Heroes Basics

[TheSilentChloey]

So I have had a friend of mine start playing FEH and a few questions came up about the game.  I know that there is a thread on questions everyone has but...it's a bit long to sift through to see some of the questions so I figured I'd give the bare bones of the game that most newbies will need to start with.  Any other questions should refer to the question thread of course since this is a brief guide only.  If I've missed anything please feel free to let me know

 

Summoning

First summon of a banner is always free.  The rest cost orbs and every summon is completely random.  Painfully random 

Certain heroes appear in special maps as a reward for completing the maps.  Special maps have a regular rotation so be sure to check back daily in some cases as you might find the heroes you want are there and could save you some orbs.

 

Favourite Heroes

When you first start FEH you need to be aware that by default the game automatically favourites heroes 4 stars and above.  If you do not want that you will need to go to settings and remove default favourite.  Once you've done that you'll have to go back to the allies menu to select your favourite characters and favourite them manually.

 

That's all I had, if anyone feels that there is more shoot me a PM or ask away on the Question Thread.

 

ETA: Or add to this thread if you like.

Edited September 8, 2018 by TheSilentChloey

[Mercakete]

Another thing that may be helpful to new players that I didn't know for a long time is that when you summon on a banner, the heroes in all 5 "nodes" have already been selected by the game. So if you summon and see a blue orb, a green orb, and 3 red orbs, a specific blue unit is waiting to be let out of that blue orb, a specific green unit is waiting in the green orb, and a specific red unit is hiding inside each of the red orbs. How I thought it worked for a long time was that the game randomly selected the colors, then after you chose one, it would randomly select a character from that color pool. But it doesn't.

[Anacybele]

The most basic of basic things a new player should know: there's help buttons for every mode. Just tap the question mark button you see and you'll get the answers to your questions.

[coldhand25]

Check stats

Checking a units stats before pulling for them is strongly recommended (except if they are your favourite), as you probably don't want to get someone "weak" just because they look good. (It's relevant only for the start, since when you have at least one strong team, you can summon whoever you want for catalog)

Snipe

Is a focus unit one you really-really want? Snipe. Don't do what I did when the game launched - raising pityrate by summoning all five orbs all the time. It might sound good to have your rate raised every 20 orbs, but it's the fastest way to get pity-broken... (It's actually not so relevant anymore, as most 5* units in game are stronger than the ones at launch, but still...)

Be creative

Once you get the hang of building units, you can try to experiment with them. Do not always rely on builds recommended by wiki and other sites. I'm not saying you should experiment with 5* only skills, but being creative can be really fun.

Sending home

Never-ever-ever send home a 5* exclusive unit. Even if you don't like them. They most likely have a skill or two that worth more than the feather you would get for them.

 

These would be my advices, though as with everything, always use your head while making decisions. These are not rules or anything, just ideas that I should've known when I started playing.

[Jingle Jangle]

• Check the calendar for upcoming events and banners to save up on.
• Have a long term merge project for characters you like at a common rarity. They can be a strong assist on harder difficulties.
• Don't get too hung up on ivs, a +attack or + speed seal can put a patch on it.
• Fully commit to using rarer resources (stones/dew/blessing)
• Keep at least one copy of everything for ghb quests or sI
• Reposition, Swap, and Draw Back are some of the best skills in the game
• Team Synergy/ composition is important later on. 

All I can think of.

[Roflolxp54]

Orb spending:

Upgrading your castle or expanding your barracks (as needed since turning excess and unwanted Heroes into Combat Manuals can save a lot of barracks space) is a fine use as they're permanent unlocks. 

Be very careful with how you spend orbs during summoning. Don't spend orbs all willy-nilly because it can bite you in the ass when a banner that has your 5*-exclusive waifu/husbando comes along and you're low on orbs. On any banner, it's ill-advised to go into it with a low amount of orbs as you may end up wasting those orbs and getting no 5* units to show for it so be sure to save up in case a banner featuring your waifu/husbando comes along. Saving orbs may feel like a daunting task but, for many players, it becomes easier once you have at least 100 orbs stockpiled.

Banners to look out for:
Legendary Heroes banners: These banners, which run for about 1 week, show up at the end of the month featuring a starting Focus pull rate of 8% and a non-Focus 5* pull rate of 0%, making it so that it's literally impossible to be trolled by an off-focus pitybreaker. There is a total of 12 Focus units on a Legendary Heroes banner - 3 for each color - with the Focus units being Legendary Heroes (who can only be pulled from these banners; examples include Fjorm, Gunnthra, Ike: Vanguard Legend), 5*-exclusives (examples include Lyn: Brave Lady, Hector: General of Ostia), and even those rare and elusive seasonal units who are getting a second chance (examples include Camilla: Spring Princess, who showed up in the November 2017 LH banner). If you're not sniping for a specific unit and just want a bunch of 5*-exclusives, these banners get you the most value for your orbs. Sniping for 1 specific unit is generally ill-advised here due to the fact that each color has 3 different Focus units; only snipe specific colors if you don't mind getting 2-3 of the Focus units of that color.

Special Heroes (seasonal) banners: These banners, which can run for 2 weeks to about 1 month, show up at certain times of the year though the main catch is that Focus units (which feature heroes dressed with some themed costume and often carrying a themed weapon to match - such as Robin: Festive Tactician who is dressed up to be Santa's helper, complete with a hilarious Christmas tree lance) are not added to the regular summoning pool, meaning there is a defined time limit you can get them. Once the banner ends, you can no longer get them unless the banner is rerun or the seasonal heroes get featured on a Legendary Heroes banner.

While spending orbs on these banners is less optimal than spending on Legendary Heroes banners since Special Heroes banner have the standard starting 3% Focus pull rate and a 3% non-Focus 5* pull rate, there is a defined time limit, so if you want to get your seasonal waifu/husbando or a new and/or rare skill that you'd find useful for your super unit, be sure to save those orbs.

Hero Fest banners: new Hero Fest banners are rarely seen though new players have access to the most recent Hero Fest banner during the first 2 weeks of their accounts' lifespans. These banners feature a 5% Focus pull rate and a 3% non-Focus 5* pull rate. The banner features 4 popular and often very powerful 5*-exclusive non-seasonal/Legendary units, 1 Focus unit for each color (ie. Sigurd, Ike: Brave Mercenary, Nephenee, Lyn: Brave Lady), that can be a powerful asset to a player's barracks and/or be a sought-after fodder unit for a rare and powerful skill. 5% Focus pull rate is huge though you can still get an off-focus pitybreaker, which can still make Legendary Heroes banners the more optimal choice for those not sniping for specific Focus units.

Choose Your Legends (the one with the 100% Focus pull rate): this banner is more akin to picking a starter Pokemon in the main series Pokemon games. You are presented with 4 fan-voted units - 1 of each color - to choose from with 5* rarity, 0 orb cost, and neutral IVs and you can only pick ONE. The other 3 can be randomly pulled via summoning and, due to being 5*-exclusive, can show up as Focus units in Legendary Heroes banners, other regular banners, or even Hero Fest banners. Always pick your most favorite of the 4 though if you have no attachment any particular one, it's a safe bet to go with the unit that would see the most usage in the fanbase and low investment strategy guides (Brave Lyn from the 2017 Choose Your Legends banner; Brave Veronica from the current 2018 one).

What about the other banners?
The other banners can easily be considered bait banners (unless they feature your waifu/husbando that is 5*-locked or a unit that has a skill you'd want to give to your waifu/husbando) and are usually not worth saving for. Similarly, New Heroes banners may also be considered bait due to the fact that one or more of the units may become 4* available once the banner ends and the 5*-exclusives may show up later on Legendary Heroes banners or other Focus banners (such as those themed around units possessing certain skills) or even show up as a pitybreaker while you pull since they're in the regular summoning pool, effectively making it so that these units have no defined time limit. Luck can be a wonderful or cruel thing so it's good to have plenty of free orbs to spend on a specific banner since having plenty of orbs does NOT guarantee that you'd get that Focus unit you wanted. Use your best judgment on how you'd want to spend your orbs.

What if my waifu/husbando is available at 3-4*?
If they show up as a 5* Focus unit, don't get tempted to pull for them. It's far easier to get a lot of feathers than it is to get a lot of orbs without spending any money.

Edited September 28, 2018 by Roflolxp54

[MacLovin]

• Don't fodder the free Fjorm/V!Ike. They're your major f2p heroes.
• Your CYL freebie should be chosen for filling a roster necessity if you're new. 
• Don't bother with daggers unless it's a fave. Even Sothe, considered the best f2p dagger, isn't all that good.
• Any archer can run brave bow DB3 moonbow sets. Pick your fave!
• F2P newbie promotion recommendations for content usually go along the lines of
• Blues- Reinhardt, Effie, Lukas, Cordelia. Maybe Tailtiu as well.
• Reds- Caeda, Soleil/Fir (depends on preference between a jack of all trades vs someone with an awesome prf refine.), Tharja/Lilina, Ares, Draug is your only red armor option unless you got the BK. Good thing he's easy to build. 
• Greens- Nino, Raven (or Linus), Cherche, Libra, Cecilia, and Titania (Or Walhart if you got him) are good options. Sheena is the only non 5* locked axe armor. She's good though.
• Colorless- Klein is easiest bowman to build. Pack a horse staff user of your choice. That's it. Not much to go on, unless you really want a dagger unit. (Sothe is best. Felicia and Kagero distant seconds)
• Dancers are always worth using
• All dragons are worth using. A!Tiki and Nowi are especially able to perform very well without much SI. Fae is likely your only option for green dragons, but she does well enough. F!Corrin isn't the best, but is still serviceable if you like  her.
• Having pure counters for AA and whatnot is handy. Just have that 4* Stahl raised to level 40 specifically to fuck over some random hawkeye or hector in AA
• Have fun with the game. Use your faves.

[Nym]

Thanks for the thread Chloey, it will help :P

And thanks everyone!

4 hours ago, Anacybele said:

The most basic of basic things a new player should know: there's help buttons for every mode. Just tap the question mark button you see and you'll get the answers to your questions.

For the basic things yes but for the hidden things like auto favorite that prevents me from sacrificing units for skills, the game doesn't tell you that. 

[Anacybele]

6 minutes ago, Nym said:

For the basic things yes but for the hidden things like auto favorite that prevents me from sacrificing units for skills, the game doesn't tell you that. 

Well, this thread was talking about the basic stuff, right? xP

[Nym]

29 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Well, this thread was talking about the basic stuff, right? xP

Right :P I just hope they aren't any more little surprised like this one.

[Anacybele]

2 minutes ago, Nym said:

Right :P I just hope they aren't any more little surprised like this one.

...Huh?

[Nym]

22 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

...Huh?

If I didn't ask Chloey , I don't think I would have figure out that the auto favorite was the reason why I couldn't inherit my units.

[Anacybele]

3 minutes ago, Nym said:

If I didn't ask Chloey , I don't think I would have figure out that the auto favorite was the reason why I couldn't inherit my units.

Oh. Huh. I figured it out on my own.

[Rezzy]

@TheSilentChloey@Nym There's a thread for general questions pinned in the thread, or if you have a specific question you can always PM me.  I've been playing since launch and have a pretty good understanding of the game.

[SuperTroll Maxim Lapierre]

Green Raven users with TA will help immensely in Arena Assault because of Lynhardt being pretty popular for defense.

[TheSilentChloey]

1 hour ago, Rezzy said:

@TheSilentChloey@Nym There's a thread for general questions pinned in the thread, or if you have a specific question you can always PM me.  I've been playing since launch and have a pretty good understanding of the game.

I'm good on the question front.  I figured to put the bite sized info here and there is a link to the question thread as well.

[Nym]

1 hour ago, Rezzy said:

@TheSilentChloey@Nym There's a thread for general questions pinned in the thread, or if you have a specific question you can always PM me.  I've been playing since launch and have a pretty good understanding of the game.

I'm good for now.

...

Oh I'm already out of orbs.

[Landmaster]

If you're F2P and don't intend on whaling out every time your Special or Legendary waifu shows up, SAVE YOUR ORBS.

Do not waste Orbs trying to pull for Heroes that are always in the Summoning Pool. Focus Banners increase chances of getting specific units, but if it's not a unit you're dying for, save your Orbs for heroes that are limited, because they only come around a couple times a year and they're always for a short period of time. 

There's plenty of F2P Orbs for you to get if you're just starting out from the Story and Paralogue maps. There's also Tempest Trials which can earn you, IIRC, up to 43 Orbs but you have to be either a god at the game so you can do it fairly quickly or really diligent in playing several times a day since those are Orbs you're not going to want to miss out on~

Upgrade your Castle ASAP and stock up on Blessings because they make it easier to gain SP (which you need to learn good Skills for your units while grinding).

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Landmaster said:

Upgrade your Castle ASAP and stock up on Blessings because they make it easier to gain SP (which you need to learn good Skills for your units while grinding).

If you want to efficiently farm SP, you do NOT want to upgrade your Castle. Boosting your experience makes leveling up faster, meaning you have a shorter duration to farm for SP in Special Training maps. Farming on the level 34 Special Training maps is very inefficient compared to lower levels, as it takes more stamina, enemies have higher stats (if your unit has lopsided Def/Res, your unit will die more easily), and have both melee and ranged enemies (you cannot blindly spam End Turn button).

I recommend delaying upgrading the Castle as much as possible.

Edited September 9, 2018 by XRay

[Landmaster]

39 minutes ago, XRay said:

If you want to efficiently farm SP, you do NOT want to upgrade your Castle. Boosting your experience makes leveling up faster, meaning you have a shorter duration to farm for SP in Special Training maps. Farming on the level 34 Special Training maps is very inefficient compared to lower levels, as it takes more stamina, enemies have higher stats (if your unit has lopsided Def/Res, your unit will die more easily), and have both melee and ranged enemies (you cannot blindly spam End Turn button).

I recommend delaying upgrading the Castle as much as possible.

I usually SP grind during TT, I main suggest to upgrade the Castle for EXP since a lot of people don't want to wait so long to get to Lv40. 

[redlight]

Don't pull on a legendary hero banner color if it happens to have a dud. For example Azura, Mist, etc. Basically units that you maybe need one copy of, but that's it.

Don't snipe on a legendary hero banner for one unit as it takes several orbs to maybe get them because of the way the focus works.

[TheSilentChloey]

S-Skills/ Sacred Seals

These are equipped to Heroes to give them a fourth "skill".  For example:

My Blue Tome Robin already has a C-Skill that I don't want him to be without.  I also want Robin to have the skill "Savage Blow".  So I just equip the Sacred Seal "Savage Blow" and Robin now has that skill.

 

Promoting Units

To promate units you need the matching badges to their colour and hero feathers (both of which are earned through gameplay or sending heroes home in the case of feathers).  As of version 2.9.0 of Heroes they can be promoted at any time.  That may change.

[saisymbolic]

Speaking of Sacred Seals, the coins used to unlock and upgrade them, the Sacred Coins, are somewhat scarce in availability. The main ways to get them are as:

• Rewards during Tempest Trials
• Daily quest rewards during Voting Gauntlets
• Rewarded to you after an arena season (the amount depends on your ranking)
• Rewarded to you as you participate during Grand Conquests

Because of how limited these are, you should try to get as many as you can when possible and prioritize which Sacred Seals to unlock and upgrade depending on your needs. For someone just starting out, here are some suggestions:

Unlock

• Quick Riposte
• Distant Defense and Close Defense
• Drive Attack and Drive Defense
• Spur Attack, Spur Speed and Spur Defense
• Hone Attack and Hone Speed

The one most important to upgrade to level 3, in my opinion, is Quick Riposte. It is such a useful Sacred Seal that comes in handy at all times, especially if you decide to use F2P guides to clear the GHB maps.

I also want to mention not bothering to unlock or upgrade the stat boost (HP+3, Atk+1, etc.) Sacred Seals. By now, you probably already know you get copies of them when completing the training quests available to people just starting the game. Of course, again, this depends on personal preference, but they aren't as important when you're starting out. Or, at least, they aren't really a priority.

Edited September 11, 2018 by saisymbolic
grammar

[XRay]

1 hour ago, saisymbolic said:

I also want to mention not bothering to unlock or upgrade the stat boost (HP+3, Atk+1, etc.) Sacred Seals. By now, you probably already know you get copies of them when completing the training quests available to people just starting the game. Of course, again, this depends on personal preference, but they aren't as important when you're starting out. Or, at least, they aren't really a priority.

Speed +3 is on par with Quick Riposte in my opinion. Lots of Player Phase units require more Spd to double reliably, and out of all the Sacred Seals, Speed +3 is the best Sacred Seal for Player Phase units in general. Heavy Blade is a close a second for players utilizing Brave units.

[Garlyle]

Well, a few months ago I was a beginner, so I can say a few tips I would do if I was a beginner right now:

• Banners: Redeem the free units you can get. Brave Lyn and Veronica would be the most solid choice. Legendary banners are great for getting some quality units.
• Questing: Complete the Story Mode, Paralogues and Drills. You get feathers, orbs, Ike and Fjorm, you'll always need these in hand.
• Tempest Trial: easy to get free unit, Ethlyn looks like a nice upcoming units, also a lot of rewards.
• Sacred Seals: Quick Riposte 3, Distant Def 3, Close Def 3, Iote's Shield and Drive seals should be priority. Flashing Blade and Heavy Blade can follow.
• Special Maps: Special Training is the easiest way to level up. Also grab Olivia, dancers are a must.
• No point in merging and Skill Inheritance unless you have a plan. With the introduction of Combat Manuals, Barracks space will be hardly a problem for a long time.
• Unlock Potential to 5* is expensive, but Reinhardt and Lilina are safe choices. (maybe Shigure or Eirika)
• Weapon Refinery: upgrading with Refining Stones is fine, it gets you Divine Dew. Only spend Divine Dew on units that you use a lot - Dew is hard to get.
• It's ok to 5* the Askr trio, it makes future quests much easier. Weapon Refinery is not required.
• Assist skills can be lifesavers. Inherit Reposition(3* Barst) for frontline, Draw Back (3* Mae) for ranged and Swap(3* Arthur) for armored.
• Do Arena and Events for orbs, feathers, refining stones and sacred coins. They are much needed. Tempest Trial is also good source of Hero Merit, which can be turned into more feathers.
• Future reference: Kana, Linus and Walhart are great GHB units to get. (get Ursula from current rotation, good against horses)
• Got stuck? There are some good guides on YouTube. If you can't build the same team, you can try something similar.