Beruka

"I'll kill them all. For Lady Camilla."

- Beruka

Beruka (ベルカ, Belka in the Japanese version) is a playable character in Fire Emblem Fates and an ally on the Conquest and Revelation Routes. She is voiced by Masumi Tazawa in the Japanese version and by Stephanie Sheh in the English version.

Profile
Beruka is a skilled assassin orphaned in the slums of Nohr at a young age. From the little memories she had of her parents, Beruka tells Odin in their supports that she received very little love from them and was thrown onto the streets, being forced to kill for survival before she reached the age of 10. In her support with Niles, Beruka states that her mother is deceased. She was adopted by a notable Nohrian assassin and was taught the art of assassination, though she reveals in her support with Oboro that she never received any love from him. Eventually, she became a notable assassin in her own right. One day, she was contracted to kill her adoptive father, a task she carried out with no remorse, stating that any personal feelings she may have can never make her falter in her mission.

One day, she received a new contract to kill the eldest Nohrian princess, Camilla. During her attempted assassination, Camilla found her and managed to convince her to give up her mission by hiring her as a retainer instead. Since then, she has been steadfastly loyal to Camilla. When Camilla asked if Beruka would ever try to kill her again, she states that she would only if it came from someone more trustworthy than Camilla herself, a feat that no other person has yet to accomplish. In turn, Beruka wears the armour that Camilla once used herself, according to her support with Charlotte, hence why she plays the role of a Wyvern Rider.

Birthright
Beruka and Selena accompany Camilla as she attacks the Hoshidan army at Cheve. Beruka is defeated alongside her liege and is forced to retreat.

As the Avatar later begins their seige of Castle Krakenburg, Camilla once again goes off to intercept them in the Underground Passage with the Beruka and Selena in tow. Selena and Beruka are eventually defeated by the Hoshidan army. At their mercy, the Avatar chooses to spare their lives as they merely wish to confront King Garon. With no means to defeat them, Selena, Beruka, and Camilla let them pass.

Conquest
After the Hoshidan army launches its first attack against Nohr at Port Dia, Beruka follows Camilla and Selena to the harbor to assist the Avatar in their defense. Although she is hurt that they do not seem to recall her, calling them heartless very bluntly, she nevertheless pledges her services to them.

Revelation
Beruka and Selena follow Camilla and Flora to intercept the Avatar and their arm At Sea after King Garon ordered Camilla to kill them. After a long fought battle, Camilla, Beruka, and Selena are defeated. With Camilla's life in the Avatar's hands, the Avatar decides to spare her and request that she join their army. Camilla accepts the offer and Beruka and Selena join them as well.

Personality
Beruka, raised as an assassin committed to executing her cold-blooded duties with no emotion, generally comes off as very cold, stoic, unfeeling and distant. As a result of her upbringing, she is thus chronically incapable of expressing her emotions and understanding the intentions of others, a fact that is expounded upon throughout the support conversations that she shares with various characters. Beruka's supports with the Avatar, for one, see her coldly responding to their attempts to befriend her with suspicion and distrust. Her S support with Leo also advances this fact, where she, in response to his marriage proposal, expresses confusion over the warm feelings of love that she finds herself harbouring for him.

Due to being fully devoted to her duties as a master assassin, Beruka does not seem to devote any energy towards activities outside of her royal duties. Unable to grasp the concept of engaging in hobbies for the sake of pleasure, she is typically known to wait idly when not actively performing her duties. Her supports with Jakob show that due to being raised in the slums, the only thing she learned throughout her life was killing people. It is also shown that she prefers working alone and does not like working with others, as another support with her reveals that as a result of being with the army, she is afraid that she cannot do her task properly.

Despite the emotionless figure that she cuts, Beruka has been portrayed as being uncomfortable with the fact that she is immune to experiencing the emotions that are typical of the human condition. She is known to express envy towards others for their ability to freely experience emotions, incapable of comprehending why she is unable to emulate their example. Beruka's supports with Odin best illustrates this fact, as she directly interrupts his flowery harangue with a request for him to conjure a spell to help recall the feelings that she is unable to experience to her, attributing this to a desire to be able to being able to connect with the other members of the army.

She is the most immune to poison. Her birthday is February 26.

Conquest Chapter 10 - Unhappy Reunion/Revelation Chapter 12 - Frozen Sea

 * +50% in Conquest

Birthright Chapter 13 - Another Hope

 * -|Normal=


 * -|Hard=


 * -|Lunatic=

Birthright Chapter 23 - Camilla

 * -|Normal=


 * -|Hard=


 * -|Lunatic=


 * In Guard Stance with Selena, stats unconfirmed

Revelation Chapter 12 - Frozen Sea

 * -|Normal=


 * -|Hard=


 * -|Lunatic=

Growth Rates
Class:


 * 55%
 * 45%
 * 15%
 * 65%
 * 40%
 * 50%
 * 60%
 * 25%
 * }


 * 55%
 * 45%
 * 10%
 * 70%
 * 40%
 * 50%
 * 60%
 * 25%
 * }


 * 45%
 * 45%
 * 25%
 * 65%
 * 35%
 * 45%
 * 50%
 * 40%
 * }

Max Stat Modifiers

 * -1
 * 0
 * +2
 * -2
 * 0
 * +2
 * -1
 * }

Supports
Romantic Supports Other Supports
 * The Avatar (Male)
 * Xander
 * Leo
 * Benny
 * Arthur
 * Niles
 * Odin
 * Laslow
 * Keaton
 * Jakob
 * Kaze
 * Silas
 * Saizo (Revelation only)
 * Azama (Revelation only)
 * The Avatar (Female)
 * Camilla
 * Selena
 * Charlotte
 * Oboro (Revelation only)
 * Beruka's child

Standard Sets

 * }

Friendship Sets

 * -|Conquest/Revelation=


 * }
 * -|Revelation=


 * }

Partner Sets

 * -|All Routes=


 * }
 * -|Conquest/Revelation=


 * }
 * -|Revelation=


 * }

Special Classes

 * }

Base Class
Beruka always comes in tow with Camilla so choosing her over Camilla comes over a preference of Beruka's focus on Skill and Defense with a drop in speed and some in strength compared to Camilla's relatively even spread of stat boosts with minor drops in Magic. Her other niche is that she starts in her base class rather than a pre-promoted unit, giving her more levels to acquire desired stat growths before hitting the promoted level cap, though Camilla has stronger, consistent growths in all stats, so the difference can be very small in the end. Beruka's personal skill, Opportunist, increases her damage dealt by four whenever the enemy that she is attacking cannot counterattack. Beruka can use this to excel when exploiting weapon ranges, so having a weapon for both close range and ranged combat such as a Hand Axe gives her the benefit of exploiting this skill as much as possible. Beruka starts out in the Wyvern Rider class and always starts off with Strength +2, giving her early strength boosts but falls off later in exchange for more practical combat skills. Training her one level up to 10 grants her Lunge a situation skill for swarming and surrounding enemy units. It has applications for interesting offensive tactics, though it is very situational. As an Wyvern rider, she needs to be cautious of Bow and Yumi users as they deal lethal damage and they are plentiful in the Conquest route late game especially. There is also the dangers of Wyrmslayers, though they are not nearly as common.

Beruka's two promotion options are the Wyvern Lord and Malig Knight. The Wyvern Lord class plays to Beruka's strengths as a physical tank as well as giving her access to Lances to use against Sword users, though she will have difficulties dealing much damage without grinding up weapon ranks, which can be difficult on Conquest. Rally Defense is a highly useful rally on Conquest, as there are many enemies that can cut into a character's physical defense through Shurikens or Seal Defense. Swordbreaker is useful for Beruka, as it gives her extra insurance against enemy Swordmasters and other Sword-wielding units. Beruka does not have a high enough magic growth rate to utilize the ability to use Tomes in the Malig Knight, though the skills from the class line can be acquired to give Beruka additional offense. Savage Blow synergizes well with Opportunist, as Beruka can stack them to wear down a more durable opponent, like an enemy Oni Cheftain or General. Trample adds more damaged against non-mounted units; given that there are numerous non-mounted units in both Conquest and Revelation, Beruka can certainly make use of 5 additional damage to an opponent.

Secondary Class
Beruka's secondary class is the Fighter class, which is a fantastic reclassing option for her due to it still allowing her to uses Axes/Clubs, but she will be the third Fighter unit, behind Arthur and Charlotte; compared to Arthur, Beruka has a high Magic, Luck and Resistance, while lacking in Health, Strength, Speed and Defense; compared to Charlotte, Beruka has a higher Magic, Skill, Defense and Resistance, while lacking behind in terms of Health, Strength and Speed. This means that she is a balance between the physical and sturdy build of Arthur, and the glass cannon build of Charlotte, making her a very versatile unit due to her rather balanced growths with the exception of her Resistance growth. For skills, Beruka first gets access to HP +5, which is useful for boosting her health early on but can easily be abandoned due to her high Health growth; secondly, she gets access to Gamble, which offers a risk-for-reward playstyle, and due to her high Skill growth, can be used with almost no negatives; also, if you pair it up with her axe, you can trigger Critical Hits rather easily. For the two promotions, Berserker offers a boost to Health and Strength growths while sacrificing some Luck and Defense; on the other hand, Hero offers a boost to Skill and Defense while sacrificing some Strength. Out of the two promotions, Beruka's build leans more towards a Hero promotion due to her stat growths balancing throughout (the exception being her Resistance); for skills from Hero, Beruka first gets access to Sol, which can be decently useful due to her high Skill growth allowing her to trigger it frequently to regenerate her health, and after that she gets access to Axebreaker which can be useful for dealing with Berserkers who are known to have high Strength stats. From Berserker, Beruka learns Rally Strength first, which can be useful when she can't attack or move; however, it can be traded for a more ideal offensive skill later on due to her build not favouring a support role. Also, she can learn Axefaire, a skill that is useful to equip even if you reclass Beruka back to the Wyvern Rider class set.

Quotes
Refer to Beruka/Quotes

Possible Endings
Beruka - Quiet Assassin (殺し屋 Koroshiya lit. Professional Killer)
 * After the war, Beruka opened up more and was even known to smile sometimes. She spent the rest of her life at Camilla's side, rejecting offers for assassination contracts and not discussing her hobbies.


 * Beruka and Arthur
 * Arthur returned to his true calling, justice. Scholars believe his luck improved slightly after the war. Beruka was torn about leaving Camilla but enjoyed having enough emotions for them to conflict.


 * Beruka and Jakob
 * Jakob served as a butler for the rest of his life, but his true love was reserved for his wife alone. Beruka was torn about leaving Camilla but enjoyed having enough emotions for them to conflict.


 * Beruka and Kaze
 * While no official records of Kaze survive, he appears in many rumors and tales of heroic exploits. Beruka was torn about leaving Camilla but enjoyed having enough emotions for them to conflict.


 * Beruka and Leo
 * Leo sacrificed much for Nohr, leading the effort to spread King Xander's radical new policies. Beruka was torn about leaving Camilla but enjoyed having enough emotions for them to conflict.


 * Beruka and Niles
 * Niles continued to take care of Lord Leo's dirty work while helping reform Nohr's criminal population. Beruka was torn about leaving Camilla but enjoyed having enough emotions for them to conflict.


 * Beruka and Saizo
 * Saizo disappeared from official records after the war, but no doubt he served the royal family forever. Beruka was torn about leaving Camilla but enjoyed having enough emotions for them to conflict.

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

Etymology
Beruka is a derivative of the name Beronica (the origin of the name Veronica), a name of Old Greek origin from φέρειν (phérein) "to bring", and νίκη, níkê, "victory", meaning "bearer of victory" or more literally "she who brings victory", possibly alluding to the fact that she completes most if not all her assignments/jobs.

Trivia

 * Beruka shares her English voice actress, Stephanie Sheh, with Rhajat and Sophie, as well as Tharja and Kjelle from Awakening.
 * Beruka was voted the 12th most popular female on Nintendo's official Fates character poll.