My Castle

My Castle (マイキャッスル Mai kyassuru) is a gameplay element in Fire Emblem Fates.

Story
After the battle at the Bottomless Canyon N., Hans betrays the Avatar by attacking Gunter, causing him to fall into the Bottomless Canyon. Enraged, the Avatar discovers their Dragon Fang ability and attacks him. However, the Ganglari flings them into the Bottomless Canyon. As they fall to their presumed death, Lilith appears, changes into her dragon form and rescues them by sending them both to the Astral Realm. After explaining the nature of the area and building the Avatar's Personal Quarters, she sends them back to the Bottomless Canyon N., but warns them that they should be careful of enemy ambushes.

Later, after the events of Chapter 6 in any path, Lilith brings the Avatar and either Felicia or Jakob depending on the Avatar's gender into the Astral Realm where they decide that the area will be used as the Avatar's main base when not in combat.

Overview
My Castle is a customizable base of operation available in all routes of Fates. Like the Barracks in Awakening, My Castle is a gathering place for the player's army and certain events can be triggered by the characters there. My Castle is mainly viewed from the top down view with the Avatar portrayed by their map sprite, however, they can toggle their view to see the base from a 3-D third person perspective. Characters in the Player's army can also be found wandering in the area and can be interacted with for a variety of events as well as unique dialogue depending on the time of day. In order to build and upgrade facilities, players need to acquire Dragon Vein Points by participating in battles or visiting other My Castles. All features and upgrades requires that the player reach a certain chapter in game in order to use.

My Castle also serves as the main hub for StreetPass. Players are given a Ranking, similar to Renown in Awakening, but divided into a Battle and Visitor Ranking. Anytime a player StreetPasses any player with any version of Fates, they will receive a visitor Avatar. Players can then visit their My Castle and make usage of their facilities, including their Shops and Resources.

Alternatively, players can battle other players. They have the option of placing the battle in either their own castle or the other player's castle. Buffs added respectively; e.g a player who decides to fight another player in their castle will find themselves in a disadvantage. Several buildings in the castle will give these buffs/debuffs; for example, the Dusk Dragon statue drops all opponents health by a set amount, while another like the Mess Hall increases that castle garrison's hit rate. These buildings can be destroyed, in which their effects will drop. Buildings are always rebuilt at the end of every battle. To win a castle fight, players must either rout the opposing forces while protecting their throne. If a enemy unit gets on the throne, the player will lose. If the player besieges another player's castle, they can alternatively capture their throne instead.

Victory nets the player several benefits that they can use to their aid. No matter where the battle takes place in, the player can recruit one of the ten units the other player used in their StreetPass team, including path-locked characters like Fuga. However, players cannot recruit prison and Einherjar units from that team. If the player's "Other" units are not filled, they will automatically join the player's army. They are put in the logbook, where players can learn skills from them at normal price provided the player has a unit with the same name. If the player won a battle at the opponent's castle, they can decide to learn a skill from one of their ten units at a reduced fee which is put in that unit's skill roster after completion, provided that the player has that unit with them. For example, a player with Kiragi in Birthright can learn a unique skill that Kiragi would be able to learn only in Revelations, such as Savage Blow, which is impossible for him to learn in Birthright.

Several of the buildings in My Castle are also used to recruit several characters in-game. In the Birthright and Revelation routes, upgrading any of the puppets to level 3 will allow the player to recruit Yukimura. In the Conquest and Revelation routes, upgrading any of the turrets to level 3 will allow the player to recruit Flora. In the Conquest and Birthright routes, upgrading the bath house to level 3 will allow the player to recruit Izana while Fuga replaces him in Revelation due to the storyline.

The player's (and their opponent) castle can also be used as two of the options in Wireless Battles; in this case, puppets/golems are not deployed and statue effects are disabled. Players can still recover health from forts/healtiles and lose health from caltrops. Buildings such as the Mess Hall still provide their bonuses to both armies though.

On all three routes, after completing a specific chapter, the player's castle is subjected to invasions by Vallite soldiers. There are three invasion waves; wave one consists of unpromoted units, wave two consists of promoted units with several reinforcements, and wave three with even more stronger promoted units and more reinforcements. These invasions also coexist with the ramped difficulty of Paralogues and DLCs.

Advisors and customization
Players can customize My Castle through their advisors. Initially, the player starts out with Felicia or Jakob as their advisor, depending on their gender. When Gunter and Flora are unlocked, they may be used as advisers as well. Generic units are also available once certain requirements are met. For example, Hoshidan generic units can be placed as an advisor once the Birthright path has been completed once.

Advisors hold the Unit Logbook, allowing players to access saved units from previous My Castle battles or saved characters from completed playthroughs. offer options to build, move, or upgrade facilities, as well as change the fort's name, the background music that plays, and its overall style. There are six available styles for My Castle, three each for Birthright and Conquest; Revelation allows players to choose from all six.


 * Birthright styles:
 * Hoshidan - a castle with blossoming cherry trees
 * Wind Tribe - an arid mountain hold split by a chasm
 * Izumite - a castle built around a large rock
 * Conquest styles:
 * Nohrian - a castle with grim trees
 * Chevois - a fortress with an inner set of walls
 * Nestrian - a seaside retreat divided by canals

Buildings

 * Private Quarters - A room reserved for the Avatar. If the Avatar has a spouse, they will be found in this room as they will share the room with them. This building increases damage dealt by allied units during a Castle Battle.
 * Players can freely alter their Avatar's hairstyle.
 * Dialogue may also change between several characters if the Avatar is married when they are invited in.
 * Players invite characters that they have formed supports into their room. After a small dialogue given by the invited character, the Avatar's support with that character will be boosted. For an Avatar's spouse, they will say different dialogue and can have special events such as blowing into the Nintendo 3DS' microphone to "cool them off" and waking them up if they are sleeping.
 * In the Japanese version, players are given a Pokémon Amie styled mini-game where they perform a "skin ship" with the character by rubbing the touch screen. Dialogue changes depending on the character's relationship with the player.
 * Armory/Vendor - Two shops to buy weapons and healing items. Stocked items and stocked amounts are determined by the shop's rank. There are two versions of both shops, one for Hoshido and one for Nohr. Shop discounts may occur from time to time and are determined by who is running the shop out of the allied army units.
 * Forge - A building to forge weapons. Forging costs Gemstones. A higher level forge means that weapons can be forged to be even stronger.
 * Note: The forge cannot work on weapons from the other path, if not playing on Revelations. This means if a player wishes to forge a Nohrian weapon but is playing Birthright, they will need to visit another player's castle that is playing on Conquest to forge it, and vice versa.
 * Accessory Shop - A shop to buy special hats, masks, clothes, and gloves to wear, which have a variety of stat boosts during My Castle battles. These accessories can be worn in normal and My Castle battles.
 * Mess Hall - Players can cook meals to feed your units. The character serving as the chef during your visit will affect the outcome of the dish. The foodstuffs used will determine what stats it will give to your army. A higher level mess hall increases the amount of ingredients you can put in a dish and give more buffs in one go. Having this building in your My Castle boosts your unit's Hit Rate during Castle battles.
 * Prison - A prison to hold units that were captured in a previous battle. A higher level prison expands the amount of prisoners it can hold at one time. Having a this building in your My Castle boosts your unit's Critical Hit rate during Castle Battles.
 * Arena - Players can gamble resources by participating in classic Arena style battles. Winning nets you additional resources while losing causes you to lose your wager. No experience or gold is earned in this feature and units defeated in the Arena are not killed. Participating characters are always alone, but if they have formed supports, the person who has the highest support with them will join them in the battle. In this case, both sides will be using Attack Stance and use D Rank weapons. Enemy strength is dependent on the strength of the characters; e.g a tier 1 and 2 character will mean your opponent will also be tier 1 and tier 2 respectively.
 * When visiting another player's Arena, fights are always conducted in a 1v1 format.
 * Card Shop - A shop where you can buy Einherjar units of the player's Streetpass team as well as generic ally units. Higher level card shops mean that the player can buy more cards. Having this building in your My Castle boosts your unit's Avoid during a Castle battle.
 * Records Hall - A building to utilize the Hubba Tester to check on the army's "compatibility", to peruse Ancient Texts, and revisit old Support Conversations. Higher level Museums unlocks Fates soundtest. CGI movies are also viewable once the player has seen them and route specific movies can be seen in all playthroughs once that route has been completed. Having this building in your My Castle decreases damage taken during Castle battles.
 * Lottery Shop - Players can use the Dawn Lottery (Birthright) or Dusk Lottery (Conquest) to spin a lottery once a day for random rewards, ranging from resources to weapons and seals.
 * Hot Springs - The Hot Springs are an area for the Avatar to have special interactions with the player's army. Higher bath level allows more characters to appear in the spring at one time. If the Avatar is married, they may spend time with their spouse and/or children in this building. The "R" button on the Nintendo 2/3DS will show the player who is in the hot springs at the moment.
 * Lilith's Shrine - A small shrine housing an azure dragon named Lilith. As Lilith is fed, she will level up and the food she is fed will influence her stat growths. Lilith will appear in My Castle battles in front of her Shrine, but will not move. Lilith's battle capabilities depends on the route. In Birthright, she has Astral Blessing, which heals an allied unit near her while in Conquest, she has Astral Breath, which allows her to attack enemies in her range. Both options are available in Revelation.
 * Travelers' Plaza - A special gathering area for StreetPass Avatars.
 * Players can visit other player's My Castles and peruse their set up.

Installations
Players can add numerous purely defensive features in their My Castle for usage during StreetPass defense battles. All Installations are determined by the route being played, however all players that are playing the Revelation are given access to all Installations.

All Routes

 * Character Statues  — Statues of specific characters can be placed in the player's My Castle. These statues passively give allied units a stat boost during My Castle battles. Unlike other features which require that the player reach a certain chapter, Character statues unlock new levels based on how many kills that unit has performed. A character's statue is unlocked once that character has killed 10 enemies and will provide a stat boost to that character only. Level 2 is reached once the unit has killed 50 enemies and will provide a stat boost to that ally and all allies that have achieved a C-Support with that unit. Level 3 unlocks once that unit has killed 100 enemies and will give all units will receive the stat boosts.

Birthright Installations

 * Dawn Dragon Statue — Heals the defending army each turn. Health recovered is by 10, 15 and 20% of their maximum health respectively.
 * Puppet —Summons a Puppet unit as an extra battle unit. There are three types of Puppets: Heaven, Earth, and Man. Higher rank puppets have higher stats and better weaponry. The rank 3 Puppets also have the Seal Strength skill. Puppets use both Yumi and Saws to assist them in battle, and will attack nearby targets. If there are no targets within range, they will return to the spot where they were deployed in.
 * Shuriken Turret — A fixed turret that shoots Shurikens at enemies. Can only be used by Hidden Weapons users. Damage and accuracy increases with rank.
 * Ballista — A fixed turret that shoots arrows. Can only be used by bow users. Damage and accuracy increases with rank.
 * Resource nodes — There are two different nodes a player can make exclusive to Birthright; one food and one gemstone node; see the resources table for more details. Higher leveled nodes give more resources.

Conquest Installations

 * Dusk Dragon Statue—Damages the attacking army each turn. Damage dealt is by 10, 15 and 20% of their maximum health respectively. Will never kill opponents.
 * Note: Dusk Dragon effects work differently compared to other hazards; when the dusk wave is launched, every enemy is hit, even those that are the supporting unit in a Guard Stance.
 * Stoneborn— Summons a Stoneborn unit as an extra battle unit. There are three types of Stoneborn: A, B, and C class. Stoneborns cannot move but throw powerful rocks at their opponents. The higher the rank, the better the Stoneborn's stats are and use more powerful rocks. Stoneborns have a 1-5 attack range, but unlike the enemy Stoneborns found in the storyline, cannot move. The rank 3 Stoneborns come with the Wary Fighter skill.
 * Magic Turret —A fixed turret that launches Magic. Can only be used by magic users. Damage and accuracy increases with rank.
 * Resource nodes — There are two different nodes a player can make exclusive to Conquest; one food and one gemstone node; see the resources table for more details. Higher leveled nodes give more resources.

Resources
Every My Castle houses Gathering Spots, an intractable area to gather resources. Players can gather resources every in-game day (roughly two to three map completions). The type of Gathering Spots available in a My Castle is determined by the route the player is currently playing. If the player is playing either the Birthright or Conquest routes, they are given two Gathering Spots: one for Gemstones and one for Foodstuffs. If playing the Revelations route, the player is given one Hoshido Gemstone and Foodstuff spots and one Nohr Gemstone and Foodstuff spots for a total of four Gathering spots. When visiting other player's My Castles, the player may gather resources from that player's Gathering Spots. However, players can only take Resources from other player's My Castle once a real-time day.

Both resources can be gambled at the Arena and can be used to buy accessories from the Accessories Shop.