Kliff

"To keep another’s secret is a sign of strength and trust. But when we hold our own secrets in, we’re only judging everyone else. “You can never understand,” we think. It’s sad, but…it’s what we do."

- Kliff in Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Kliff (クリフ Kurifu, Qulyf in the Japanese version) is a playable character in Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. He is 15 years old.

Profile
Kliff is a Villager from Ram Village who joins the Deliverance with Alm to learn more about the world. Having been bullied at school growing up, and having had a self-centered and smothering mother, he longed to escape his home and broaden his perspectives.

After the war, Kliff bid farewell to Alm and vanished to another continent. Later, a boy claiming to be the son of Kliff served under Alm and displayed a great proficiency for magic.

Personality
Alm's childhood friend from Ram Village, Kliff likes reading and researching history and speaks maturely for his age. He dislikes small-talk. As a child, Kliff was prone to fits of crying or emotion.

Recruitment
Talk to him in Ram Village.

Growth Rates

 * 50%
 * 20%
 * 40%
 * 50%
 * 20%
 * 40%
 * 0%
 * }

Overall
Of the three starting villagers in Alm's team, Kliff starts out the weakest and must gain the most levels in order to class change at the first available shrine, but he has the greatest long term potential of the three. Kliff's growths rates are very high across the board, with no notable weaknesses aside from his average strength. He also possesses the highest natural resistance base. Kliff's all around solid stats allow him to function well in nearly any classline the player puts him into, as his high speed growth makes up for the low speed base of classes such as cavalier, archer, mage, and soldier, and his high defenses and good overall stats make him an exceptional mercenary as well. He has relatively few notable weaknesses and can fill any role the player wishes him to in their army.

Personal Max Stats

 * 52
 * 40
 * 39
 * 41
 * 39
 * 41
 * 40
 * }

Growth Rates

 * 35%
 * 30%
 * 45%
 * 60%
 * 20%
 * 40%
 * 0%
 * }

Supports

 * Tobin

Passive Supports
 * Alm
 * Celica
 * Gray
 * Mycen

Overall
In Echoes, Kliff is once again the weakest to start of Alm's starting villagers, though he shares the amount of levels his must gain in order to class change with Faye, at two. His stat growths are very similar to what they were in Gaiden, as his skill, speed, and defense are exceptional, and he once again has the highest base resistance in the entirety of Alm's starting team. Like in Gaiden, in the long term Kliff's high speed growth will fix the low starting speed of the cavalier, archer, soldier, and mage classes and allow him to perform exceptionally in them, however he must deal with the lower starting speed of these classes, as his low base speed of 2 makes him the slowest of all the starting villagers early on, with the most extreme case being mage starting him out with a lowly attack speed of 1. As a mercenary, his high defense affords him a greater deal of survivability than other members of the class and he is the only one able to comfortably reach the doubling thresholds of the fastest enemies in the game, though his average attack means he will be relying on forges to increase his damage.

Regardless of the class the player gives to Kliff, he performs exceptionally on all of them in the long term, and is the most flexible of the villagers on Alm's starting team.

Gaiden
"Alm, sorry..."

- Kliff's death quote

Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

 * Kliff/Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Quotes

Gaiden
"When the war ended, he bid farewell to Alm. Afterwards, he was never seen again."

Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
"With the war over, Kliff bid Alm farewell and vanished—with some speculating that he left for a new continent. Decades later, a young man claiming to be Kliff's son arrived in Valentia to serve the king. The boy was said to have a tremendous gift for magic."

Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher)
Kliff is illustrated in the trading card game Fire Emblem Cipher with the following cards:

Trivia

 * Kliff is the only male character that can learn six spells.
 * In the Gaiden manga, Kliff is stabbed to death by Desaix during as he and Clair were working together to rescue Mathilda. He attempts to fight back with magic but fails, then dies in Alm's arms. Desaix then has his eye taken out by Alm and is stabbed to death by Alm, Clive, Gray and Tobin.
 * In the novelization by Katsuyuki Ozaki, Kliff and Silque are actually half-siblings from the same mother (who was also Alm's nanny), separated before Kliff was born. Kliff figures this out before Silque does, and reveals this to her with his dying breath after he took an Arcanist's attack for her.