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Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Walkthrough/FAQ
By Roni
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Version 2.1a (March 10, 2006)
Created by Ross Weaver, (c) 2005
Start date: October 28, 2005
Size: 210 kb
The content of this work is reproduced with my permission.
Do not reproduce this work without my consent.  If you see
this FAQ anywhere other than an authorized site, contact me.
All the content here is my own work, unless otherwise cited.
See the bottom of this FAQ for a list of sites authorized to
reproduce this FAQ.
If you have any questions or comments or corrections, e-mail
me at ronirossa(at)hotmail.com, and I'll try and get back to
you.
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|                     Table of Contents                    |
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Note: to find a specific section, bring up the Find...
feature of your browser and type in the three-letter code
next to the section you want, and click Find Next until you
find the part you want.  Make sure to include the brackets
to avoid finding other iterations of words that I may have
spelled with the code (like bad).
1. General Notes.......................................[aaa]
a. Spoiler notes...............................[aab]
b. Stat growth.................................[aac]
c. Difficulty..................................[aad]
d. Basic Game Mechanics........................[aae]
e. Leveling Up.................................[aaf]
f. In-Depth Mechanics..........................[aag]
2. FAQ Section.........................................[aah]
3. Walkthrough.........................................[baa]
a. Chapter 1...................................[bab]
b. Chapter 2...................................[bac]
c. Chapter 3...................................[bad]
d. Chapter 4...................................[bae]
e. Chapter 5...................................[baf]
f. Chapter 6...................................[bag]
g. Chapter 7...................................[bah]
h. Chapter 8...................................[bai]
i. Chapter 9...................................[baj]
j. Chapter 10..................................[bak]
k. Chapter 11..................................[bal]
l. Chapter 12..................................[bam]
m. Chapter 13..................................[ban]
n. Chapter 14..................................[bao]
o. Chapter 15..................................[bap]
p. Chapter 16..................................[baq]
q. Chapter 17..................................[bar]
A. Battle 1............................[bas]
B. Battle 2............................[bat]
C. Battle 3............................[bau]
D. Battle 4............................[bav]
r. Chapter 18..................................[baw]
s. Chapter 19..................................[bax]
t. Chapter 20..................................[bay]
u. Chapter 21..................................[baz]
v. Chapter 22..................................[bba]
w. Chapter 23..................................[bbb]
x. Chapter 24..................................[bbc]
y. Chapter 25..................................[bbd]
z. Chapter 26..................................[bbe]
aa. Chapter 27.................................[bbf]
A. Black Knight........................[bbg]
bb. Chapter 28.................................[bbh]
cc. Chapter 29.................................[bbi]
A. Hard Version........................[bbj]
3. Character notes.....................................[caa]
a. Ike.........................................[cab]
b. Titania.....................................[cac]
c. Oscar.......................................[cad]
d. Boyd........................................[cae]
e. Rhys........................................[caf]
f. Shinon......................................[cag]
g. Gatrie......................................[cah]
h. Soren.......................................[cai]
i. Mia.........................................[caj]
j. Ilyana......................................[cak]
k. Mist........................................[cal]
l. Rolf........................................[cam]
m. Marcia......................................[can]
n. Mordecai....................................[cao]
o. Lethe.......................................[cap]
p. Volke.......................................[caq]
q. Kieran......................................[car]
r. Brom........................................[cas]
s. Nephenee....................................[cat]
t. Zihark......................................[cau]
u. Jill........................................[cav]
v. Sothe.......................................[caw]
w. Astrid......................................[cax]
x. Makalov.....................................[cay]
y. Stefan......................................[caz]
z. Tormod......................................[cba]
aa. Muarim.....................................[cbb]
bb. Devdan.....................................[cbc]
cc. Reyson.....................................[cbd]
dd. Janaff.....................................[cbe]
ee. Ulki.......................................[cbf]
ff. Tanith.....................................[cbg]
gg. Calill.....................................[cbh]
hh. Tauroneo...................................[cbi]
ii. Ranulf.....................................[cbj]
jj. Haar.......................................[cbk]
kk. Geoffrey...................................[cbl]
ll. Lucia......................................[cbm]
mm. Bastian....................................[cbn]
nn. Largo......................................[cbo]
oo. Elincia....................................[cbp]
pp. Ena........................................[cbq]
qq. Nasir......................................[cbr]
rr. Tibarn.....................................[cbs]
ss. Naesala....................................[cbt]
tt. Giffca.....................................[cbu]
3. Weapons/Magic.......................................[daa]
4. Items...............................................[eaa]
5. Skills..............................................[faa]
6. Extras..............................................[gaa]
7. Final Words, Authorized Sites, Version History......[haa]
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General tips for the Newcomers       [aaa]
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First of all, this is a strategy-based RPG, so use strategy.
What I mean by that is: don't just send whoever to kill
whoever.  Plan out your entire strategy before starting your
battle.  I'll help you along in the walkthrough with
specific battle tips, and hopefully save you some headaches
and trips to the reset button.  I'm very OCD when it comes
to developing characters in RPGs (I've put around 1000 hours
into Final Fantasy Tactics...go figure), and so my FAQ will
be strewn with fairly conservative means of winning battles.
The good thing about that is that your losses will be
minimized: the goal here is to finish the game without
losing anyone.  It's very easily done if you just know what
you're doing at all times.
Now, as to some quick specifics to keep in mind on your
first playthrough:
You get a character named Titania in the first level, and
she'll appear to be at level 1, around the same area as Ike
and the rest of the crew.  This is a lie.  She's actually a
level 1 paladin, which is equivalent to being level 21.  So,
in other words, you're starting out with an uber colossus
unit who will mow over anything and everything in the
opening half of the game.  As such, you may end up maxing
her out in that first half, but if you do that, everyone
else will suffer regardless of the hordes of bonus exp you
throw at them.  So, take my advice and try to use Titania in
as controlled a manner as possible.  Don't just send her
into the midst of the enemy and let them all go lemming on
you (more on that later).  You have other characters in the
game, and you'll come to find out that Titania is actually
just a mediocre character when it's all said and done.
You'll also get certain items throughout the game that boost
the stats of the character that uses them.  The first one
you get is a Seraph Robe from a house in the first chapter.
I'm not gonna tell you how to use these items; instead, just
look at your units yourself and decide what you want to
have.  For example, I like to have a strong Ike, so I gave
him a seraph robe and a speedwing early in the game to give
him an edge that he could really use.  By the same token,
you could use both of those on Soren and have a really
strong mage.  You can use the speedwing on Boyd to help him
make up for his early sluggishness.  And so on.
In the same fashion, I'm not gonna tell you which units to
use and when to use them.  That's up to you.  I will say
that you can build up any character in the game and have a
viable unit for combat.  So don't worry about a unit being
just inherently crappy.  You just have to know how to use
each unit, as is always the case in strategy games.  Instead
of telling you exactly which units to use, I'll give general
tips on how to use each unit, and maybe suggest using a unit
in a certain battle.  But by no means is this a definitive
walkthrough: the beauty of a strategy game is there's no
right way to go about playing it.  So, if you find a tactic
that works well for you, go ahead and use it.  Don't worry
if my suggestions are totally condradictory to what you're
doing: if it works, it works.
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%%%%%%% A Note on Spoilers %%%%%%%    [aab]
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Throughout this guide, I'll try my best to keep explicit
plot events and spoilers out of my writing, but I will be
telling you when you gain a certain unit or lose one or when
one promotes, and through those you may have some of the
story spoiled for you.  My advice for those who don't want
to have the game spoiled is to just not read ahead and try
and finish as much of the game as possible before coming to
this FAQ.
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|                     Statistic Growth             [aac]   |
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When you're playing through the game on your second go, you
get presented with the option to either have random or
fixed stat growths for your characters.  The way these two
work is that fixed is, as it sounds, a set growth for each
character, meaning that by the end of the game you can know
exactly what stats each character will have.  Random, on the
other hand, uses a different system.  Each time your
character levels up, the game will determine which stats get
a point by a percentage linked to each unit's stats.  Say a
unit has a 50% in their HP growth.  That means in fixed,
that unit will get +1 HP every two levels.  In random, every
level has a 50% chance of netting the +1, so you can get +2,
you can get +1, and you can get +0.  Over time, the stats
tend to even out, but there will be some disparity.
So in other words, with random, you have the potential of
getting a completely maxed out character, but you also have
the potential of getting a really bad character if they get
unlucky.  Each class has a cap for each specific stat, so
you can't get someone with 40 in every category.  I prefer
to use the fixed gain, because it rules out the possibility
of a character getting screwed over by a few bad levels.
That's not to say you're going to get a bad character or two
every time you choose random, though.
If you have a unit or team you really want to use but you
don't like the possibility that one or more of those units
could get crippled by a poor roll of the dice, use fixed.
If you want to try out a few different characters, my advice
is to use random and watch each character's stat growth
carefully.  If a unit starts falling behind, cut them.  With
random, you have room to make up for a character being a few
levels behind the curve if they get a good level or three.
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>                       Difficulty                [aad]  <
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Also, whenever you begin a new game, you get three choices
as to your difficulty setting: Easy, Normal, and Hard.  If
this is your first time playing any strategy RPG, choose
easy.  If this is your first time playing any Fire Emblem
game, easy might not be a bad choice.  As far as I can
tell, people die in easy just as much as they die in hard
if your strategies are bad, so there's really not much
difference that I can see between easy and normal.  I
noticed that I got quite a bit more bonus exp on easy than
I did on hard and normal.  On hard, quite a few battles
would net me 0 bonus exp.  However, on hard mode, there are
several battles where the enemies will outnumber 2.5 or even
3 to 1, so you can make up the bonus exp dropoff in battle,
which is better anyways because you also get your weapon's
level up.
The general strategies I lay out in each section are mostly
pertinent to the easy and normal settings of the game.
However, I've gone through and noted what to watch out for
in hard mode, and whether or not big changes need to be
made in my strategies for each battle.
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-                   Basic Game Mechanics           [aae]   -
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This section just contains a rundown of the basic game
mechanics you should know before going into battle for the
first time.  Note that you can learn everything you see here
by simply viewing all the tutorials you get throughout the
opening chapters of the game.
The first thing you need to understand is the weapon
triangle.  There are four types of weapons: swords, axes,
lances, and bows.  The triangle is made up of swords, axes,
and lances.  It works like this: swords are strong against
axes, axes are strong against lances, and lances are strong
against swords.  It's just like rock, paper, scissors.  I'll
get to bows later.
Much like the weapon triangle, there exists a similar system
for magic, called the trinity of magic.  Fire, wind,
thunder, and light are the four kinds of magic.  Fire trumps
wind, wind trumps thunder, thunder trumps fire.
Also, some weapons get inherent bonuses in the form of extra
damage in certain situations.  I'll list some of them here
for you:
Weapon Type/Name    Bonus vs.
All bows        Flying units
Hammer            Armored units
Longsword        Mounted units
Fire magic        Beast laguz
There are others, so for more information go on down and
check out the weapons/magic section.  You can tell when a
particular weapon will get a bonus by looking at the icon
in the attack menu--if the weapon is flashing, you get a
bonus.
With all kinds of weapons, you get a chance to score a
critical hit.  If you're using the simple combat menus you
can see your crit % towards the bottom, next to the 'Crit'
in the blue column.  When you score a critical, your damage
is multiplied by 3, but you first have to score a hit in
order for it to be a crit, so typically trading off hit %
for crit % is a bad thing.
Now that you have an understanding of some of the basics of
combat, it's time to move on to the general flow of battle.
A battle is made up of turns, which are each divided into
four phases.  The first phase is the player phase, where
you get to act by moving your troops, casting spells,
attacking, healing, etc.  Each troop can move and attack on
their turn, and mounted units can move again after attacking
if they have any movement left over.  After the player phase
is the ally phase, where units encircled in yellow move.
These units are your allies in the battle, and you can't
directly control their actions, but Ike has a command,
Direct, which lets you exhibit some degree of control over
allied units.  Luckily, it's easy to predict what they'll do
with any given command once you've messed around with it a
bit.  The next phase is the enemy phase, where the red units
do their thing.  Last is the other phase, where green units
will take their turn.  Usually you can recruit green units
by having Ike or another unit talk to them.  Other units
aren't necessarily your allies, but they're not typically
your enemy either.
Tip: You can see which units in your party can talk to other
units on the battlefield by opening up the troop list.  To
open the list before the battle, go to the Choose Units list
and scroll to the right until you see the Conv heading.  In
battle, hit A on an open square and go to the Units menu
and then scroll right.
Before you start your battle, though, there are a few things
to consider.  First of all is unit placement.  You can
reposition your units using the aptly named command from the
pre-battle menu.  Once you get to chapter 8, you can choose
which units you want to use as well.  You can view the map,
which is always helpful in planning out who you want to use
and where you want them to go.  There are a few other
options, like save where you can save your pre-battle
changes, or items where you can move items around and make
sure all your equipment is in line.
Before you start a battle, you can go to the Conditions
screen and view the entire map with your units, enemy units,
and victory/loss conditions displayed.  There are several
different types of win conditions, and I'll just briefly go
over each one here.
Seize: to win this map, you must get Ike to the flashing
square and select Seize.  There is always a boss on this
point, so you'll have to defeat him to take the map.
Rout: simply destroy every enemy unit on the map to win.
Defeat boss: just kill the boss, who you can identify
through the conditions menu before the battle.
Defend: there will be a number next to defend signifying
just how many turns you have to hold out before winning.
The only way you can lose this map is if an enemy unit gets
to the flashing square on the map.  Note that if the number
is 8, then you won't win until the enemy's last phase.
Escape: to win this map, Ike has to get to the flashing
yellow square(s) on the map and then select the escape
command.  Note that any unit can escape before Ike, and
each unit that escapes before Ike will yield bonus exp, but
the battle will not end until Ike escapes.
Arrive: simply get any one of your units to the flashing
square and select arrive from the menu.  Sometimes you are
given a set number of turns in which you have to complete
your objective.
Remember that on some maps you'll have to keep more than
just Ike from dying.  Always check the conditions screen so
you know just exactly what you need to do for each battle.
Finally, there are a few of commands that I'll just briefly
cover: the Shove, Rescue, and Steal commands.
To shove a unit, simply walk up next to the unit and select
the shove command.  A unit can shove any other unit whose
weight does not exceed their own by more than 2.  Mounted
units cannot shove.
To rescue a unit, walk up next to the unit and select the
rescue command.  A unit cannot rescue another unit if the
rescued unit's weight is more than 2 less than the rescuing
unit's weight.  Haar can rescue anyone I believe.  Once you
have a unit in tow, the rescuing unit will have their speed
and skill cut in half.  Also, there are a few other options
that open up once you've rescued a unit: you can give him
to another unit, you can drop him, or another unit can take
the rescued unit from the rescuer.  Once a unit is dropped,
both the rescueing and rescued will be unable to do any
other commands, although mounted units can move again.
To steal, have a thief walk up next to the target that you
want to steal an item from.  Select steal from the menu,
and then select the item you want to take.  You cannot steal
equipped items.  To steal an item, the thief must have speed
2 greater than the target's, and the thief's strength must
be equal to or greater than the stolen item's weight.
Also, the thief has to have a spare slot in his inventory to
put the stolen item.
Once you're ready, just begin!
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|                      Leveling Up                 [aaf] |
{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}
By the end of the game, you can get 43 characters in your
party.  There is no way you can distribute exp to all of
those characters.  So, what you need to do is pick out a
core unit of 10-14 units that you're going to spend time on
and build up so that by the end of the game you'll have a
good strong team that can take on anything.  The big thing
to consider is bonus exp.  You can either use it to help
units that fall behind catch up, or you can just spread it
around to the whole party.  There are a few characters that
really benefit from bonus exp loving, like Rolf, but I've
found that spreading out the bonus exp to the entire unit
instead of piling it on one or two guys tends to get you a
better party at the end of the game.  On easy, you'll have
tons of exp all the time.  On normal, you'll still get good
bonus exp numbers, but your in-battle exp might drop a bit.
On hard, you'll get hardly any bonus exp, but you'll get a
ton of in-battle exp.  So what this means is that you need
to spend as much time in battle getting everyone all the exp
that you can get out of the enemy army.  Don't go for the
one-hit kill if you don't have to.  Whittle the enemy down
and then kill him.  A single attack on an equal level enemy
will net you around 10 exp.  A kill on that same guy will
get you 30.  So if you kill him in one hit, that's 30 xp.
If you kill him in 5 hits, that's 70.  In other words, you
need to try to balance your killing rate with your exp gain.
Aim to net at least 1000 combat exp per battle--that equates
to about 10 levels for the unit as a whole per battle.  With
33 battles in the game (including the prologue), and taking
into account bonus exp and other factors, you're looking
at maybe 40,000 exp for a game if you can stretch it out.
That number is probably a bit conservative, but oh well.
That equates to about 2,600 exp per unit if you use 15,
meaning that's 26 levels per unit.  Not every unit starts
at level 1, though, so some won't need 26 levels.
Finally, units that are far above enemies will suffer a
penalty to exp gain, so try to use your strongest units to
just soften up the enemies that are lower, and then let your
weaker units come in and get the kill, minimizing your exp
loss due to level disparity.  The same rule applies to bonus
exp--the higher a unit, the more bonus exp it takes to get
a unit a level.  Some units might need 200 bonus exp for one
level, so when you're doling out bonus exp, lower level
units should get priority.
Finally, a unit at level 20 that can't promote won't get
any exp, so when you get someone at that point, just don't
use them at all.  In chapter 17, Ike will probably hit 20,
and after that just quit using him.  He's carrying a heron
anyways, so he's not very combat-effective.  Same principle
applies to 20/20 units when you've got some others that are
20/10 or 20/15--let the stragglers catch up if you can.
See the FAQ section below for some other notes on exp gain
tips.
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In-Depth Battle Mechanics          [aag]
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In this section, I'm gonna break down the actual numbers
that go into determining what happens in battle.  I haven't
actually looked at the game's code or anything, so I had to
find out all of the following information simply by
deduction and lots of observation and number-crunching.  I'm
confident in my findings, though, since the forumlas always
work.
First of all, I'm gonna give a listing of all the pertinent
variables that go into determining battle mechanics.  In
other words, I'm gonna list unit and weapon stats and any
other data that has anything to do with battle.
Unit Stats:
Hit Points (HP)
Strength (Str)
Magic (Mag)
Skill (Skill)
Speed (Sp)
Luck (Lck)
Defense (Def)
Resistance (Res)
Constitution (Cn)
Movement (Mv)
Weight (Wt)
Weapon Attributes:
Level
Might (Mt)
Hit % (Hit)
Crit % (Crit)
Weight (Wt)
Range (Rng)
Then there's biorhythm.  Go to an individual unit's stat
screen and flip over a page or two and you'll see a graph
with a curved line along the graph.  There'll be a point on
that graph glowing--that point indicates that unit's current
biorhythm status.  Here's what the actual graph looks like:
---------------------------------     2
---------------------------------     1
=================================     0
---------------------------------    -1
---------------------------------    -2
Any time a unit has their biorhythm in between the 1 and -1
lines but not touching those lines, they are considered to
have regular biorhythm.  At or above 1 is high, and at or
below -1 is low.  You can see which state a unit is in by
looking at the colored arrow behind the unit's general
status bar (the one with their name, class, level, hp,
etc.).  If you see a green line curving up, it's high,
red is low, and no line is normal.
When biorhythm is high, the unit will get a +5 bonus to a
few things (detail below), and if biorhythm is low, it's a
-5 penalty.  Anything touching or between 1 and -1 has no
effect on the unit's performance.
On the graph is a curved line representing how a unit's
biorhythm will change over time.  As far as I can tell,
biorhythm changes on its own from chapter to chapter.  The
more kills and actions a unit does, the more their
biorhythm will change.  The point on the graph will follow
the curve, so getting kills won't necessarily cause your
biorhythm to rise or fall, but you can be sure it'll do one
or the other.  But enough with biorhythm, let's move on to
battle.
First of all, when you select an enemy to attack, you'll
see one of two windows.  The simple window displays HP, Mt,
Hit, and Crit.  I'm not gonna go over that window, as it's
all self-explanitory (Mt is damage done).  The complex
window has all the interesting data on it.  It has HP, Atk,
Def, Hit, Crit, and AS.  I'll take these one at a time.
Atk:  This is the attack power of the unit.  It is
determined by adding the unit's Str score to the weapon's
Mt score, or in the case of magic attacks, the unit's Mag
score to the weapon's Mt score.  Support from other units
can also effect this score.
Def:  This number is simply the unit's defense; Def applies
to physical attacks, and Res applies to magical attacks.
You subtract Def from Atk to figure up final damage.
Support can have an effect here as well.
Hit:  This number is the unit's chance to hit.  This one
took me a while to figure out, because biorhythm has some
funky effects on it.  You start with the attacker's skill.
Double that, then add in luck.  Next add a pinch of the
weapon hit %, then finally drain an amount equal to the
defender's avoid (more on that below).  After all that,
if the unit has positive biorhythm, they get an extra 5%
tacked on top of all the numbers.  It looks like this:
(Skill x2) + Weapon Hit + Luck +/- Biorhythm - Avo = Hit%.
Crit:  This shows you your chance to score a critical on a
target and do 3x damage.  Crit is calculated by simply
taking half of the unit's skill, adding the weapon's crit,
and then subtracting the enemy's luck.  Snipers and
Swordmasters get a 15% bonus to this equation.  Biorhythm
has no effect on crit %.  (Took me a while to figure that
one out actually.)  First, if a crit is scored, regular
damage is figured out (Atk - Def, supports factored, etc.),
then that number is tripled.  You get a cool animation too.
AS:  AS stands for Attack Speed.  AS is figured by simply
taking the unit's speed.  However, if the unit's weapon's
weight is greater than the unit's strength, then the unit
will suffer one point off of their AS for every point of
Str they lack to use that weapon.  In other words, if Soren
has a Spd of 20 and a Str of 2, when he attacks with a
weapon with a Wt of 6, his AS will only be 16 instead of 20.
If he uses a weapon with a Wt of 1, his AS will be 20, even
though the weapon's Wt is one less than Soren's strength.
If either unit's AS is greater than the other's by 4 or
more, the unit with the higher AS score will get a second
attack.  That's how "doubles" are figured.
Now, this isn't all there is to combat.  There are a few
other things I'm gonna mention.
If you look at a unit's status screen, you'll see a tan box
in the bottom left hand corner with a bunch of numbers in
it.  You'll see numbers next to Atk, Hit, Avo, Crit, Ddg,
Rng, and Effect.
Atk:  This is the unit's base attack power.  In battle, you
basically take this number and subtract the target's def to
get damage.  Again, it's Str/Mag + Mt.
Hit:  Base hit %.  See above for more on Hit.
Avo:  This is a unit's base chance to avoid an attack.  This
number comes from doubling the unit's speed, adding in luck,
then factoring in biorhythm effects.  Equation is:
(Speed x2) + Luck +/- Biorhythm = Avo %.
Crit:  Again, this is the base crit %.  You take half the
attacker's skill and add in the weapon's crit.
Ddg:  Ddg stands for Dodge, or a unit's chance to dodge a
critical attack from an opponent.  This number is equal to
the unit's Lck score.
Rng:  This is the weapon's range.  The only thing to note is
that a weapon with a range of 2 can only hit enemies 2
spaces away, not enemies 1 space away.
Effect:  Here are listed bonus damage effects the equipped
weapon will get.  You'll either see Beast, Flying, Armor,
or a few other things listed here--they're self-explanitory.
Now to help you understand better how this all ties
together, I'm going to share a case study I did in a battle.
I'll just list each unit's name and then show you the
numbers that come up on the combat window, both complex and
simple, and then I'll make some more notes.
Soren    vs.    Sword Knight
Simple        35    HP    31
28 x2    Mt    12
100    Hit    38
17    Crit    0
Basically, Soren will do 2 28-damage attacks that will hit
100% of the time and crit 17% of the time, and the knight
will get a single attack doing 12 damage, hitting only 38%
of the time and never critting.
Soren    vs.    Sword Knight
35    HP    31
Complex        34    Atk    19
7    Def    6
100    Hit    38
17    Crit    0
22    AS    10
Both boxes tell you the same thing, except on this one you
get to see more of the two units' stats.  The Mt score from
above is, as you can see, equal to Atk - Def.  Soren's
weapon had a crit of 9, and his skill was 24.  The enemy's
luck was 4 (poor guy), so the equation goes like so:
(24/2) + 9 - 4 = 17.  Someone get that knight a rabbit's
foot.  AS is 22, which was Soren's speed (since the weapon
had a Wt less than his Str).  I suggest using the simple
window in combat since it's faster and will tell you all
the same stuff, but if for some reason you like doing the
math yourself, have at the complex window.
But what about bonus damage and the two triangles, you say?
En garde!
Bonus damage is the simpler one of the two.  When using a
weapon that gets an attack bonus vs. the enemy, the weapon's
Mt is doubled.  So if you have a Laguz bow vs. a cat laguz,
the Mt of the bow is doubled to 20, then you add in your Str
and subtract the laguz's Def to get damage.  Sadly, you get
no bonus to your hit %.
Whenever two units face off and neither has an advantage via
the triangle, then their normal numbers will be used.  But
if say Ike with his sword attacks a bandit with an axe, Ike
will get a +1 to his damage and a +10 to his hit %.  On top
of that, the bandit will suffer -1 to damage and -10 to hit.
So, having the weapon advantage won't really make a huge
difference, but the +10% to hit is always nice, so try and
take advantage of that as much as possible.
~~~~~~~--------~~~~~~~~-------~~~~~~~--------~~~~~~~~-------
============================================================
Frequently Asked Questions         [aah]
============================================================
Q: I hate going to the reset button.
A: If you hold down X, B, and Start, your game will
automatically reset.  God bless whoever implemented this
feature, as it's saved me several trips to the old 'cube.
Q: Are there any other super-secret button commands?
A: Well, while on the battlefield, the L button controls
the camera's zoom, and the R button in certain situations
will hide the GUI.  Also, if you hold down the B button
while moving your cursor across the map, it'll start moving
a whole lot faster, so when you've got troops spread out
you don't spend a whole minute scrolling across the map.
Q: What is this Murphy's Law you speak of?
A: Murphy's Law simply states that everything that can go
wrong will go wrong.  Mr. Murphy is the other identity by
which this law is identified.  Basically, Murphy is what
happens when you take a chance with a unit and he ends up
getting criticaled twice and dying.  Murphy is what happens
when you choose to attack with the 80% hit weapon instead
of the 95% weapon and you miss twice, and then on the next
turn the enemy kills you with a crit even though he had a 1%
chance of pulling off that crit.  In hard mode, you'll come
to know and hate Mr. Murphy.
Q: Is X character good?
A: Most characters aren't good per se, nor are they bad.
What determines the goodness/badness of a character is how
you use the character.  In other words, nearly every
character brings something unique to the table that can be
used extremely well in at least one situation.
However, there are some characters that are, in fact, just
plain better than everyone else.  Ike and Stefan are the two
that first come to my mind, along with Astrid.  These guys
are better either because of their skills or because of
their superior stat growth.
Note: On hard, characters ARE bad because of their stats,
and there are only a handful that you can use and trust 100%
of the time to never get screwed over (unless you misuse
them).
Q: Why won't my character promote?
A: Certain characters either don't promote or won't promote
until a specific event happens in the plot.  Specifically,
Volke doesn't promote until after chapter 19, Ike doesn't
promote until after chapter 17, and Sothe never promotes.
Q: I can't kill the black knight, help!
A: First of all, you can't kill the black knight except on
chapter 27, when you face him mano-e-mano (plus Mist), so if
you're trying to kill him on chapter 24 or on chapter 11,
just stop.  You'll get your chance.
Q: I'm on chapter 27 and I still can't kill the black
knight!
A: Look down in the chapter 27 section for strategy
regarding defeating the black knight.
Q: How do I do the brothers' triangle attack?
A: You have to position each one two spaces from the enemy,
each brother going in a straight line away from the enemy.
Look at this setup:
O
O  X  O
The X is the bad guy, the O's are the brothers.  The first
two attacks won't do anything special, but the third attack
will force a critical.  That said, it's best if you use Boyd
as your 3rd attacker; since he has the highest strength,
he'll do the most damage.  I can't think of many situations
in the game where this attack might come in handy, but you
never know.
There is also a triangle attack you can do with your 3
Falconknights (Tanith, Marcia, and Elincia).  To do it, you
set up your troops in the same formation, except you have to
attack in melee.  The third hit forces a critical.
Q: I just completed the game, and on my new game everyone
has these bands, what's the deal?
A: Those bands give your units a chance of getting a certain
stat point up each level, so that they become better in
their category.  Here's a list of what each band increases:
Paladin Band...............HP, Speed
Fighter Band...............HP, Strength
Soldier Band:..............HP, Defense
Sword Band:................Skill, Luck
Archer/Thief Band:.........Skill, Speed
Knight/Wyvern Band:........Strength, Defense
Mage Band:.................Magic
Pegasus/Priest Band:.......Luck, Resistance
See the Items section below for band locations.
Q: What's the deal with support?
A: During the game while you're in base, you can have your
units converse with each other, building up rank in support.
Depending on the two units and their support rank, they get
different bonuses.  There's already a great FAQ on GameFAQs
which goes into more detail, I recommend reading that for
more information.  Also, Ike and Soren's support bonuses
rocks the house.
Q: Where do I find all the items in chapter 15?
Q: Where do I get Stefan?
A: I found an image of the battlefield and figured out
what's buried at each spot:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v41/Rossaroni/FE9/
ch15maptrans.jpg
Q: Where are each of the S-rank weapons located?
A: Sword: Stefan comes with it/gives it to you in chapter 15
Bow: From a thief in chapter 27
Thunder Magic: From the chapter 28 boss
Staff: Don't kill any of the priests in chapter 22
Unfortunately, you can't get the S-rank lance, axe, fire,
wind, or light magic weapons, but you can see the lance and
the light magic tome on the last chapter.  (Since they're
equipped, you can't purloin them.)
Q: What does the Occult item do, and where can I get them?
A: The Occult item is essentially a skill scroll, but the
skill that it gives to each person varies, depending upon
the class of the unit.  First of all, only promoted units
and laguz can learn their occult skill.  Secondly, there
are a few people on whom you will really want to use this
item on.  Finally, you only find four in the game:
-one in chapter 13 from a chest
-one from a conversation with Stefan if you recruit him
-one from Tauroneo (either steal it or get him to join you)
-one from the chapter 27 boss.
For a list of the skills each class gets from occult and a
description of the skills, look down in the skills section.
Your character's skill stat is what determines the
activation of each of these skills.  Typically, your skill
is the activation chance, but on some skills it's half your
skill stat.  Aether is one you definetly want to get Ike,
and Stefan comes with Astra, so you can check that one out
too.
Q: Naesala keeps killing me, what do I do?
A: Refer to my chapter 19 strategy for tips on beating the
level, but if you just want to get rid of Naesala, have Ulki
or Janaff talk to him, then he'll fly over and talk to
Reyson (both have to be in your fighting group for this to
work), then withdraw with his flock.
Q: Rhys/Mist keeps falling behind everyone, how can I get
them caught up?
A: Once you get the Physic staff, start using it.  It's nice
to save one or two for the black knight/Ashnard battle for
healing, but the important thing is that a single use gets
you 20 exp, so you'll level up a lot faster if you use them
frequently.  Plus they're much more versatile and let you
keep your healers away from the heat.
Q: How can I level up my units' weapon level faster?
A: Steel and Silver weapons will level you up as fast as you
can level, so use them if you're wanting a level.  Brave
weapons only get you 1 weapon exp per hit, due to the fact
that you get two swings per attack.  Ballistas are the best,
as they net you 4 weapon exp per use (but you can only shoot
them once per turn).
Q: Soren has no strength and can never double an enemy,
what can I do to get him better?
A: Basically, since Soren has next to no strength, you have
to forge him a custom tome with minimized weight.  That's
not too bad, though, as it'll cost you around 20k of the
absolute ton of money you get in the game.  You can afford
it.  Until then, though, just stick with the basic wind
spell so he can still get doubles that he won't get
otherwise (like with elwind or tornado, etc.).
Q: Thieves keep beating me to items on maps, help!
A: Your thief can steal any unequipped item from enemy units
if your thief has a higher speed score and a str score equal
to or less than the weight of the item being stolen.  So,
if you can't quite make it to that chest on the far end of
the map, just block the thief from escaping (they won't ever
attack) and have your thief come up and do his thing.  Also
note that you can get any staff from an enemy in this way,
including quite a few physic staves in the last half of the
game.  (Handy for getting healer exp.)  I've heard rumors
that an enemy put to sleep will unequip any weapons they
have, but I can't confirm this as of yet.  (E-mail??)
Q: I don't have any bonus exp, but I want to level up X
character, how can I do it if he can't kill anyone?
A: Typically, paladins won't be able to kill some units in
a single hit (or double), but they'll leave them almost
dead.  Look for any opportunity at all to get those lower
units exp, like giving them 2-6 hp kills, letting them get
damaging hits on much higher level enemies, etc.  Astrid
can get 100 exp from a single attack on a higher level
enemy if she finishes him off, so try to almost kill as many
enemies as possible to allow your lower units to get the 30
to 60 exp for a kill on that big enemy.
Q: How should I go about leveling up my party?
A: First of all, you won't be able to level up all 43
characters that you can get throughout the game.  At best,
you'll probably only be able to get 10-13 of them to a high
enough level for the last chapters of the game, so try to
pick out your favorite units early on and then stick with
them.  If a unit falls behind and a better one shows up,
ditch the slacker.  It's really hard to catch up unless you
spend a lot of attention on a character (unless that unit
has paragon).
Q: What in the world is biorhythm, and what does it do?
A: Well, if you want a detailed explination of the effects
of biorhythm in battle, see the above section covering
battle mechanics in-depth.  Short answer: high biorhythm
means higher hit chance and better dodge chance.
Q: Extras?  Vat ees dis?
A: When you complete the game, you open up the Extras menu.
I've got a section covering that at the end of my FAQ.
============================================================
------------------------------------------------------------
===============Walkthrough=============== [baa]
------------------------------------------------------------
Quick note: I usually use cardinal directions (N, S, E, W)
to indicate direction on the battlefield.
=====Chapter 1===== [bab]
Your units: Titania, Oscar, Boyd, Ike
Victory: Seize
The first battle is a fairly simple one.  You have a few
options as to how to go about this battle, and if you just
want to win quickly, you'll be using Titania (refer to note
on Titania above).  So, start out by sending Ike and Boyd
for the closest mercs, and use Oscar to finish one or the
other off.  Send Titania around the SW house to pick off the
merc up in the NW area.  After those three are done, use
whomever you wish to kill the third and fourth roving mercs,
then use either Titania or Boyd to weaken the boss to about
9 hp or less, and let Ike finish him off.  Remember, Ike is
a great character, and you have to resist the temptation to
play too conservatively with him.  Plus, if you're wanting
sweet sweet revenge, you'll need Ike topped off by the
beginning of chapter 27.  More on Ike later, though.
On hard mode, you'll be going up against way more troops
than in the other modes, so be very wary of your units' hp
and use those vulneraries.  If you never used them before,
you better get used to it on hard mode, because you will
almost always be outnumbered and you will get hit quite a
bit more.
Items: NW house (Seraph Robe), SE house (Steel Sword)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
=====Chapter 2: Rescue===== [bac]
Units: Oscar, Boyd, Rhys, Ike, Titania (R)
Victory: Rout
The (R) next to Titania means she comes as a reinforcement
after a turn or two.  This will be your first battle with
Rhys, and it's here that you'll start learning how much of a
pain it is to protect a magic user.  The best way to start
this map is by pushing to the immediate N, where a single
enemy awaits in a little aclove.  After taking him out, you
can line up Oscar and Boyd/Ike for a good defensive bout.
The defense works because some of the enemies will charge
you, so you can just mow them down.  Once Titania comes
along, you can start making an advance around the bend to
the rest of the enemy.  Whenever you're moving Rhys, try to
have him protected either by surrounding him or by forming a
line with your other 4 troops.  Using the line is better,
because it allows those on the line to be on the offense.
Oscar is a great tank in this battle, so use him effectively.
And remember, you have a healer now, so don't be afraid to
have him heal someone even if they've only been hit once.
It's better to stay totally out of trouble, because people
can die in a single turn if they're not up to full hp.
On hard, you're just facing more opponents, but the same
strategy applies.  However, it'll be tougher for you to keep
Rhys protected, but at the same time he'll be able to lay
down some much-needed healing.  So be smart and plan out
each move.
Items: Boss (Speedwing)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
=====Chapter 3: Pirates Aground===== [bad]
Units: Shinon, Gatrie, Titania, Ike
Victory: Boss
Other: Marcia
This map will be a cakewalk, because Shinon, Gatrie, and
Titania all outlevel the enemy by a good margin.  Take this
opportunity to whittle down enemies with those three and let
Ike finish them off--it'll be good exp for Ike.  Also, there
are some houses on this map: make sure you visit them.  Note
the teal-haired man who gives you an elixir.  As to
strategies, Shinon and Gatrie's thunder and lightning tactic
is a very good one.  Another one that works is a tactic I
call the lemming tactic.  What you do is you take a powerful
unit (Titania) and set it right smack in the middle of a lot
of enemies.  The enemy soldiers then become lemmings,
attacking, missing, and getting doubled.  The only thing of
real note in this battle is Marcia.  She's the first NPC you
encounter that you can talk to with Ike.  Make sure you have
your crew get to the ship fast enough to save her from
dying, and then have Ike talk to her.  Later, she'll join
your team, but for now she heads back to Begnion.  Remember
that lemming tactic, though, because there are tons of
situations in the game that you can get out of easily with
the tactic.
Items: SE house (Elixir), Boss (Thief band)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
=====Chapter 4: Roadside Battle===== [bae]
Units: Soren, Rhys, Gatrie, Shinon, Titania, Ike
Victory: Defeat Boss
This battle will probably be your first challenge in the
game.  It's not hard to win the mission per se, but it's
tough to keep both Rhys and Soren alive during the whole of
this battle.  But take heart!  It can be done.  And the best
way to do it is by the means of a sort of phalanx formation.
The way this formation works is you get a front line of
Titania and Ike, then directly behind them you place Rhys
and Soren.  On the same line as Rhys and Soren go Gatrie
and Shinon, set so that they're covering the sides of your
two magic users.  It'll look something like this:
G    G= Gatrie        R= Rhys
IR    I= Ike        S= Soren
TS    T= Titania
H    H= Shinon
Keep in mind, though, that this is just the strategy I found
to be the most effective, since Soren and Rhys die so
frigging easily.  If you prefer to just have them run and
let the other four do the dirty work, that's all fine and
dandy.  But anways, assuming you're using my suggestion...
The first thing you should do in this battle is set up this
kind of formation against the back of the grid, so that your
mages will be protected from all sides.  Don't worry about
Shinon not being able to counterattack, he's fast and has
good defense, so he won't be dying.  If you set Soren next
to Shinon, then Soren will be able to attack anyone who goes