Characters / Fire Emblem - Heroic Archetypes - Availability vs. Growth

Heroic Archetype Index | Main Characters | Availability Vs Growth | Teams | Physical Units | Magic Units | Mid-Late Game Units | Personalities | Others

Availability vs. Growth

These characters are marked by their gameplay impact on the player's party, and can shore up your strength at various points in the game.

• The Crutch Character
  • The Jagen: An early-game old veteran that can't keep up due to poor growths.
  • The Oifey: A early-game experienced lieutenant who has growths to keep pace.
• The Magikarp Power
  • Est: A late-game young rookie with amazing growths if you invest in them.
  • The Trainee: A rookie with a unique weak class that can be recruited at anytime.
• The Eyvel: A Taste of Power Guest-Star Party Member that returns when they may no longer be relevant.
• The Gotoh: A Crutch Character given at the very end of the game to make the last chapters easier if you're unprepared.

The Crutch Character

The Jagen

The Jagen is a Crutch Character granted early in the game. They start off at a high level or are already a promoted class when the game begins, but they also have average to poor stat growths. Relying on the Jagen too much can hurt the player in the long run, as they will steal the majority of EXP if they're on the front lines killing enemies. They are generally an older mentor figure and bodyguard to the Lord, almost always of the Paladin class and come equipped with a Silver Lance. The typical justification for a Jagen's poor potential is usually advanced age or sickness.

Their true usage is to protect the weaker unit and softening the enemies so the weaker allies can kill said enemies to reap the big EXP points and unleash their potential or having to deal with an earlier tough enemies that the weaker units have no hope to defeat so the player can properly advance through the stories. Hence, while they can be used wrong and cripple the game when they steal unwanted EXP, they can also be the player's ace in the hole to face the Early Game Hell.

From The Blazing Blade onward, the Jagen archetype was phased out of the series (sans remakes) in favor of the similar Oifey archetype, though the Jagen makes a comeback in Fire Emblem Fates through the Great Knight Gunter.

Playable characters of this archetype: Jagen (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light); Arran (Mystery of the Emblem); Dagdar (Thracia 776); Marcus (The Binding Blade); Gunter^note only qualifies in the Revelation route; in Birthright, he never returns after being thrown into the Bottomless Canyon early in the game, while in Conquest, he rejoins the party late and instead acts as an Eyvel (Fates); Vander (Engage)

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: Dorcas^note Joins with above-average base stats, and is crippled by bad growths in key areas, but the player needs to level him up in the game's tutorial mode in order for him to play this role in the main story. He's the most likely character to equip the game's first available Silver Axe, but unlike the Jagens with their Silver Lances, Dorcas neither begins with the axe nor the weapon skill level necessary to equip it. Without investment, he's just a standard part of the Bord and Cord duo. (The Blazing Blade); Gilbert^note only in Azure Moon, while he does meet several requirements, such as being an old retainer to Dimitri, having good bases for when he joins, and can get outclassed by others in his class such as Dedue and potentially Sylvain, but there are two that disqualify him from being a Jagen; he actually does have some good growths with the exception of speed, and he joins midway through the game instead of at the beginning. (Three Houses)

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• Boring, but Practical: Oftentimes, they'll be able to pull their weight throughout the game doing stuff like chasing down thieves, or handling weak mooks while the other characters go after the main objective. It helps that many of them are in the very mobile and versatile Paladin class. Gunter also qualifies as he's in the Great Knight class. The only one who doesn't fit this is Dagdar, who is instead a Warrior.
• Cool Horse: Almost all Jagens are Paladins, and as such they are mounted units.
• Character Select Forcing: In several games' hardest difficulties, using the Jagen (or Oifey) is basically mandatory for the first several chapters.
• Crutch Character:
  • Jagens are quite useful in the early game, starting out as Disc One Nukes due to their stat advantage. They start losing steam starting from mid-game due to their low stat growths, receiving little EXP early on due to scaling, and other characters with higher stat growths catching up. Using Jagens to kill a lot of enemies early on can actually hurt you in the long run, as their initially low EXP yields and the limited EXP available lead to other characters being deprived of levels: thus, using them is itself a strategic balancing act between defeating enemies when necessary and softening them up for other units to kill whenever possible. That said, it's generally accepted that it's okay to make use of them; just don't try to solo the game unless that's deliberately what you're shooting for.
  • Dadgar is a bit special in this deparment thanks to Thracia 776's particular way of balancing its characters; he actually doesn't start to show his age until very late in the game when magic enemies become pretty much omnipresent (which is his biggest weakness), thanks to the fact that unlike other Jagens his bases stats are actually quite high and the enemies aren't particularly bulky most of the time.
• Disc-One Nuke: Jagens start out able to flatten run-of-the-mill enemy units, and usually can take the early bosses without breaking a sweat.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: Jagens tend to start with a weaker weapon like an Iron Sword in addition to their aforementioned Silver Lance, and they usually have the exact Strength to leave the enemy on a sliver of HP rather than killing them outright, who can then be killed by a weaker unit who needs the EXP.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Their lack of long-run potential is entirely justified by the story; they are old veterans who have little to learn in the way of combat and are hampered by their years compared to the more youthful units. Thus, they serve as mentors to the younger characters, which is conveyed through gameplay as being explicitly designed to feed kills to the younger, weaker units in the early game.
• The Mentor: As the elder statesmen they may train the younger units early on in hopes that they'll be surpassed in time.
• Old Retainer: Most of them are veteran knights old enough to be the Lords' grandfather, and they take pride in their years of loyal service.
• Old Soldier: Characters of this archetype are up there in their years, being no less than 40, when most of the main cast are between their mid-teens and early twenties.
• Stone Wall: Another reason why they are favored is their ability to tank attacks from enemies early on as well, and they're fast enough to avoid being doubled. Marcus is an good example of this, as his bulk allows him to transport Roy across the level to the seize point.

The Oifey

The Oifey is an evolution of the Jagen that generally fulfills the same role as the Crutch Character and shares many of the Jagen's tropes and elements (retainer/mentor of the Lord, tends to be a Paladin, starts out wielding a Silver Lance), but the Oifey continues to be useful in the long term due to having higher stat growths. The Oifey is also not much older than the Lord they serve — unlike the Jagen, who has a decade or two on most of the cast — and may have a Bodyguard Crush on their liege if they're of the opposite sex.

From The Blazing Blade and onward, the Oifey essentially replaces the Jagen archetype bar the remakes Shadow Dragon and New Mystery of the Emblem. Oifeys would continue to be a staple of Fire Emblem games until Fates reintroduced the Jagen archetype through Gunter.

Playable characters of this archetype: Lukas and Clive (Gaiden); Sigurd and Quan^note Gen 1, Oifey^note Gen 2 (Genealogy of the Holy War); Finn (Thracia 776); Dieck (The Binding Blade); Marcus and Oswin ^note Plot-wise for Eliwood and Hector mode respectively (The Blazing Blade); Seth (The Sacred Stones); Titania (Path of Radiance); Sothe (Radiant Dawn); Frey (Shadow Dragon and New Mystery of the Emblem); Frederick (Awakening); Felicia or Jakob^note Corrin's gender determines which one you start with, with the other being a mid-game unit. Male Corrin gets Felicia first while female Corrin gets Jakob. While their stats are on par with your tier 1 units, they get early access to endgame-level skills. (Fates); Byleth and the Church/Knights of Seiros instructors ^note Seteth, Catherine, Shamir, Hanneman, Manuela, Gilbert (Three Houses); Anna (Heroes)

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• Bodyguard Crush: They may crush on their Lord. Seth to Eirika, Titania to Greil, Sothe to Micaiah. Played for Laughs between Frederick and Chrom. In Fates, when the main Lord and customizable Avatar were combined into Corrin, you get one of two Oifeys that will always be Corrin's opposite sex if you want to invoke this yourself, and you'll get the same-sex one later in the game. This is because Oifeys haven't hit the age of Old Soldier like Jagen, so a normal romance is still an option for them.
• Boring, but Practical: Much like their older counterparts, Oifeys do have above-average stat growths, but their bases are comparatively a little low for their levels, so their stats don't tend to hit ridiculous heights. They're still usually strong enough to handle just about anything when fully leveled, though.
• Breaking Old Trends: Titania was the first to be female. Sothe was the first to not be a mounted or otherwise knightly class line, instead being part of the thief family of classes. Interestingly Felicia combines both of these attributes as the Maid class is a mix of troubadour and thief characteristics.
• Character Select Forcing: In several games' hardest difficulties, using the Oifey (or Jagen) is basically mandatory for the first several chapters.
• The Consigliere: They're often the only non-Lords that remain core characters throughout the story, and the one who talks sense into the heroes as they go on their adventures.
• Cool Horse: A plenty of them are on a horse-mounted class, like the Jagens. Those who aren't tend to be either armored knights, or otherwise infantry units with unusually good base stats.
• Crutch Character: Unlike the Jagens, though, these guys will typically remain a viable unit for the majority of the game, and maybe even well into the endgame, though Frederick is generally considered much weaker (but also extremely necessary).
• Disc-One Nuke: Like Jagens, they start as this. Unlike Jagens, the end result is much better.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: They would be good candidates for safely weakening enemies due to their high accuracy and bulk - if it weren't for the fact that they're so strong that they can't leave most enemies alive even with the weakest weapons. Using them to feed the army EXP can ironically be a lot harder than with the Jagen, since they often need to go out of their way to make their combat worse, like using an extremely heavy (and inaccurate) weapon or rescuing a unit to lower their Speed. Thankfully, most games with Oifeys usually have other units capable of filling this role with less hassle (e.g. Oswin to Marcus in The Blazing Blade).
• Gameplay and Story Integration: While Jagens tend to be old and greying, Oifeys tend to be merely older than the rest of the cast, seemingly in their twenties or thirties. It's especially pronounced with Marcus, who drops off in most of his stats between Blazing and Binding.
• Lightning Bruiser: Generally, they're prepromotes with good bases and decent growths that hit very hard, soak up a lot of damage, and streak across the map. In the mid-to-late game, they tend to end up in Jack of All Stats territory, although there is still possibility that they're still ahead of most units.
• Mercy Mode: In less difficult installments, they serve to help less experienced players overcome difficult segments such as that game's Early-Bird Boss, at the cost of losing out on experience for their other characters. This is averted in more difficult games, where there's a much heavier obligation to use these characters to get past the Early Game Hell or to achieve a higher ranking, regardless of the player's skill level.
• Plot Armor: As mentioned under The Consigliere, Oifeys usually appear in cutscenes throughout the story, so in games with Permadeath they will only suffer a Career-Ending Injury if they run out of HP. They still won't be usable as a unit, but they will continue to appear in cutscenes.
• Trope Codifier: The earliest Oifey units were unorthodox in how they overlapped with other archetypes^note Lukas being a Draug, Sigurd being a Lord, Dieck being an Ogma, etc. and served niches outside of being exclusively a Crutch Character.^note The Trope Namer serving as a Convenient Replacement Character for players that have surmassed a party of subpar "substitute" characters in the second half of Genealogy of the Holy War, Finn serving as an effective Fragile Speedster with his Miracle ability. It wasn't until Marcus of The Blazing Blade where the archetype was finally solidified as "a Jagen but with better longevity".

Magikarp Power

The Est

The Est is the opposite of the Jagen. While the Jagen is a Crutch Character that is older than most of the cast, the Est is one of the younger characters that joins the group late in the game and embodies Magikarp Power. They may start off at a low level and as a basic class, but they'll become very powerful when trained thanks to their high stat growths. The original Est was a physical unit, though from Genealogy of the Holy War onward, they are more likely to be magic users.

Playable characters of this archetype: Est (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Gaiden, and Mystery of the Emblem); Delthea (Gaiden); Tailtiu and Coirpre/Charlot (Genealogy of the Holy War); Miranda (Thracia 776); Zeiss (The Binding Blade); Nino (The Blazing Blade); Elincia (Path of Radiance); Pelleas and Kurthnaga (Radiant Dawn); Cyril ^note Only on Silver Snow, as he is available earlier during White Clouds if the player chooses the Blue Lions or the Golden Deer, and is unavailable on Crimson Flower. (Three Houses)

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• Badass Adorable: Often cute or among the youngest of your army, but they can still fight and are potentially one of the strongest units.
• Breaking Old Trends: Zeiss is the first amongst Est characters differing in the way that:
  • He's actually a guy (albeit a decently handsome guy).
  • He's a bit older than most of the ladies preceeding him.
• Difficult, but Awesome: They take up way more time and resources than your other units, especially because they join at a point where almost everything can kill them. But once trained up, they're fun as heck to unleash. Unfortunately may also overlap with Awesome, but Impractical, especially as the metagame shifted towards availability and speedruns, which favors those factors more and those are the areas Ests lack, in which it may be awesome to see them wreck things once properly trained up, but if you want to get good grades, trying to finish the game as quickly as possible or is in a rather difficult mode, you may end up reconsidering whether they'll be worth the difficulty or not.
• Glass Cannon: Even if their growths are impressive overall, most tend to have mediocre HP and/or defense growth and low stat caps in those categories. A player wishing to use one of them should have some boosts handy.
• Late Character Syndrome: Despite their potential, they tend to come rather late, and at such a low level that it's almost not worth it to train them.
• The Load: If you're not willing to invest the effort to train them, they might as well not be there.
• Magikarp Power: They start off very weak and at a low level, but become one of their game's strongest units when trained.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: If not slender adults, Est characters are often children or small enough to pass as them. This actually can be a gameplay handicap, as a low Constitution (or Strength in some games) limits their ability to use heavier weapons.
• Unbuilt Trope: The Trope Namer becomes captured twice over the course of Gaiden/Echoes: Shadows of Valentia and Mystery of the Emblem. In spite of her potential as a fighter, at the time of capture she's unable to free herself and relies on the heroes to rescue her. She loses her self-esteem from these incidents, and later abandons Abel in the belief that she's a burden to him. This becomes all the more tragic for players that have made the effort to level her up: while they see the potential in her, she can't.

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The Trainee

Similar to the Est, but with much more variance in availability. These units tend to have a unique Trainee or Villager class that often exists at a tier below standard unpromoted classes. Through branching promotion, this gives them many more final class options than most units. Their versatility is appealing, but like Est, they start so weak they'll just be doing scratch damage with no special advantages for a while.

Trainees are almost all small town youths who are just getting their first taste of war.

Three Houses offers a different twist on this archetype, in that every member of the academy starts out as a trainee classes (Commoner/Noble) and can be trained with any classes/skills you want. However, each academy members had their own set of interests and aspirations which influences what classes/skills will they be interested at that they eventually would also fit into other archetypes.

Playable characters of this archetype: Gray, Tobin, Kliff, and Atlas (Gaiden); Lachesis and Leif (Genealogy of the Holy War); Ross, Amelia, and Ewan (The Sacred Stones); Donnel (Awakening); Mozu (Fates); Faye (Shadows of Valentia); Cyril ^note While the majority of characters all start in trainee-like class at level 1, Cyril also fits other aspects, as well as having Aptitude as his personal skill. (Three Houses); Jean (Engage)

• Country Mouse: Donnel and Mozu fit squarely here. Many of their predecessors were at least small town heroes, with the exceptions of Lachesis and Leif, who were both royalty.
• Job System: Especially in Gaiden and Echoes, where the Villager class can split into 5 other unrelated class trees (in Echoes, Faye gets 4). In Sacred Stones, Ross gets access to all axe fighter variants, Amelia all armored and mounted knightly classes, and Ewan all anima and dark magic classes. In the beta, there was also a Probation Flier trainee class that presumably would've gotten access to all flying units.
• Late Character Syndrome: Averted, one of their main distinctions from Est. The Gaiden crew on Alm's route can all join before the first chapter (or can be saved and picked up later) while Celica gets Atlas midway in the story. Lachesis joins midway through Sigurd's half of Genealogy, while Leif joins in the second chapter of Seliph's story. In Sacred Stones, Ross is early game, Amelia mid-game, and Ewan closer to late-game. In Awakening and Fates, their sidequests become available early in the game, but it's up to you when you want to pick them up.
• Magikarp Power: Like proper Ests, they start with low stats, but have a great deal of potential to grow.
• Optional Party Member: In Awakening, Fates, and Engage, they come from optional sidequests. In the original Gaiden, Alm could leave his home town without them, and in the remake, he can still leave Kliff and Faye behind. In Three Houses, recruiting Cyril is optional on the Azure Moon and Verdant Wind routes, while on the Black Eagles routes, he either joins automatically (Silver Snow) or does not join at all (Crimson Flower) depending on the major choice at the end of Chapter 11.

The Eyvel

The Eyvel is a particularly devious variant of the Jagen that acts as the game's Crutch Character as usual - until, due to plot complications, they become unavailable for a long time and don't return until after the majority of characters have passed them by.

Playable characters of this archetype: Eyvel (Thracia 776); Wallace (The Blazing Blade); Shinon (Path of Radiance); Tormod, Muarim, Vika, Nailah, Lucia, and Geoffrey (Radiant Dawn); Athena^note She's not a prepromote, however she has great stats for the prologue and only Kris can compete with her (New Mystery of the Emblem); Gunter^note only in Conquest; he's a straight Jagen in Revelation (Fates); Mycen^note only in the remake, where he is temporarily controlled in the prologue (Shadows of Valentia)

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: Orson^note He is the Crutch Character of Ephraim's party in Chapter 5x and the only one to not join the main army when he and Eirika reconvene in Chapter 8, reappearing much later in Chapter 16 - as the boss. and Eirika^note Ephraim's Route. Despite rejoining later and leaving a lot to be desired, she is already flawed enough stats-wise in the early game for her to not be considered a Crutch Character, thus lacking the "too good to be true" requirement for this archetype. (The Sacred Stones); Gatrie^note Like Shinon, Gatrie has high stats for the earlygame and temporarily leaves the party after Chapter 7. Unlike Shinon, he's only an unpromoted Level 9 Knight with stats that are more "above average" than "too good to be true," and he rejoins much earlier, letting him make up his lost time without being a case of Magikarp Power and making him more of a downplayed version of the archetype. (Path of Radiance); Dedue^* Azure Moon only, Ashe^* Verdant Wind and Silver Snow, and Lorenz^* Azure Moon and Silver Snow^note All three of these characters leave the player's party after the Time Skip and return if certain conditions are met, and when they do return, they'll likely be underleveled compared to everyone else. However, like Gatrie, none of them are presented as "too good to be true", and they all return relatively early in the war arc, only missing four chapters total (or three in Ashe's case).(Three Houses), First six Emblem Rings^* Marth, Sigurd, Celica, Micaiah, Roy, and Leif^note These Emblems were all stolen from you in Chapter 10, and spend several chapters absent, until you finally get them back one by one, with Marth being the last to return. However, outside of clones summoned by Emblem Veronica, they aren't directly playable, and some may still be as good as they were in the early game. Also, in Leif's case, he was already overshadowed by most other Emblems by the time you get him, due various factors, such as his Engage skill's Artificial Stupidity. (Engage)

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• 11th-Hour Ranger: In titles that are broken up into clear parts, tales, or segments like The Blazing Blade and Radiant Dawn, the Eyvel may fill the role of a Gotoh as an eleventh-hour ranger to ensure you can complete the final chapter or two of an early tale, after which for one reason or another, they'll become unplayable for a long time and will be the last character(s) from that tale to return.
• Can't Catch Up: Their prolonged absence means that they'll be far behind the other units when they return, and the ones that rejoin early enough to potentially be salvageable usually have bad growths as well.
• Crutch Character: They act like a Jagen at the start, being a powerful unit you can rely on for a short period.
• Disc-One Nuke: Like other Jagens, they murder the early chapters, but they're not even available again until Disc 4. Almost literally in the case of the Radiant Dawn examples.
• Fragile Speedster: While some, like Muarim and Geoffrey, are of the big, tanky classes common to other Jagens and Oifeys, there are also two Swordmasters, a Myrmidon, a Sniper, and a Raven — all classes characterized by speed and skill rather than strength.
• Late Character Syndrome: By the time they return, they're essentially superfluous and are really only there to show you how far your army has come rather than actually being used again. The only exceptions to this are Gunter, who does have improved stats in the interim with the exception of speed, and Nailah and Mycen also double for the Gotoh role.
• Plot Armor: Most of the time, they'll suffer a Non-Lethal K.O. if defeated early on, although Geoffrey and Lucia are acting Lords on their chapters and therefore instead get We Cannot Go On Without You. Eyvel herself actually can't be defeated in "Disc One" — Thracia 776 never allows any attack to have a 100% chance of hitting or missing, and it will cheese the RNG to ensure that any potentially lethal attack to Eyvel will miss.
• A Taste of Power: A straighter example compared to the Jagen, who even with their bad growths may or may not actually fall off depending on how lucky you get with their levels.

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The Gotoh

The Gotoh is an 11th-Hour Ranger who joins very late in the game, often during the penultimate or final chapter. They arrive already at max or close to max level with high stats, making them powerful enough to crush the final enemies by themselves to serve as a final crutch for the player, how powerful they're can vary in each game, ranking from above-average filler units to outright absurd powerhouses, they're always good units that arrive ready for action. Even though the Gotoh only joins near the end of the campaign, they may have been in contact with the Lord beforehand.

A good amount of Gotohs tend to be royalty or Famed In-Story in some capacity, possibly even being Living Legends with a title to match.

Playable characters of this archetype: Gotoh (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light); Mycen (Gaiden); Ced and Galzus (Thracia 776); Karel (The Binding Blade); Athos (The Blazing Blade); Tibarn, Naesala, and Giffca (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn); Caineghis, Nailah, and Lehran (Radiant Dawn); Nagi (Shadow Dragon and New Mystery of the Emblem); Basilio and Flavia (Awakening); Yukimura^note Birthright only (Fates); Jeritza^note only in Azure Gleam, as he joins near the start of Scarlet Blaze and is unrecruitable in Golden Wildfire(Warriors: Three Hopes)

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: Yoder^note Shares many gameplay and story parallels with Gotoh himself, as well as being the last character to join if the Legendary Weapons were not collected, but outside of his capped Resistance he is a Jack of All Stats at best at the point in the game where he joins. (The Binding Blade), Wallace^note He's only a late-joiner if you do Lyndis' tale, otherwise he becomes an Arran and Samson duo with Geitz. On the other hand, in scenarios where he fits, he's hardly the last to join and the one to carry the whole game alone, he's more like The Eyvel.(The Blazing Blade); Mauvier and Veyle^note Barring the Fell Xenologue, they're the last characters to join the team and comes with stats high enough to help carry the endgame. However, Mauvier isn't some sort of Living Legend but instead part of the Four Hounds, making him more of a Lorenz. In the same time, Veyle didn't have enough time to make a name for herself since she's Sombron's daughter and considered pretty young for Fell Dragon standards. (Engage); Byleth and Jeralt^note Though they share similarities with Galzus, they only join particularly late in Azure Gleam; Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire have them recruited early on in Part II. (Warriors: Three Hopes)

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• 11th-Hour Ranger: Always joins very late into the game, but has stats that ensure that they remain useful. Nailah actually shows up late in Part 1 for a couple of chapters, but doesn't return until Part 4. Wallace acts as this to Lyn's Tale, but optionally returns in the midgame as part of an Arran and Samson duo with Geitz and with whatever stats he had at the end of Lyn's Tale.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Their purpose is to make sure the player can still complete the game even with a decimated and/or RNG-screwed army, often coming with a signature weapon that deals effective damage to the Final Boss.
• Heel–Face Turn: Some Gotohs start out as recurring villains before joining, most notably Galzus, Naesala, and Jeritza.
• Living Legend: Many of them are well-known for many of their previous deeds possessing some kind of title, some of them take this to the extreme and are actually legendary figures from the distant past, living in the present.
• Mission Control: Usually serves as such before actually joining.
• Red Baron: Often, as they are typically famous In-Universe.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Sometimes the Gotoh is a ruler of a whole nation.