Soldier

Soldiers ( ソルジャー Soldier) are lance-wielding infantry units which, for the most part of the Fire Emblem series' history, are unplayable and unpromotable. When unplayable, Soldiers usually have atrocious stats compared to other units at the same level, give you less experience than other types of enemies, and stop appearing later in the game. They are a fully playable class only in Fire Emblem Gaiden, and the Tellius series games.

History in the series
Soldiers first appear in Gaiden, as the first-tier class of the Knight/Baron path, Ruka being the first soldier to show up in the entire series.

Soldiers first showed up as an enemy only units in Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem in both parts. Soldiers usually replaced Cavaliers and Paladins in the indoor chapters of Book 1 which was a remake of the first game. They were not as statistically poor as they would be in later games, some of the soldiers encountered in the later chapters and especially the arena being quite powerful. Curiously they have a player palette, and there is a set of opponents for a playable soldier to fight in the arena, unlike most other unplayable classes like Pirate.

Soldiers were an unused class with several weapon variations (normal, spear, axe, and sword) in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. This role appears to have been taken by Armor Knights in the finished game.

Soldiers first appeared as weak enemy only fodder in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776. All their stats were much lower then any other class, were classified as a tier 0 unit, and gave less exp then other units. Possibly due to these reasons, Soldiers were one of the only classes not to show up in the Arena.

Enemy Only Soldiers based off their Thracia 776 incarnation appeared in all three GBA games. In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, the class of the playable character, Amelia, Recruit appears to be a personalized variant of the Soldier class. It has similar characteristics, traits, and the same base stats as the Soldier class. The connection is also suggested by the Japanese name, Trainee Soldier.

In TearRing Saga: Utna Heroes Saga the soldier appears as an enemy only class. The enemy only Lancer appears to be a mounted Soldier, and Soldiers may be their dismounted form. There is also another foot based class present called Spear Knight that has a lot of similarities to the Soldier class particularly the unused class in Genealogy of the Holy War. Spear Knight promotes to Sergeant, which can use all melee weapons. The Dismounted form of the playable Dark Knight class is known as Dark Soldier and uses Lances exclusively.

In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, they are a playable class for the first time since Gaiden and can promote to Halberdiers once Level 21 has been reached or 10 and above using a Master Seal. In the latter, the third tier for Soldiers is the Sentinel class. They usually have higher Speed and Skill than Knights, but at the cost of lower Strength and Defense in comparison. In Radiant Dawn, when the player is playing on hard mode, the soldiers at the beginning of the games can be quite dangerous as they have the speed to double units like Nolan.

They are one of the few common classes to be unplayable in Fire Emblem: Awakening. Ephraim appears as an enemy soldier in two DLC maps, however the playable version is a Great Knight. Nephenee oddly appears in DLC as a General. There is concept art for female soldiers, who only appear in cutscenes.

In Fates, the Soldier class is split into the Nohr Class, Lancer, and their Hoshidan equivalent, the Lance Fighter. The Lance Fighter is heavily based on the Soldier class from the Fire Emblem Tellius games, and promotes to Sentinel, which was the third tier for Soldiers in Radiant Dawn. The Lancer class cannot be accessed by any regular characters, however one can access playable Lancers by capturing enemy units. The Lancer class has: no promotions, stats higher then a Tier 1 class, but slightly lower then a promoted class, and no skills by default(though many of the capturable soldiers have skills from other classes such as Lance Fighter). They are the only class only accessible by capturing.

Uniform
Since Monshō no Nazo, Soldiers have had distinctive uniforms and helmets. Typically, Soldiers wear light armor with helmets that cover their eyes. Since Fuuin no Tsurugi the color of the uniform will reflect the nation or alignment of the soldier.

Generic units of various classes such as Sniper, Cavalier, or Knight, will typically use a portrait based on Soldiers. This is even true in games where soldiers do not appear as in Genealogy of the Holy War.

Gaiden

 * Ruka - Sofia Rebel who started Alm's quest by recruiting in Ram Village.
 * Fols - Clive's second in command in the Sofia Liberation force.

Path of Radiance

 * Nephenee - recruited through Chapter 10 by opening her cell door.

Radiant Dawn

 * Aran - a childhood friend of Laura and a member of the Daein Liberation Army.