Topic: Owing both the download and the cart might have caused.... issues?

Being a rabid fanboy, and a HUGE fan of digital downloads (ever since I lost a copy of World Ends With You at 79 hours played...) I downloaded Fire Emblem the day it was available.

I now have maybe 10 Dual Pass multiplayer maps I have never seen, since I rarely see my friends that own the game.
So, I bought my wife the cartridge. Before she gets off work, I was trying to speed run my way to unlocking multiplayer.

Here's where things get interesting.
I used my 3DS- hers is at work with her. (We're both video game testers for various companies).
When I turned on the game, and beat level 5, I was surprised to see armies of street pass enemies on my map... and that all DLC maps were unlocked. Well, OK, I paid for those on my download version... so does that mean one friend can buy all the maps, all his friends can pop in the cart, save, and presto, all DLC unlocked... for free? Apparently not. When I loaded a DLC map, saved in the level, took out the cart, put it into my roommates 3DS.... "Downloaded content not found. Please purchase the DLC and try again". OK, fair enough. But I can't even enter the save- it will be that much harder to download the content, then.

So, I went back to DS1, loaded my in-progress map, beat it, and went back to the world map with my exp and gold.... saved, played it on my other DS... and it worked.

So i can play a save that was used on a system with DLC, but I cannot actively play that DLC.

That's fair. But what will this do to the Bride class? Or a DLC only weapon?

Being a game tester, there are about 200 things I want to try. In the end, I will either
A) Have a save file on hers, with Bride class, able to access the DLC on my system but actually play multiplayer on hers-
B) Start a new file, entirely on her DS
C) If needed, simply buy 3 maps on her DS- the 3 maps I actually need.

Anyone else had to do this? I haven't been able to get to the bride map yet, as my people are level 2-3, and I think that map will eat us alive. I'll try to update when I figure this out.

Xbox and PS3 never had this problem, since their DLC went to harddrives, not a cartridge that can be played on other systems...

So in summary,
the DLC I bought on the downloaded version of Fire Emblem is playable on ANY persons Fire Emblem cartridge, for as long as it is plugged into my 3DS.
Once they put the cartridge back in their own systems, they may or may not have access to content they have not actually purchased.

That's very interesting, actually. It seems to make sense, though.

It would seem to make sense to me that the content not be accessible. According to the wiki if you streetpass someone with a class or skill you don't have it will appear as an "Outrealm" class or skill. I'd suggest you try this and see what happens. Worst case scenario the save has to be deleted. Best case: You can give her all the DLC skills, classes and items.

DLC isn't part of the save file. It's saved separately on the SD card. That's why it won't work on multiple games on other 3DSes.

EDIT: ^^ You beat me to it!
Oh, and isn't DLC saved on the SD card, separately from the game?

I think the DLC goes to the SD card, but the rest of the save data goes on the cart, like the data saying you bought the DLC.

Yup. You can even check this yourself. Go to Data Management and it will be under DLC or Downloaded content (or some similar name)

Why did you post this in two sections?