Atlas

"You saw for yourself—my village is crammed full of a whole lot of nothing. I love it, though. All I need is a good axe, healthy trees, and some sunshine. My parents were the same way. I feel like I inherited the mountain from them."

- Atlas to Celica in Echoes

Atlas (アトラス Atorasu) is a playable character from Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. He is a villager from Zofia who wants to rescue his abducted siblings. After the war, he was reunited with them and returned to his village, where he resumed life as a woodcutter. He is 20 years old. He is also one thicc 🅱

Recruitment

 * Talk to him in the Mountain Village.

Growth Rates

 * 30%
 * 30%
 * 20%
 * 10%
 * 15%
 * 20%
 * 0%
 * }

Overall
Atlas is a unit plagued by some serious problems. His HP and his Strength are excellent, but the rest of his starting stats are low. He has below average growths, and in particular he has both very low starting Speed and very low Speed growth. He joins in Chapter 3 as a Villager that is ready to promote, meaning that he essentially joins you as an underpowered level 1 unit. However, unlike many other characters that join you underleveled, Atlas is not likely to turn out exceptional.

Similar to Gray, he can fix his Speed by promoting to a Mercenary. Combined with his high Strength and HP, this makes him a decent unit. The main reason this is a problem is because Atlas is recruited on Celica's route, where she can already recruit 3 Mercenaries (Saber, Kamui, Jesse) and an optional 4th Sword Fighter (Deen), and Atlas will require a lot of care just to catch up in levels only to wind up likely being worse than they are.

He can also promote to Soldier, but he will need to be very well protected as he will do good damage, but be at risk for being Double Attacked by most enemy units at that point in the game. If you can babysit him until he can promote to Armor, he will wind up as a strong unit against melee attackers.

Of all the promotion options available to him, Atlas actually succeeds the most as an Archer, as his only competition in Celica's route is Leon. Leon is an Archer that unfortunately specializes in defensive stat growths. As Archers should not be getting attacked very often, this does not help him very much. Both Atlas and Leon have abysmal Speed, among the worst in the game. Neither of them are likely to Double Attack anything. However, Atlas on average will wind up with equal Speed and Skill and far superior Strength, making him the best Archer available to Celica.

Promoting Atlas to Mage or Cavalier is not recommended. As a Mage, he is stuck with his base Fire spell for a long time, and his spell list is not good. Celica already has access to a plethora of Mages, and all of them are superior to Atlas. While Celica has no access to any other Cavaliers, Atlas is simply too fragile and slow to effectively fill the role.

Similarly to Tobin, no matter what he promotes to, he is usually a worse version of some other character you have unless he promotes to Archer, but unlike Tobin you get Atlas later in the game so you have to put in some work just to catch him up.

Personal Max Stats

 * 52
 * 42
 * 40
 * 39
 * 40
 * 39
 * 40
 * }

Growth Rates

 * 45%
 * 50%
 * 30%
 * 25%
 * 25%
 * 25%
 * 0%
 * }

Supports
Passive Supports
 * Celica
 * None

Overall
Atlas requires some effort to be brought up to par due to his incredibly low base skill and speed for the time he joins, but excels in dealing raw damage to the opponent with his high base strength and growth rates. Atlas ultimately joins as a Villager, meaning he can be differentiated into a number of different classes immediately upon his recruitment.

Although Atlas' growth rates in skill and speed are by no means fantastic, they have been improved in Echoes, and Atlas joins late enough that right after he differentiates, he can grind on dungeons or map enemies for considerable experience relatively quickly. Although Atlas's stats outside of HP and strength are not likely to be fairly remarkable, his growths in those stats are average enough to support his incredibly high strength. His skill stat may be the possible exception, though it is only slightly higher than his speed, luck, and defense growths but nonetheless is likely to be higher than his speed stat.

Atlas excels in the Archer class, where he can exploit the extreme range of Bows to hit enemies with his high strength without much consequence. Atlas' speed is not very remarkable, leaving his ability to double attack enemies questionable; however, Atlas is capable of exploiting this by relying on the Weapon skills of Bows (such as the Iron Bow's Curved Shot and the Steel Bow's Heavy Draw, as he suffers little consequence in using them due to his incredibly high HP and not losing much from being unable to double attack. Atlas' only competition as an Archer in Celica's route is Leon (unless the player tries to recruit Kliff in this route by refusing his request to join Alm's party); when compared to Leon, Atlas will usually be much more powerful but have much less skill and usually a little less speed; however, the Archer class line is good enough to have two characters trained under it, as most enemies are incapable of striking back at an attack from four or five spaces away.

Atlas primarily excels in the Archer class line but has more room to explore other classes in Echoes due to his improved growth rates in skill, speed, luck, and defense. Atlas faces heavy competition from other characters in other classes, especially in the Mercenary class line, though Atlas' strength will overall be much higher than Saber, Kamui, Jesse, or Deen and all of the classes in the Mercenary line have incredibly solid bases in skill and speed to support it. Atlas can potentially build up more speed than Valbar despite having a lower speed growth due to Valbar's atrocious base speed and Atlas having several more levels to build up his speed, but Valbar is overall an incredibly solid armored unit that is weak only against enemy Fiends and magic users, meaning Atlas would have difficulties standing out if he goes down the Soldier class line. Atlas' only competition as a Cavalier (aside from Kliff or Faye if either of them is recruited in Celica's route) is Conrad; overall Conrad will have better stats than Atlas everywhere except in HP and strength, but he joins very late in the game and Conrad does have issues dealing a lot of damage to enemies due to his low base strength and growth. Between them, Atlas will be much better at exploiting the Cavalier line's good movement to reach enemies quickly and hit them hard, whereas Conrad will be better at hitting enemies in terrain, double attacking enemies, and taking hits from magic users (if either Kliff or Faye is recruited in Celica's route, Kliff's role as a Cavalier is similar to Conrad's whereas Faye will function as a less extreme, but more durable version of Atlas).

Ultimately, Atlas' role of inflicting raw damage has not changed much since Gaiden, but he has better growths everywhere (except in resistance) to support that role by leaving him more skill, speed, and defense to work with.

Recruitment Conversation
"Y'guys gonna go finish off Grieth? If that's the case, let me help out too. My little brothers and sisters all got captured by Grieth, but I don't know where to... Shit! That bastard Grieth is going down by my hand!!"

- Atlas' recruitment conversation in Gaiden

Death Quotes
"T-too bad..."

- Atlas' death quote in Gaiden

Recruitment Conversation
"I was off fighting on the frontier until a short while ago. Came home to find my village in ruins and my brothers taken by Grieth. I want to tear that thief's head clean off his body! ...But I can't do it alone. Are you lot going to Grieth's stronghold? If so, let me come and have my revenge."

- Atlas's recruitment conversation in Echoes

Level Up

 * "All right, leave 'em all to me!" (2+ stats up, HP, attack or defense oriented level up)
 * "I can read where they'll strike next! ...Er, probably." (2+ stats up, skill or speed oriented level up)
 * "Whoa, talk about feeling lucky!" (2+ stats up, luck or resistance oriented level up)
 * "Ah-CHOO! ...The heck did that come from?" (1 stat up)
 * "I'm finally feeling a bit more confident." (Near stat capping)

Class Change

 * "Not sure I get what's goin' on here, but leave it to me regardless!"

First Turn Selection

 * "I'll mow 'em down!" (high health)
 * "Ready and waiting." (medium health)
 * "This might hurt..." (low health)

Enemy does One or No Damage

 * "You thought that would hit me?"
 * "Try again, idiot."

Being Healed

 * "I owe ya one!"
 * "Ahh. Thanks!"

Critical Hit

 * "You can go now."
 * "Show some respect!"
 * "I'll split you like firewood!"
 * "Get lost!"

Finishing Blow

 * "You wanna go?"
 * "Lay down!"

Enemy Defeated

 * "Hmph."
 * "Well, that was boring."
 * "I could so this all day!"
 * "Heh. Did I steal the show?"
 * *sighs*
 * "Go big or go home, kids!"
 * "You learn something today?"

Nearby Ally Defeated Enemy

 * "Oof! Glad I'm on your side!" (critical hit)
 * "That was so you!"
 * "Hope I can be like that someday."

Summary Screen

 * "Haha! Serves 'em right!" (Easy victory)
 * "Yeesh... That was a close shave." (Hard victory)
 * "If only I were stronger." (Victory with unit loss)

Death/Retreat Quote
"Damn... Not here... Not... Sorry, guys... I don't think I'm... coming home..."

- Atlas' death quote in Shadows of Valentia

"Agh... That looks serious. I can't leave my little brothers alone. I've gotta sit this one out."

- Atlas' retreat quote in Casual Mode

Final Map Quote
"Yours isn't the world I fought to protect. I'm taking every one of you down!"

- Atlas' final map quote in Shadows of Valentia

Gaiden
After locating his younger siblings, he returned with them to their mountain village. It’s said that he’s now returned to being a woodcutter like he used to be.

Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
''After returning to the mountain home where his brothers waited, Atlas resumed life as a lumberjack—though his work defending the village from bandits continued to win him admiration. While retired from the army, he was always first to aid the queen in times of need.''

Etymology
In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan condemned to hold up the sky for eternity.

Trivia
•He isn't in Heroes yet. Where's the beef?
 * Atlas shares his name with an enemy Baron who appears in the arena in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War.
 * Only tied with Mae, Atlas is the pickiest eater out of the entire cast of Echoes. Both of them also have no neutral preferences.
 * Interestingly, in Gaiden, Atlas has brothers and sisters. In Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Atlas only has brothers.
 * Atlas has two different mounts depending on his class. As a Cavalier, he has a dark brown horse. As a Bow Knight, he has a pitch-black horse.
 * If you defeat Grieth before recuiting Atlas, he will disappear from the village so he can't be recruited.