FE1 Tips

[Kil0]

I have been playing Gaiden on and off for a few months, and just made it to chapter 5. Anyways, I intend on playing FE1 right after I finish, and I need to know how this game differs from like Shadow dragon and the GBA games. Anything important I need to know?

[CappnRob]

Only Mercs, Cavaliers, magic users, and archers can promote. So armor knights, hunters, axedudes, etc, do not promote. Horsemen and generals exist, but not as promotions, just sort of a weird middle ground class that requires less investment than a promoteable class but ultimately isn't as good as one.

Promotions work like in Gaiden, ie there's no stat gains, you just raise up whatever stats are below the class's bases to that base.

There's no magic or condensed strength/magic "power" stat, so your mages will only do as much damage as their spellbooks. Conversely, though, literally noone levels up magic defense: the only way to boost it is through promotions and stuff.

Weapon avoid is determined entirely by speed. MAGIC avoid is determined entirely by luck. Yes, its weird. I forget if luck contributes to critical evade or not.

Healers don't get experience for healing, only for surviving combat. This means pre-promoted magic users that can fight AND heal are extremely valuable.... but the unpromoted healers generally have access to unique staffs that only they can use.

No one has any death quotes when they die. :V

 

That should be all the BIG stuff. Others can correct me if I'm wrong or fill in what I forgot, I haven't played FE1 in like a decade lol. It was.... an experience :Y

[Topaz Light]

It'd be more correct to say that only some characters have death quotes. Marth's starting posse all... shares the same death quote, I think, I know Lena has one, but there are also plenty of characters who don't.

In regards to healers gaining EXP when surviving being attacked, note that the EXP they gain is equivalent to them having killed the enemy that attacked them. This is as exploitable as it sounds, especially in Chapter 3, which has an enemy Thief camped out next to Fortress.

Most Priest/Clerics' growth rates are really weird. Elice is good all-around, Wrys is bad all around, and Lena and Maria both have good growths in, like, three stats each, and then 0% in everything else.

I tend to think of magic like this: Its "gimmick" as a weapon type is that it essentially deals fixed damage. There's no Magic stat or any stat that fills its role, but almost nobody has any Resistance, either. You can boost Resistance (by a whopping +7 points, I believe) by using a Talisman, and the game also has the Barrier/Ward staff, which works just the same as in later entries.

Both of your Thieves come with Weapon Levels of 2 and 0% Weapon Level growth. You can still increase their Weapon Levels with Arms Scrolls, but that's it.

Xane can use Swords. He's not especially good without transforming or anything, but like... that's a thing.

A Freelancer transforming into another Freelancer does nothing. This will never be relevant to a legit playthrough, but it's also a thing.

Edited January 24, 2017 by Topaz Light

[CappnRob]

Ha, I forgot about the thieves not having any weapon skill growth, which prohibits Julian from being truly amazing (where as in FE3 he can get weapon levels and is in fact amazing). And yeah, Talismans give obscene magic defense in this, put one on top of a promoted character and watch them become literally magic proof.

 

Also pegasus knights promote into dragon knights in FE1 and that causes them to LOSE magic defense iirc.

[Mega Koopa]

You get more money in FE1 than you'd probably know what to do with, you'd think that Archanea would be suffering an economic inflation. There are two particular secret shops that sell stat boosters (including boots) and you could just completely deck out your units, there isn't a limit on how many things you could buy so you could go wild. On top of this, in most games arena battles give you two times as much money you bet if you win. However, FE1 gives you TEN times as much money from arena battles which is crazy. 

Some miscellaneous things to note: Excalibur isn't effective against fliers in this game, The Mercurius is locked to Marth, The Ridersbane or "Knight Killer" is only effective against Cavaliers not Paladins or Horsemen, The Falchion isn't effective against Dragons aside from Medeus, and Ballistae are only 2 range in this game which basically makes them armored archers before Generals were able to use bows.

[CappnRob]

Mercurius being locked to Marth always bothered me. He already has Falchion, does he REALLY need two special swords? He can't even dual wield them :V

[Mega Koopa]

51 minutes ago, CappnRob said:

Mercurius being locked to Marth always bothered me. He already has Falchion, does he REALLY need two special swords? He can't even dual wield them :V

Yeah, that was so stupid.

[SRC]

Also keep in mind this game uses the promotion item system of the GBA games, NOT like Shadow Dragon. You will need the Hero's Crest for Mercenaries, Knight's Crest for Cavaliers (armors can't promote), dragon's whip for pegasus, orion's bolt for archers, and bishop's ring for mages/clerics. This normally isn't a big deal, but promotion items are incredibly spread out in this game. The first promotion item is a hero's crest that appears in chapter 10, then a knight's crest and orion's bolt a few chapters later. The problem is, the bishop ring and dragon's whip don't appear until Tiki's map, so don't count on promoting people like Merric or Caeda until very late in the game. If you want a sage and dragon knight at a reasonable time, you should look towards Wendell and Minerva (use a speed ring on her) since they are some of the better units in the game anyway.

A few of the characters are also a bit different aside from the promotion thing. Don't bother leveling up the healers since they need to be attacked to level up and are worse than Wendell, Boah, and Merric (excaliber to locked to him this game.)

The axes users are kinda worse in this game since axes are heavy and can't promote. Still, they do have really good defense growths to help compensate, and Barts in particular grows to be an okay unit.

Wolf and Sedgar lose their insane growths and once again can't promote. Sedgar is really only good for helping vs dragon knights but Wolf might be the best bow user in the game unless you're really patient with Gohdin.

Xane copies a unit's current HP in this game so he's effectively a double of your strongest unit. Very handy unit to have around.

Experience point gain is flat this time around, so prepromotes with good growths and mediocre bases like Astram and Midia are quite a bit better than in the DS game.

That's all I can remember for now. That should be plenty to get you started towards building a team heheh.

 

[DarkDestr0yer61]

Myrmidons don't exist in this game. Any character that was a Myrmidon in Shadow Dragon is a Mercenary instead. Heroes don't wield axes. Pegasus Knights and Armor Knights wield lances and swords.

Once a thief loots a chest, that item is gone. Forever.