Topic: Fire Emblem Engage for Nintendo Switch

@Ryu_Niiyama
For real? I didn't know that.

So... how does that work exactly? You mean like, Marth and Tiki? Or Leif and Sigurd? Or Ike and Micaiha? Or Byleth and Edelgard/Dimitri/Claude?

So if 2 units with Emblems that know each other do attacks next to each other there's stat bonuses?

@JaxonH I am still testing it out but yeah I was adjacent to a unit bonded to Marth and my unit was bonded to Tiki. I engaged Tiki to put divine blessing on another unit that was adjacent to me and then I saw a plus next to the name of the power. I didn’t think anything of it so I activated the move. All of a sudden Tiki calls Marth’s name (or rather her nickname for him) and he responds and a banner that says Tiki & Marth pops up with them side by side and the power activates. I’m crawling through the game since all I care about is unit leveling and gold so I don’t know if it is just the bracelets (I doubt it) and a ring or if two rings do it too (as I don’t have any other pairings right now). It of course has to be two emblems but only one has to be engaged but as far as I can tell so long as the two are adjacent something happens. I did it again and the text for the power read there would be additional effects. I don’t know what yet as I had to go back to work right after. But it should be fun once the other bracelets unlock as well. There doesn’t seem to be a limit as I did it twice on one map.

Edit: I am not sure yet but I think Alear has to be one of the linked units. So far I couldn’t get the other unit to link on their attack. I will reverse their items and see what happens.

On Ch. 12 now. That, uh, escalated quickly.

Ch. 11 was brutal. Sort of reminded me of a Fates: Conquest map. I really liked the panicked, desperate feel of it as an ever-encroaching army of baddies is hunting you down, forcing you to send your units almost flying into enemies ahead of you. Definitely adds to the sense of vulnerability to suddenly be robbed of your time-rewinding abilities as well, and even have it utilized against you by the enemy.

@JaxonH My first few visits to the somniel, I ran around and talked to everyone every time. Those habits from Three Houses die hard.

I actually haven't encountered the fishing or wyvern riding minigames at all. Do I need to unlock them?

@Ralizah those activities come in a chapter or two.

Edit: I used the Mipha amiibo and got sashimi in return. I cackled.

Also some maps where you rescue people they show up on the explore part and give you more stuff sometimes.

I wasn't looking forward to it, but Chapter 18 went pretty well for me. It was one of those dreaded ship-to-ship battles, and I was expecting a ton of fliers to be sent towards me. Some of my units are still a bit vulnerable on enemy phase (and often inaccurate when it counts), but it was a nice respite from the previous few chapters.
I was fearing it was going to be an experience like in Sacred Stones, although that's compounded by the fog of war on the level. My last fog of war map was frustrating though, and I'm not looking forward to the next one.

Louis is serving me well for the most part. I always look out for mages, and I'm not averse to letting him take a hit from one, but a word of warning - on the later levels, enemies have backup skills that can easily wear down even the toughest of generals. My Louis was attacked by about 6 enemies, and they took over 50 points of health off him in a single phase.

@Ralizah
I thought fishing should already be unlocked for you. Cause wyvern riding unlocked for me after Chapter 11 or 12, I think? And I'd been fishing several times when wyvern riding unlocked. Maybe I'm misremembering. But I'm on Chapter 14 and have done wyvern riding at least 5 times now and I've got fishing more than that. Should also get the fleamarket after Chapter 13, I believe.

Btw, I'm learning to only spend money on upgrades for key weapons, like my Excalibur that does extra damage from skill, or daggers since they increase by 2 Mt each level, or the special Heroes crossover weapons which can be pretty decent if you upgrade them.

Unlike skills, buying a +1 doesn't discount +2, so I think it's better to just save up and go for the big upgrade right away. Granted, I wasn't doing this before and have tons of Javelin +1, Steel Sword +2 and various +3 and +4 weapons like Iron Daggers and Slim Lances. But moving forward, it's go big or go home. Same for bond fragments. Now that I've trained everyone up with the emblem I want them to inherit from, I'm saving more bond fragments than I'm spending. For now, anyways. Broke as a joke though- had to do a Gold Corrupted run just to buy a masterseal so Ivy could promote, as she hit her level cap.

The military fund cash injections come after clearing a country, right? I'm on the final Solm battle so I should be getting more cash after this. Much needed cash.

I haven't spent a dime on donations aside from Firene Lv 2. The opportunity cost is too high when my silver card allows 30% discounts in the stores.

@JaxonH it doesn't seem that these features are unlocked in specific chapters? I just started chapter 15 and only just now unlocked wyvern riding, whereas I feel like I had fishing unlocked before where @Ralizah is...

Maybe it's to do with the time of day you explore the Somniel?

Edit: a quick google tells me you either have to promote Ivy or Alear. The latter seems more likely tbh.

@Ryu_Niiyama @JaxonH @Buizel Interesting. I'll wait a couple of chapters, and if Wyvern Riding hasn't unlocked by then, I'll look it up. I guess I just missed fishing completely, though, so I'll find wherever the local hole is and add that to the pile of things I do between battles.

I've upgraded weapons a couple of times, but silver is in short supply, as it took me too long to realize I needed to have dogs actually milling around the ranch for them to provide me with rare metals. My first upgrade was getting Etie a Silver Bow.

I've been waiting to upgrade my units, but I'm hearing that I should probably just be upgrading them ASAP instead?

EDIT: Ah, you actually need to have a Wyvern available to do Wyvern Riding. That makes a lot of sense.

Since I am not really playing the story I’m not getting any seals so I’m just maxing and benching. Getting units to inherit the stat growth and exp skills are my focus for now. (And now that I figured out it is cheaper to forge weapons than hope the store unlocks them). Slowly outfitting my army with silver.

Huh, I've just realised Alear's hair is to match the Joy Con colours. I feel dumb for not picking that up sooner.

@jump
Ha 😆

Ya, that seemed like part of the celebratory design to honor the Switch as the system this title released on (though it does have plot reasons).

I just wish the hair color changed based on your joycon color. We know Switch detects joycon color. How cool would it have been to put in Neon yellow and Neon blue, or two Neon blues, or two whites... major missed opportunity imo

@Ryu_Niiyama
Sometimes it's cheaper, other times it's more expensive. Guess it depends on how you value silver ore.

Imo, an upgraded Steel weapon is often preferable to silver as the weight is low enough you can double (or at least not get doubled).

@Ralizah
Ah, you actually need to have a Wyvern available to do Wyvern Riding. That makes a lot of sense

🤦

Of course lol. And suddenly common sense fell out of the sky and hit me square in the melon.

BTW, absolutely upgrade ASAP, the sooner the better. Advanced class stat growths are almost universally superior, and EXP gains are based on total levels gained in all classes. So there's no reason to wait, and plenty of reason to promote as soon as you hit Level 10. The longer you wait, the more superior stat growths you sacrifice.

@JaxonH I have a bunch of dogs so I either trade silver for other ores or just upgrade a weapon. I like to have a mix of weapons/types personally to fit the attack pattern. Also making killer weapons as well. I just wish you could sell the horse manure.

So I think Marth just doesn't have a boosted version of his attack because when I put Marth on Alear and Tiki on Anna, Anna could do a boosted divine blessing. Like I said I don't have any other pairs currently (camped on chapter 8 right now) but I'll test once I get my army maxed and benched.

It's also a plot point. A very obvious one but still. I think they comment on it more in Japanese because I don't remember seeing as much written dialogue about it but going "ok another person commenting on the hair and eyes and not in a oh that is pretty sorta way." Plus with the flashback and what Queen Lumeria said it's like yep, purification.

@Ryu_Niiyama
A boosted Divine Blessing?

You sure you're not referring to the sub-class type bonuses? Because assigning Emblems to various sub-classes can provide boosted effects. For example, Tiki's Divine Blessing can also cure status ailments if equipped to a Qi Adept unit (iirc, it might be a different sub-class, either way you get the point).

When assigning them you'll see the type bonuses listed on the skills.

@JaxonH Nope. It’s a link up. Doesn’t happen if I am not near the unit with the emblem that knows mine. Not saying the other type doesn’t happen but it becomes “Divine Blessing+” when it is just Divine Blessing when I am alone. I googled someone on YouTube linking Byleth and the Three Houses Emblem as well. Plus type boosts don’t do the link animation I described.

Byleth/3H

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q--RQTqqfdU

Tiki/marth
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A1zyrB0R7lI

So, apparently the game has achievements you can redeem for bond points at the cafe's bulletin board. I didn't know about this, so I just redeemed 9000+ bond points in one go, lmao.

@Ralizah haha a similar thing happened to me. I thought the achievements were pointless and were just goals. But then I checked the board one time and I redeemed a ridiculous amount of points.

@Ralizah
Oh ya, thats THE main way of getting bond points! I claim mine between every battle. Usually gain 1500 - 2500 after each battle, sometimes 1000 if it was a skirmish.

@Ryu_Niiyama
Oh snap, ya that's definitely something different. Wow. Thanks for that video- seeing it in action is a huge help.

Now I wonder what triggers it? Do you have to actually engage next to each other or just perform the Engage special next to each other, or to each other in this case... so many questions

@JaxonH You dont have to engage both units Just engage one and perform the special. I triggered it unknowingly because I engaged one unit . They just have to be adjacent as far as I can tell. But since I can't access all the pairings I don't know if just the bracelets do this (that would be sad to lock that behind dlc although it would make the leaked dlc choices make sense). As Marth didn't do anything, just Tiki. Or not. I didn't see anything in the system tutorials explaining it either so far. That being said I'm playing during my breaks so I'm sorta in a hurry so maybe I missed something.

@Ryu_Niiyama
Ah, ok. I bet it's a DLC thing then. Part of Tiki's Emblem mechanic is likely getting that "+" buff when next to Marth. And Edelgard/Dimitri/Claude likely get one when next to Byleth.

Still, that's super cool and something I'll keep in mind when strategizing. The Divine Blessing is such a clutch Engage move. Like, all these boss enemies get health refill stones, why not us? Give Louis a Health stone and send him out synced with Lyn to create 4 phantoms which inherit the units stats (if Louis defense is high enough, the phantoms will take no damage from certain attacks, so even though they have 1HP they can bait a ton of enemies- alternatively could use with an Evade tank like Yunaka or Chloe so the phantoms avoid like crazy) and watch a one man army go to work.

edit
In fact, you could use the Lyn Engage doubles as bait for bosses and high defense enemy units in conjunction with another unit using Ike's Engage smash. Let the doubles' high aggro bait them in, then have the other unit detonate Ike's AOE on the next turn. Now that's strategizing!