Near the beginning of February 2017, Nintendo launched Fire Emblem Heroes, which brought the classic turn-based Fire Emblem gameplay to smart devices.

Whether you’re new to Fire Emblem Heroes or you’ve been playing for a while, we’ve gathered some useful tips that will hopefully help you become a better strategist–which in turn will boost your enjoyment of the game!

1) Strive for Balance

Eventually your team should be capable of handling any and all threats.

We’ll start with an easy one. During the early stages of the game, it’s easy to plow through enemies with any Heroes you want. Later on, as enemies get tougher and more varied–and when you enter unpredictable battlefields like the Arena, you will want a good balance of Heroes.

Obviously, you should focus on the colour triangle first. So, ideally, you want a red, blue and green unit to counter all possible colours. The fourth unit can be any colour or colourless, depending on your preferences or to counter the foes you don’t like seeing.

Next, you’ll also want physical and magical representation in your team to deal with foes with high defence and resistance respectively. Finally, it wouldn’t hurt to have a ranged unit such as a bow or magic user. For most high-end battles, you can forgo a staff user to maximise your offence.

2) Add a Dancer or Singer to your Team

Dance and Sing can help both offensively and defensively.

Are you ever frustrated when one of your powerhouses is a few HP short of KOing a tricky enemy? Or do you get annoyed when you can’t engage the enemy without positioning your units dangerously in their attack range?

In situations like these, it could be immensely helpful to have a unit with the Dance or Sing skill in your team of 4. Units with these skills can allow another unit who has already taken an action to move again during the same turn.

Currently, the only heroes with Dance or Sing are Olivia, Azura and Ninian. Although the latter two are notoriously hard to find, Olivia is a fairly common 3 or 4-Star Hero who also appears in a Hero Battle every 10 days or so (where she can be recruited).

3) Try to Participate in the Arena!

Separate rewards are given for your high score, rank and successful defenses.

The Arena is a place where you can battle against other players’ teams controlled by the AI. You need a Dueling Sword to participate in the Arena and each day you will start with exactly 3 Dueling Swords.

Playing in the Arena does not consume stamina and you will always have 3 Dueling Swords on each new day, so there’s no excuse not to enter three times per day (or at least until you get a decent winning streak). Otherwise you’re wasting your Dueling Swords.

More importantly, outside of special events and quests, the Arena is the only reliable place to earn Hero Feathers, which are required to upgrade Heroes. Besides that, it’s also a fun place to wind down after exhausting your stamina.

4) Don’t Fear the Higher Difficulty Modes

As soon as your team is ready, remember to redo maps on higher difficulties.

After completing each chapter of the main story, you will unlock Hard and Lunatic versions of those chapters, where enemies are 10 and 20 levels higher respectively.

At first, you probably won’t be able to handle these tougher chapters and it’s tempting to completely forget about them. However as you progress through the story and level up your heroes, it’s a smart idea to return to earlier chapters and do them on Hard or Lunatic.

Especially since Hard and Lunatic maps count as separate maps and thus reward you with orbs for the first completion. A good time to start Hard Mode is when you reach Chapter 6 on Normal; likewise, when you reach Chapter 9 on Normal, you can start doing Chapter 1 on Lunatic.

5) Be Happy with Your Heroes!

Nino is a common Green Mage who grows into an exceptional unit.

Last but not least, due to the nature of the game (and the way probability works in general), very often you may not get the Heroes you want. Especially if you’re not spending a penny–and even those who spend a lot don’t necessary get the Heroes they always want.

As such, try not to be too disheartened or disappointed if this happens. Additionally, some Heroes who seem useless at first may actually prove to be useful, whether by training and building them up or by using them as sacrificial fodder for Skill Inheritance.

Somewhere out there, somebody is sure to be jealous of your Heroes, just like you’re jealous of the Heroes you don’t have. Therefore, it’s best to remain happy with what you’ve got. This will also be beneficial with keeping your interest in the game, as it can be all too easy to fall in a rut.

In Closing

Of course, this is just the beginning; there are many, many more considerations to think about as you delve deeper into the game. In the near future, we’d love to discuss tips for more advanced players!