Class Change

Class Changing is the process through which a character changes from one class to another. It is also commonly known as promotion.

Effects of Class Change
Most class changes have at least some of the following effects:
 * Vastly higher stat boosts than a levelup
 * Increased Movement
 * Additional weapon types made available
 * Enhanced skill in current weapon types
 * Additional skills

Methods of Class Change
Throughout the series there have been several methods of initiating class changes.

Multiple Items
The original, and also the most common, method of initiating class change. There are several items in the game world which will class change a character if they use them, but they only work on certain classes. For example, Fire Emblem 7's Elysian Whip will let Pegasus Knights and Wyvern Riders class change, but not any other classes.

Used in: FE1, FE3, FE6, FE7, FE8

Single Item
The same method as the multiple itemmed style, except only the one item is used for promotions. In Fire Emblem 5, this item is the Hero Proof. In Fire Emblem 7, this is the Earth Seal. In Fire Emblems 8 and 9, it is the Master Seal.

Used in: FE5, FE7, FE8, FE9

Shrine
In Fire Emblem 2, in order to class change, a character must visit one of several Shrines spread throughout the world map.

Compared to the item-based systems, this has the advantage in that potentially every character can be promoted, whereas with item-based systems promotions are limited to the amount of promotion items you can obtain. On the other hand, a unit cannot promote at any time like it can in an item-based system - one first needs to go to a map which contains a shrine.

Used in: FE2

Home Castle
In Fire Emblem 4 a character must enter the home castle and choose an option in the castle menu in order to be class changed.

This has an advantage over the Shrine style of locative class changing in that there is a home castle on every map. However, due to the size of FE4's maps, it can take some time for a unit to reach it, unless one of the teleportation staves is used.

Used in: FE4

Level-based Class Change
This style of Class Change is used in Fire Emblem 9. Instead of an unpromoted unit stopping gaining experience once it has reached level 20, it continues to gain experience and at the point it would have levelled up to level 21, it instead initiates Class Change. The unit does not get an additional level up for reaching 21.

This has the advantage of the location-based systems in that promotions are not limited to the number of items available, and avoids the disadvantage that characters need to be in a certain location to promote. However it does have the drawback that the experience gained after level 20 is, in effect, lost (as the unit doesn't get a level up bonus for it, and the unit could have been promoted at level 20 with a Master Proof).

Used in: FE9, FE10

Event-based Class Change
This style of class changing has never been used as the predominant method in any of the games; it generally affects from none to a couple of characters in each one.

Event-based class changing usually initiates a class change for specific characters throughout storyline events, with the player having no say in the timing.

A list of all characters which receive event-based class changes:
 * FE5
 * Leaf (automatically initiated)
 * Lara (manually initiated)
 * Linoan (manually initiated)
 * FE6
 * Roy (automatically initiated)
 * FE7 Lyn Normal Mode
 * Wallace (Wallace's promotion is forced in Lyn Normal Mode as it serves as a tutorial. The choice to promote Wallace is optional in Lyn Hard Mode, though.)
 * FE7 Eliwood Mode
 * Eliwood (automatically initiated)
 * FE7 Hector Mode
 * Hector (automatically initiated)
 * FE9
 * Ike (automatically initiated)
 * Volke (automatically initiated)
 * FE10
 * Micaiah (automatically initiated)
 * Sothe (automatically initiated)
 * Ike (automatically initiated)

Limitations
In general, a Class Change may only be initiated for a character over a certain level. The exceptions are event-based ones.

The level at which a character may first be class changed is usually level 10 (except in Fire Emblem 4, where it is 20). It is usually, however, recommended to allow characters to reach the maximum level for their current class before promoting them, as this allows them more growth.

[[Fire Emblem:Dark dragon and sword of light
Instead of receiving predetermined stat boosts on class change, characters instead get any low stats raised to the base stat of the class they have become. Any stats higher than the new base stat are left as they are.

Fire Emblem: Gaiden
In this game, most class strains have more than two classes.

That is, whereas a strain in most games is Cavalier -> Paladin, in FE2 the strain is Knight -> Paladin -> Gold Knight.

FE2 also has a class, Villager, which has multiple promotions. When visiting a shrine, a villager will receive the option to promote to a random class out of the available choices. The game offers the option of denying the class change, so one can keep making the villager visit the shrine until the class wanted is offered.

The class Dark Fighter is able to be demoted to Villager through class change.

FE2 also uses FE1's method of class change stat boosting.

Fire Emblem: The Genealogy of the Holy War
Unlike the rest of the Fire Emblem series, where a unit's level is reset to 1 after class change, in FE4 it remains the same as it was before class change. This means that there is no drawbacks to promoting as early as possible in FE4, as there is no lost growth.

Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
Lara can be class changed to Dancer through an event, but her normal class strain is that of Thief -> Thief Fighter. The Dancer class is weaker than either of these classes, so when she is class changed to it, she loses statistics instead of gaining them, making it technically a demotion. She is also able to promote to Thief Fighter after she reaches level 10 as a dancer.

It is possible for Lara to have 76 levels of growth, if she is promoted at the maximum level throughout Thief -> Thief Fighter -> Dancer -> Thief Fighter.

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Almost every class in this game can be promoted to one of two different classes. The player gets the opportunity to choose which one they want after initiating class change.