Today’s daily Fire Emblem Engage content includes an overview of Emblem Lucina, plus some info on forging, Bond levels and support effects.
First, Lucina’s profile:
Emblem Lucina (VA: Yū Kobayashi), known as the Emblem of Awakening, is an exalted princess who trusts in hope and never yields to despair.
A Bond conversation with Etie:
I had a suspicion, but every conversation between an Emblem and a character has been from one of their Bond conversations. More on this later.
Lucina is an Emblem whose true power shines when fighting alongside allies; she has spectacular defensive and offensive capabilities when allies are nearby.
At the start, Lucina poses like in her FE Awakening official art, then in her Smash Bros render.
Dual Strike is a Sync skill that lets the user participate in Chain Attacks regardless of their class type. Normally, only Backup classes (like Sword Fighter) can participate in Chain Attacks.
Diamant is fighting a Corrupted here, but he’s not the one with Dual Strike–that would be his younger brother, Alcryst. Chain Attacks deal around 5 damage each, before the normal combat flow begins.
The map is the Firene one with bridges seen in Marth’s spotlight, etc. Diamant is synced with Leif, while Alcryst is synced with Lucina. Etie is also nearby, poisoned. Off screen to the right, I think is Ivy.
If you don’t know how Chain Attacks work, when a character attacks an enemy, if any allies in a Backup class could attack the same enemy without moving, those allies will participate in a Chain Attack. In this case, Alcryst can attack Diamant’s enemy using his bow. Normally, he wouldn’t participate in a Chain Attack because he’s in a Covert class (like Etie).
The best way to make use of Chain Attacks is to ensure the Chain Attack-capable characters have the highest Range possible. In this case, Pandreo has Elthunder, a 1~3 Range tome equipped. It cannot trigger a follow-up attack, but this isn’t important for Chain Attacks.
His other gear includes an Elfire+1 (engraved with Marth’s Emblem), Training Body Art, Physic and Collapse. He’s a Level 7 High Priest.
The map is the Firenese castle, seen in Clanne’s spotlight etc. Nearby is Rosado synced with Eirika. In the follow up part, Panette moves down to attack a Firenese soldier in Pandreo’s stationary range.
Ka-boom, Pandreo assists his little sister from afar. Next, he also helps out Rosado versus an enemy Wyvern Knight.
The baton is passed to Merrin next, who Engages with Lucina.
Lucina’s Engage weapon Noble Rapier deals bonus damage versus Cavalry and Armored foes. So similar to Marth and Eirika’s Rapiers. Merrin’s other gear includes a Steel Blade, Peshkatz, Silver Sword and Seadall’s Bento. She’s a Level 20 Wolf Knight right now.
Her 4th skill is slightly out of place: Bow related even though she can’t use Bows right now. However, since she’s Bond Level 8 with Lucina, it could be an inherited skill from Lucina.
The map is the ruins from a paralogue, seen in Céline’s spotlight etc.
Bond Shield is an Engage skill that nullifies damage dealt to adjacent allies with 80% chance. It must be triggered via the command menu.
Here, Chloé is using it at the quicksand map, seen in Fogado’s spotlight etc. She’s a Level 20 Wyvern Knight with just Lucina’s Noble Rapier and a bento.
The allies protected by Chloé are Merrin (dagger wolf), Lapis (sword cavalry, synced with Corrin), Rosado (axe wyvern, synced with Eirika) and Pandreo (tome/dual staff).
Other allies include Panette (axe) cut off near the bottom, Alcryst (bow, synced with Ike), Alear (sword, synced with Marth) and Diamant (sword, synced with Leif).
Whee, Rosado, Lapis and Merrin all dodge with ease. For the record, all of these battles occur during the player phase. Otherwise, Smash and Break cannot trigger.
Not shown here, but in the Korean Topics article, if an enemy doesn’t miss, the attack will be deflected instead and “Dual Guard!” will appear. Just like in FE Awakening.
Here’s the fine print. Bond Shield only protects an ally from one enemy attack. So you can’t just hug a Bond Shield user and expect to shield yourself from an entire army.
On the other hand, since it’s an Engage skill, not an Engage attack, I believe you can use this multiple times during the same Engagement. So it’s quite flexible, at least.
If somebody in a Qi Adept class (eg. Martial Monk or Dancer) uses Bond Shield, the damage nullification happens 100% of the time instead of 80%.
All For One is an Engage attack where all allies within 2 squares of the user participate in Chain Attacks regardless of anything.
Citrinne is the user here, with Lucina’s Noble Rapier.
The map is the Thracian throwback seen in Engaging with Emblems etc. The allies ready to chip in are Alcryst (bow, synced with Ike), Pandreo (tome/staff), Alear (sword, synced with Marth), Kagetsu (sword) and Panette (axe).
A poor Ruffian Griffin Knight is the one receiving 5 Chain Attacks, followed by Citrinne’s own attack. He never stood a chance.
Next bit is showing off Bond Shield used by a Qi Adept class. Seadall is the user.
The protected allies include Citrinne (tome/staff), Merrin (dagger wolf), Pandreo (tome/staff) and Panette (axe).
Other allies include Yunaka (dagger), Alcryst (bow, synced with Ike), Alear (sword, synced with Marth), Jade (axe, synced with Lyn), Framme (body arts/dual staff) and Kagetsu (sword).
The map is the desert shoals seen in Engaging with Emblems etc.
Afterwards, more Chain Attacks! Ivy assists Etie at the Sacaen throwback map. Haha, you can peer inside the tents.
We’ve seen her on the map like this, but this is the first time Etie is fighting in, presumably, her promoted class. Sniper maybe?
Now for the grand finale. Zeklov triggers All For One with the maximum 11 allies around him. All For One only attacks adjacent foes, so this is the most allies you can squeeze in. Oddly, there are 12 Chain Attacks not 11–perhaps his class type grants a bonus?
Amazingly, the enemy is KO’d with the Chain Attacks alone. Of course, it would probably be extremely difficult to replicate the conditions consistently. But it’s definitely doable!
As for the allies… deep breath…
Goldmary (sword, w/ Corrin), Alear (sword, w/ Marth), Louis (lance, w/ Sigurd), Merrin (dagger w/ Micaiah), Alfred (lance), Lapis (sword w/ Roy), Rosado (lance w/ Leif), Hortensia (tome/dual staff), Panette (axe, w/ Eirika), Ivy (tome/staff) and Alcryst (bow, w/ Lyn).
Sadly, the video doesn’t show all 12 Chain Attacks; it’d probably make the video too long. Anyway, here’s Lapis striking the enemy with a Lightning Sword, I think.
That’s all for Lucina, but there are some loose ends.
First, some info on Forging:
At the Smithy, you can enhance your weapons by exchanging materials and gold.
We already saw Calney running the Smithy in the debut trailer. Forging seems pretty straightforward. You can spend Iron/Steel/Silver Crystals to increase the stats on the same weapon. +5 could be the max, although perhaps you can increase the limit later.
You can also evolve weapons into different ones. For example, I’m guessing an Iron Sword into a Steel Sword or Armorslayer. So like Three Houses.
Not sure where you get Iron/Steel/Silver Crystals from. These are also used to craft outfits and accessories at the Boutique. When entering the Smithy, the third option is “Exchange Materials”, so maybe there? I wonder if you get them by dismantling existing weapons? The name of the crystals kinda gives a clue.
Also, Alear is in a sword cavalry class. I’m guessing it’s Sword Knight. Makes sense since it would require a Sword Talent, which Alear already has.
Next, some info on Emblem Engraving:
Emblem Engraving lets you imbue weapons with the power of Emblems. Each Emblem can be engraved to one weapon of your choice; afterwards, you can change what weapon they’re engraved to
In previous footage, there were a few times where weapons had Emblem symbols next to their name. Recently, I noticed they may be independent from Forging. Indeed, you can engrave Emblems separate from Forging.
The boosts from engraving seem pretty substantial, but an individual Emblem can only be engraved to one weapon. So you have to choose carefully. That said, since the maximum team size will probably be around 12 (and there are at least 12 Emblems), you’ll probably end up with everyone wielding an engraved weapon anyway.
Although, I guess there could be reasons for having one character hold onto multiple engraved weapons too. Like somebody Synced with Leif, to make use of Adaptability.
Some info on Bond conversations:
After increasing the Bond Level between an ally and Emblem, you can view events called Bond Conversations. By viewing them, you can further increase your Bond Level.
Getting back to what I mentioned near the start, it seems like every Emblem conversation they showed us at the Somniel is from a Bond conversation.
From the looks of things, everyone can support every Emblem. Makes sense since everyone can Sync with every Emblem and Bond conversations are helpful for increasing Bond Level, to unlock new abilities, Skill Inheritance and so forth. So they’d have to make things equal for all, or risk creating disadvantages.
Sadly, this means that conversations between Emblems and characters will be slightly limited. In the C conversations (assuming all of them have been C), each person only gets one line. So don’t expect any in-depth conversations. On the other hand, most of the lines seem unique so far, with everyone generally referring to each other by name.
Update: During the loading screen, there’s a curious symbol near the bottom-right corner that we haven’t seen before.
Although we haven’t seen the symbol itself, we have seen the outer ring pattern before.
In the Somniel trailer, during the zoom out of the Plaza, there are engravings of the 12 Emblem symbols with a teleport circle in the middle. The outer pattern of the teleport circle matches the one from the loading screen.
Therefore I’m wondering if the engraving on the plaza is supposed to look like the image above, which I recreated.
Could this be further evidence of a 13th Emblem? (See our Expansion Pass analysis.)
As for who the 13th Emblem could be, I’m leaning more and more towards another version of Alear. The unknown symbol invokes the image of duality, who Alear also represents.
Just a guess, but perhaps it’s an Alear from another world–possibly the one seen in the “flashback” at the end of the story trailer. Could this be the reason why Alear has two hair and eye colours? Because they’ve somehow fused with an Emblem of themselves?
Also, is this related to the “empty” Emblem that Alear has been spotted with on a few occasions? Maybe Alear has synced with themselves?
Finally, some info on support effects:
When allies fight adjacent to or heal each other, their support values may increase and Support Conversations can be viewed. After viewing them, their Support Level will increase. The higher the level, the more Support Effects they’ll receive when adjacent to each other.
It seems like support effects only work if allies are adjacent to another, which could be rather inconvenient. With an A support, Seadall grants Amber 10 Hit, 6 Crit and 5 Ddg. Doesn’t seem too much, but I wonder if support effects can stack, with multiple adjacent allies?
Also, strangely, Amber cannot wield the Brave Lance and Silver Greatlance in his inventory, but I think there’s a simple explanation. For this example, I think Amber has class-changed from Paladin to Lance Knight. He still has the Level 5 Paladin skill, “Step In”. If he were a Paladin, he’d be able to use those lances.
Besides that, Chloé near the menu can equip staves as a Griffin Knight. However, we’ve seen enemy Griffin Knights with staves before, so it’s not a massive surprise.
I’ll leave you with this line, presumably from one of Amber and Seadall’s supports. The backdrop is an Elusian port. It appeared in Celica’s overview, etc.
