If a character has built up their Warrior Gauge so that it has at least one full bar, they can execute a powerful Warrior Special by pressing A. This hits enemies in a wide area with a flashy attack that deals large amounts of damage.
  • While using the Pair Up mechanic, if the supporting character has a full Warrior Gauge to spare, they'll join in on the fun. Besides occasionally providing unique lines depending on which units are paired up, this covers an even bigger range than a solo Warrior Special, and it does more damage on top of that.
  • When Awakening Mode ends by the bar fully depleting, your character will automatically execute an Awakening Special. Awakening Specials are like Warrior Specials in that they have wide range, but they're even stronger (due to Awakening Mode's mechanics) and flashier.
• Limited Loadout: Unlike most other Fire Emblem games, characters cannot have more than one weapon on their person and can only carry one secondary healing item. They are also restricted to 3 Skills instead of 5, though this number can be upgraded up to 6 after Class Change by creating Talent Crests.
• Luck Stat: A character's Luck determines how frequently you get item drops when they kill somebody. The stat is also used to determine the effectiveness of certain skills or how often they trigger.
• Mage Killer: Pegasus Knights and Falcon Knights have extremely high Resistance and passable Attack, making them perfect for taking on magic-users.
• Mêlée à Trois:
  • Chapter 12 involves a three-way fight between your party, the Hoshdian army, and the Nohrian army. Unlike most battles, the objective here is not to defeat Ryoma and Xander, but to cripple both armies at an equal and consistent pace by taking forts one at a time.
  • Pincer Escape missions in History Mode are these. The incentive of keeping the enemy armies about even is focusing too much on one army makes the other army send motivated units towards the Allied Base.
• Mission Control: The character acting as the System Voice will feed you updates during missions. Anna fulfills this function by default, but you can switch it to any character you've unlocked by making enough Supports with any given characters.
• Money Is Experience Points: Money can be used to level up your warriors up to the level of the strongest warrior as well as to pay for temporary buffs and weapon fusion.
• Moveset Clone: Due to the sheer roster size and how classes work in Fire Emblem games, few characters have fully unique movesets, though some moveset clones do get custom strong attack effects and all get unique Specials. Characters who are moveset clones of each other include:
  • Lianna and Rowan, as well as the nonplayable Darios
  • Chrom and Lucina
  • Marth and Celica
  • Lyn and Navarre
  • Robin and Tharja, the nonplayable Gharnef, Validar, and Iago, and generic Mages
  • Ryoma, Owain, and generic Myrmidons and Thieves
  • Caeda, Cordelia, Hinoka, and generic Pegasus Knights
  • Camilla, Minerva, and generic Wyvern Riders
  • Takumi, Sakura, Niles, Anna, and generic Archers
  • Leo and Elise
  • Lissa and generic Fighters
  • Oboro and generic Soldiers
  • Xander and generic Cavaliers
  • Frederick and generic Great Knights
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Each Strong Attack is part of a combo string preceded by a specific number of regular attacks, but the enemy AI is able to use any of their Strong Attacks at any time. In the same vein, the AI characters you face expose a critical gauge when they attack, something the player character never has to worry about.
• Mythology Gag: The game is chock-full of references to past games as a celebration of the Fire Emblem franchise. Characters' battle animations, attacks, dialogue and more frequently reference details from their games of origin, and the few who've appeared in other crossovers such as Super Smash Bros., Code Name: S.T.E.A.M or Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE have a few traits carried over from there, too. Specific examples:
  • The characters' poses in their artwork are based on their artwork from their home games. Since the Robins didn't have special artwork in Awakening, their poses are instead based on their artwork from Super Smash Bros. Other oddities include Takumi and Lyn, where their poses seem to have been inspired by one of their Cipher illustrations, and Sakura, who's artwork resembles her in-game portrait from Fates.
  • Lucina's introduction (as Marth) has her save Rowan and Lianna, using her sword to block from behind her neck. The exact same way she saved Lissa.
  • The way Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick meet Rowan and Lianna is very similar to how they met Robin.
  • Many of Chrom's attacks are enchanted with lightning, his signature element as a Mirage in Tokyo Mirage Sessions.
  • The mid-battle dialogue between Corrin and Xander in Coliseum mode echo dialogue for their sparring match in Fates' Chapter 1.
  • Corrin's fighting style is akin to her portrayal in Smash, which expanded more on her Dragon Fang powers in combat.
  • Robin's tome contains Thunder, Fire, Wind and Darkness magic - the same elements he uses in Smash. His focus on Thunder magic in particular is a nod to how he is usually associated with that element, given his ability to use all four levels of Thunder in Smash and has exclusive access to Thoron as an amiibo unit in Fates. Thoron is also his signature Tome, only appearing via the Awakening DLC Pack.
  • Characters gain more Skill crests by supporting each other, which was a mechanic introduced in Fates where S and A support ranked characters could gain the other person's class.
  • Rowan catches a deadly sickness during Chapter 7 and is forced to sit out the map while you search for the cure, which is similar to something that happens to Elise and Takumi in different parts of Fire Emblem Fates. Sakura even mentions that she recognizes the condition.
  • After recruiting Lyn, she mistakes Robin for the tactician from Blazing Sword and tells him how similar they are. Doubly funny when remembering her tactician's default name is Mark and is shared with male Morgan's (Robin's child) default Japanese name.
  • When viewing a History Mode map, the sound effects for will change to fit the focus game's generic button pressing noises. For example, playing the History Mode based on Shadow Dragon will use old-school sounding sound effects, while viewing the Awakening or Fates maps have the modern, current sound effects.
  • Celica has never met an Anna before, a reference to how Gaiden and its remake are the only Fire Emblem games where Anna is completely absent.
  • After saving Celica from the Mogalls, Rowan tells Celica not to worry and that he'll "beat this guy to a pulp", a rough nod to the original Gaiden where Alm infamously says he'd "crush those bastards" after he saves Celica.
  • Hinoka, Takumi, Camilla, and Leo's intros all resemble their vs. cutscenes in Fates.
  • Lucina and Lissa's Support conversation has the two of them freaking out over a bug. The same thing happens in Lucina's C Support with her sibling in Awakening.
  • Several History Mode Xenologues refer to scenes from previous Fire Emblem games, including games not represented by Characters:
    • Lissa and Celica re-enact an Honest Axe situation, very similar to Lex's Brave Axe event in Chapter 1 of Genealogy of the Holy War.
    • Lyn gives an "I don't pick fights I can't win" speech, which is Ephraim's catchphrase spouted in Chapter 5x of The Sacred Stones.
    • Chrom mentions being tasked to quell an uprising in Crimea, then subsequently joining the apostle's army, to Oboro's incredulity. The exchange is a reference to Haar and Jill's confrontation while on opposite sides.
    • When Marth appears in the Premonition History Mode, he and Female Robin directly reference his dialogue with Hardin and the latter's Motive Rant.
    • Iago tries to "play" with Elise, but was rejected, much to his dismay. This draws parallels to Narcian and Clarine's interactions in The Binding Blade, with Iago even borrowing Narcian's "I am strong. I am wise." rant used during his final encounter.
  • Ryoma's promoted costume, "High Prince" (which doesn't exist in his own game as he starts as a promoted unit) puts him in the armour of his late father King Sumeragi (as seen in the cutscene in Fates depicting his death as well as the late-game Revelation map where his Brainwashed and Crazy Anankos-resurrected form is the stage-boss).
  • Camilla's support with Chrom references the time when Frederick put up naked posters of him to "boost morale". Chrom would rather not have that brought up.
• Named Weapon: All characters wield their own unique weapon - while can they can use others in their place, those weapons cannot be given to others nor can they be sold at the smithy. Robin, Lissa, Frederick, Cordelia, Caeda, Tiki, and Anna lack their own weapons in the base game, but they can be obtained in the various DLC packs as prizes for completing specific History Mode stages.
• Nerf: Surprisingly, it's the unique weapons that some of the characters have that got smacked a bit harder by losing some of their useful effects, either for balancing or because certain Skill Crests can fulfill the same job and thus make them redundant.
  • From Fates, Raijinto and Siegfried lose their innate Strength (Raijinto) and Defense (Siegfried) boosts, Leo's Brynhildr lacks the passive ability to weaken damage from Tomes, Sakura's Spellbane Yumi lacks the damage boost against Tomes, and Elise's Moonlight doesn't heal her upon inflicting damage. More subdued is the Yato's 'Omega' form, which is solely exclusive to Corrin's Warrior Special and it skips the 'Alpha' version entirely.
  • From Shadow Dragon and Awakening, both the Parallel and Exalted Falchion lack the ability to restore a portion of the holder's HP while in combat.
• No Campaign for the Wicked: Unlike in Hyrule Warriors, none of the villains are playable.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: The Support conversations are largely on the platonic side, so as to not invalidate any player's pairings from the characters' home games. The only characters to avert this are Marth and Caeda, as they are one of the few canonical pairings in the series, so while they don't have any "lovey-dovey" moments, the game makes it clear the two are very close, which is Lampshaded by them getting wedding-themed DLC costumes.
• No Name Given: Downplayed in the Japanese version in that, while both Rowan and Lianna are named, other characters never address them by their names and only refer to them by second-person pronouns and non-name third-person pronouns.
• Noodle Incident: During Camilla and Sakura's support conversation, Camilla recounts a story about Corrin's childhood. The only part heard before the conversation is cut off is that it ends with Corrin sitting on a pie.
• No Ontological Inertia:
  • If poison clouds or lightning strikes are on the field, it's because they've been conjured by an enemy Mage/Sage. Killing said Mage immediately dispels the clouds/calls off the lightning.
  • After Velezark is killed, everything that came through his portals return to their original world, though at a speed that allowed everyone to say goodbye.
• No Self-Buffs: Staff users cannot benefit from their own healing magic. This can be mitigated by creating the Live to Serve Boost Crest, done so by creating A-rank Supports with Lianna, which heals the user whenever they heal others.
• One-Man Army: In standard Warriors fashion, a single person is capable of cutting through countless Mooks all by themselves.
• One-Winged Angel: When you beat female Robin in the final mission of Invisible Ties, she quickly respawns after going through a Class Change. You have to beat her again in her powered-up form to achieve victory for real.
• Original Generation: This game features the two main protagonist twins Rowan and Lianna, along with their mother Yelena and older brother figure Darios.
  • In terms of classes/costumes, new ones had to be invented for characters who started as promoted units, or who's base classes don't have promotions in their own games (i.e. Frederick, Olivia, Azura, all the Nohrian royals bar Elise, and Ryoma) for when a Surge Crest is used on them. Frederick becomes a "Guardian Knight", Olivia becomes a "Prima", Azura a "Diva", Leo a "Dark Crusader", Camilla a "Malig Master", Xander a "Crown Prince" and Ryoma a "High Prince").
• Offhand Backhand: In Chapter 11, Xander is ambushed from behind by two Hoshidan Pegasus Knights. He takes them out without flinching or facing them, only slightly turning around to ensure he hits them both in a single swing.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: The A-rank, or "Brave", weapons were originally the most powerful weapons in the game not requiring a Mastery Crest upgrade, but the ver 1.3.0 gave players the S-rank ("Hero") weapons, an even higher tier of weapons that you unlock simply by updating your game, as a free DLC. It's possible to bypass the Brave weapons completely and go straight to the Hero weapons and Mastery/Sanctuary Crests; in fact, since unlocking each of the Brave weapons requires completing a specific Lv 50 History Mode battle and the B-rank weapons start being clearly inadequate in the high 50s to mid 60s, it's possible to start relying on the Hero and Mastery Crest-upgraded weapons without unlocking any of the Brave weapons if you concentrate on the wrong History Mode maps.
• Palette Swap: Enemy Captains are given different colors and names to match whichever nation or world that they are from. For example, the infantry swordsman Captain is called a Myrmidon most of the time, but is called a Samurai if they're Hoshidan, or called a Mercenary if they are Nohrian.
• Permadeath: Keeping in line with the series, there is an option for permadeath present; allies who fall in battle during the main campaign do not die, but are critically injured and cannot be used in future battles. This can be changed mid-campaign by going to Casual Mode, but as with modern titles that allow it, it is a one-way trip which cannot be reversed. Also downplayed, as injured units can be healed by paying a fee at the temple, as many times as necessary.
• Person as Verb: Corrin likes to tell gloomy or overly-serious people to "Stop being so Xander," referencing her older brother's similar tendencies.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Any color differences between Rowan's and Lianna's designs go with cooler blue colors for Rowan and warmer reddish colors for Lianna. The gemstones and handles on their Infinity Plus One Swords, for example, are bright sky blue for Rowan and magenta for Lianna (although in gameplay, they can use each other's swords as they please).
• Play Every Day: Downplayed. You can get free weapons, materials, or money for scanning an amiibo but you're limited to five amiibo scans in a 24-hour period with no consequence for missing a day or not even scanning at all.
• Plot Coupon: Restoring the Shield of Flames requires collecting the five Gleamstones, which are obtained from the most important heroes you come across.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Lianna is a calm scholarly princess with an eye critical to herself most of all, while her younger twin Prince Rowan is an eager frontline fighter who prefers the action of the battlefield to the responsibilities of the throne. In spite and because of these traits, both of them want the other to inherit the throne.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • If you have Hinoka in your party during Chapter 7, Takumi and Oboro try to get her to tell them why she's fighting to no avail. Since Hinoka's in a Race Against the Clock to save Rowan from a terminal disease, she chooses to simply fight through them rather than waste valuable time explaining things.
  • Leo doesn't bother asking his sisters why they've joined up with Lianna's group, instead just attacking on the baseless assumption that they're allied with Hoshido. Not helping matters is that Camilla doesn't attempt to reason with her brother.
• Post-End Game Content: Beating the game unlocks the last two non-DLC History Mode scenarios, grants access to the Harder Than Hard Lunatic difficulty, and provides a new Gallery to complete.
• Power at a Price: The Armor Strike weapon attribute can strip enemies of their armor and lower their defenses, but the wielder of the weapon becomes vulnerable to the same effects.
• Power Glows: When a character's weapon reaches its true full potential with an Opus scroll, its model begins to visibly glow.
• Power Up Let Down: Some History Mode maps deploy Rowan and Lianna as enemies. They come packing their Enliron and Facinna, allowing them to do extreme damage to any allied monster units. Too bad there are no monster units.
• Power-Up Motif: Awakening Mode is punctuated by a rock version of the main Fire Emblem theme.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: History Mode maps retell a specific battle from each of the five games represented (plus more over the course of DLC). However, a lot of the characters from those games are not part of the Warriors roster, so concessions are made for those stories. This is most noticeable with the The Blazing Blade and Gaiden maps; as Lyn and Celica are the only playable representatives for their respective games, other characters appear to represent their allies from those titles in spirit. For example, Chrom and Marth replace Hector and Eliwood for Blazing Blade due to their similar personalities, while Rowan and Validar replace Alm and Jedah for Gaiden.
• Prestige Class: Once a character reaches Level 15, you can Class Change them into a stronger class if you use a Master Seal. Class Changing provides a major boost to all stats that aren't that unit's Dump Stat, grants a new outfit, and unlocks new Crests for them to purchase.
• Protection Mission:
  • Chapter 6 and Chapter 9 require you protect Sakura and Elise, respectively, while also completing the normal "defeat the boss" objective. Sakura and Elise stay put at your base to make things a little easier on you.
  • Ally Rescue missions in History Mode have you fighting off enemies that swarm friendly NPCs found in specific parts of the map.
  • There are a few History missions that summon a large-scale attack force and have them attack your main character, the game telling you to protect said character. Of course, if said character is also the strongest warrior you have, it's more a case of not protecting your character, but asking who's going to protect that weak group of enemies?
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: In Owain and Takumi's support, the latter tries the former's "special" technique by shouting some names for it. He fumbles on his words, but Owain tells him that "That. Was. INCREDIBLE!"
• Put on a Bus: Several characters do not appear in DLC History Mode and Support Conversations (barring ones with base game NPCs like Navarre that are already programmed in), possibly due to Japanese voice actors not returning. These characters are Rowan, Lianna, Takumi, Elise, Iago, Lucina, Frederick, Cordelia, Tiki, Gharnef, Lyn, and Celica.
• Race Against the Clock: In Chapter 7, Rowan contracts a disease that quickly starts killing him. You end up having to search the battle map for herbs to cure him (by taking forts) and beat Takumi before Rowan's condition deteriorates too far.
  • A number of history maps give you a time limit of 15 minutes to complete the stage. Additionally, you have 15 minutes on any stage to complete it in order to get an S rank, and you have to take less than 80% damage with characters you are directly controlling, and get 2000 combined kills.
• Rain of Arrows:
  • Archers can shoot a flurry of arrows up into the air for their second Strong Attack, causing them to rain down on surrounding foes.
  • Sakura's Awakening Special involves summoning a small contingent of archers, which proceed to all fire on nearby enemies.
• Random Number God: There are five variables to a weapon drop which are Weapon Rank, Weapon Stars, Weapon Slots, Number of Skills, and Type of Skills. Getting the very best weapon (Rank S, five stars, six slots) requires a tremendous investment of time and amazing luck.
• Redemption Equals Death: Darios after Velezark materializes and leaves his body.
• Red Shirt Army: You have your own army of uncontrollable generic soldiers that guard important points. While your Captains can occasionally fend off opposing Captains trying to capture forts, they're largely just there to act as Cannon Fodder and slow down the enemy.
• Relationship Values: This game features Fire Emblem's Support system, allowing characters to raise their Support rating with other characters. Raising these values will gift the player with rare materials, and sometimes a rare custom dialogue event.
• Remember the New Guy?: Playable characters that appear exclusively outside of the story mode like Azura, Lyn, and Celica have dialogue in their supports that suggest that they were indeed tagging along with Rowan and Lianna on their journey despite again, not even being hinted in the story itself.
• Required Party Member: Some story missions require that you field specific units, such as Chrom being mandatory in Chapter 3. The royal sibling chosen at the start of the game is more or less mandatory in every mission, save for a few - for example, Rowan is taken out of commission in the same level the party battles Hinoka. This goes away once you unlock Free Mode after clearing Chapter 5 and beating the Chapter once prior to.
  • Also pops up in History Mode maps as a form of restriction, such as using only Awakening characters, or Axe units, etc. Like the above example, the restriction goes away after getting an S-rank clear with most of them.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Many members of the playable cast are royalty of some kind, with Rowan and Lianna being the most notable examples as the protagonists of the story. In fact, only Robin, Frederick, Cordelia, Anna, Niles, Oboro, Navarre, Tharja, and Olivia aren't royalty in some manner, and of those only Robin, Frederick, and Cordelia are unlockable through playing story mode (Niles, Oboro, and Navarre appear, but are DLC).
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Awakening Mode makes it so you always have Weapon Triangle advantage while it's active, even if you're fighting someone you should have Weapon Triangle disadvantage against.
• Situational Sword: The Gencross and Genpeer weapon attributes, introduced with the Shadow Dragon DLC, are this, as they do boosted damage to either the opposite sex (Gencross) or the same sex (Genpeer) of a unit.
• Static Role, Exchangeable Character: Before you start the game, you're forced to choose one of Lianna or Rowan to be your main character. They both largely act out the role as the protagonist the same way without any significant story changes between them.
• Strength Equals Worthiness: Frederick decides to test Lianna and Rowan's combat prowess to determine if they're worthy enough to receive the Shepherds' help.
• Succession Crisis: An unusual one in which neither heir wants the throne. After the plot and much character growth on Rowan and Lianna's parts, it's resolved by crowning them both and having them co-rule.
• Super Mode: Similar to Hyrule Warriors, characters can enter a state called Awakening Mode, activated by filling up the Awakening Meter to at least half full and pressing R. Awakening Mode temporarily unlocks the character's entire set of combos if you don't have them yet, makes it so Weapon Triangle advantage is always considered to be in the character's favor (thus they deal more and take less damage), makes you unflinchable, and grants several minor bonuses as large amounts of kills are obtained in a Kill Streak.
• Super Move Portrait Attack: When a character initiates the final strike of a Special, the camera does a close-up of their face and overlays a cut-in effect resembling that of the 3DS Fire Emblem games.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The History Mode maps (bar the first two) replace characters from the original games with playable characters in Warriors:
  • The Dark Pontifex:
    • Robin replaces Bantu, as they both have a link with dragons and know Tiki.
    • Leo replaces Gotoh, as they are skilled and scholarly in magic.
  • Noble Lady of Caelin.
    • Marth replaces Eliwood, as they're both Peaceful Lords.
    • Chrom replaces Hector, the former being an Expy of the latter.
    • Robin replaces the Tactician, as they're both tacticians (duh) that represent the player.
    • Caeda replaces Florina, as they are Pegasus Knights dedicated to their lord.
  • Together to the End:
    • Rowan replaces Alm, as they're both Martial Lords.
    • Validar replaces Jedah, as they both use dark magic and lead a cult.
    • Iago and Gharnef replace Marla and Hestia, as they are black magicians devoted to their leader.
    • Darios replaces Duma, since they have a link to dragons and used to be good until they got corrupted.
  • Grief (The map is a mixture of Mother, Memories and Arete Undone from Fire Emblem Fates)
    • Camilla replaces Mikoto, as they both have a deep maternal instinct towards Corrin.
    • Leo replaces Takumi as the younger brother of Corrin, though he would have a stronger connection towards Camilla.
    • Female Corrin controlled by Velezark replaces a mixture of Sumeragi and Arete controlled by Anankos, as the former is a loved member of the Hoshidan family, while the latter is close with Azura.
  • Land of Gods
    • Caeda replaces Izana, as a royal figure beloved by their people. Izana's quirky traits are replaced by Caeda's perfect traits.
    • Zola is replaced by Validar, who is also a dark mage who uses tricks to get what he wants.
    • Hinata is replaced with Niles, as a retainer to a younger brother prince.
  • Cold Reception
    • Kilma is replaced by Ryoma, as they both have bad views of Nohrians. Ryoma also helps a rebellion in Fates, though of a different village (Cheve).
    • Lissa replaces Elise, since the latter is an Expy of the former.
    • Leo takes Silas' role, as they are very devoted to Corrin and are often a voice of reason.
    • Sakura takes Felicia's role (odd given this doesn't happen when Female Corrin is chosen). This can be seen since they both go against their families due to their loyalty to Corrin (Sakura in Revelation and Felicia in Conquest).
    • Owain takes the role of Odin. Fitting, since they are the same person.
  • Emmeryn
    • Gangrel is replaced by Validar, both being Plegian villains, and Validar becoming ruler of the country after Gangrel's defeat anyway.
  • Caravan Dancer
    • Validar is once again used as a stand-in for Gangrel, for the same reasons above.
    • Camilla replaces Aversa, as they are both older, seductive-looking women who ride winged beasts (though Camilla rides a wyvern as opposed to Aversa's pegasus). While it's not represented in this game, in their own games they're both of classes that wield both weapons and tomes as well (Axes for Camilla as a Malig Knight, lances for Aversa as a Dark Flier).
• A Taste of Power: When "Marth"^note Lucina in a mask becomes briefly playable in Chapter 1, "he" has all of his combo skill tree unlocked to showcase the potential each character can unlock.
• Taunt Button: Zigzagged; it's clicking the right thumbstick.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Fire Emblem's signature Weapon Triangle is kept for this game. Characters with a weapon advantage deal more and take less damage, and can deplete a foe's Weak Point Gauge much faster than usual, while having a disadvantage causes the exact opposite. Awakening Mode breaks the triangle for as long as it lasts, giving a weapon advantage for its user even if they had a disadvantage beforehand (for example, Camilla, an axe user, gains an advantage over an enemy swordsman, who would normally have an advantage over her). Magic users like Robin and Leo exist outside this mechanic, instead dealing damage relative to their magic stat and their enemies' resistance to it. Similar treatment is applied to bow users, who are not as well-rounded but make up for it with every attack performed on Pegasus Knights and Wyvern Riders being criticals.
• Terms of Endangerment: In chapter 7 or 10 of Story Mode, if Lianna is fighting Niles, the latter will call her "sweetheart" while denouncing her claims that she and her party are not the enemy.
• Thanking the Viewer: After the Story Mode credits roll, the character set as the System Voice will thank you for playing the game.
• Theme Naming: The Hoshidans still retain their tendency to use kanji for their units' classes in the Japanese version, even classes that the Hoshidans didn't have in their home game like Knights and Cavaliers.
• Timed Mission:
  • Most maps require that you win within 60 minutes. In History Mode, certain battles will force you to win within 15 minutes, some less than.
  • If you take a little too long during Chapter 7, a timer appears at the top of the screen as Rowan's sickened condition quickly deteriorates. If the timer hits zero, you get a Game Over due to Rowan's death.
  • In Chapter 12, Ryoma and Xander are off trying to kill each other in a part of the map you can't access. While no hard time limit is given, you have to win before one of them succeeds.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: The time period of Shadow Dragon takes place roughly two millennia before Awakening, and the "Before Awakening" Xenologue in Fates establishes that Hoshido and Nohr are considered "legends" for people like Chrom.
• Trailers Always Spoil: Prior to their reveal, Robin, Lissa, and Lucina were all leaked by an early image of the Treasure Box Limited Edition, where certain sprites on the box itself could be connected to their shapes (and in Lucina's case, there being two Marth sprites on the cover). That the image was quickly taken down and replaced with a version that didn't show the box didn't help either.
• Two Girls and a Guy: All three DLC packs are set up this way. Fates has Azura and Oboro as the two girls to Niles' guy, Shadow Dragon has Minerva and Linde as the two girls to Navarre's guy, and Awakening has Tharja and Olivia as the two girls to Owain's guy.
• Video Game Delegation Penalty: Directing your NPC Allies or just letting them do their thing can allow you to take control of the map and rack up the K.O. count very quickly. The only problem with this is that you miss out on the materials of every enemy they defeat which is not good if you're farming for silver and gold material drops.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Validar, Iago, and Gharnef teleport away on defeat and don't appear for the rest of the story afterwards.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: Until Story Mode is cleared, if the designated Player Character you chose at the beginning of the game dies, you instantly lose. Afterwards, you can still clear the mission as long as at least one playable warrior is alive.
• Weapon Specialization: Each character is restricted to one type of weapon, but on the other hand, they can wield any non-character exclusive weapon of that type. These unique weapons, like Corrin and her brothers' legendary weapons and Falchions wielded by Marth, Chrom and Lucina, have their damage values scale with their users; while they may be lacking in raw damage output, they make up for it with a large amount of slots to place skills in, as well as being upgrade with Scrolls and Opusus via Mastery and Sanctuary Crests, respectively.
• Weapon of X-Slaying: The five classic weapon effectiveness traits are present here: Armorslayer, Beastslayer, Dracoslayer, Mountslayer, and Wingslayer.
• You Remind Me of X: Thanks to character archetypes in the overall series, Variant 2 happens a lot in Support conversations. Examples include Chrom reminding Marth of King Anri and Lyn of Hector, Rowan reminding Celica of Alm, and Owain reminding Leo and Niles of Odin unaware that Owain is just Odin of the past.

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