Assassin

Assassin
Dorothea as an Assassin in Three Houses.
First Seen	Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
Promotes From	Thief (FE7, FE8, Volke only (FE9), and FE13 only) Myrmidon (FE8 and FE13 only)
Promotes To	N/A
Usable Weapon Types	Sword, Knife, Bow (FE13 & 16 only)
Class Skills	Shove(FE10 & 11), Lethality, Critical +25 (FE10), Pass (FE13),Swordfaire(FE16), Locktouch(FE16), Stealth(FE16)
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“Masters of the killing arts.”
—In-game description in The Sacred Stones

The Assassin (アサシン Asashin) is a combat physical class that is first introduced in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. Taking on the position of the retired Thief Fighter class, the Assassin class acts as the promoted form of the Thief class, wielding Swords or Knives as its primary weapons of choice. Jaffar stands as the character who introduced the Assassin class to the series, assuming it as his base class in The Blazing Blade.

History in the Series

The direct successor of the Thief Fighter class, the Assassin class is formally introduced to the series in The Blazing Blade as the staple promoted form of the Thief class. Imbued with the deadly Lethality skill, the Assassin class distinctly wields knives instead of Swords in their battle animations.

In Path of Radiance, the Assassin class is unique to Volke, a Thief who promotes into it after a story event that takes place after Chapter 19 concludes. For the first time in the series, Assassins wield actual Knives instead of Swords.

In Radiant Dawn, the Assassin (暗殺者アサシン Asashin) class is again unique to Volke, acting as his base class.

In Awakening, the Assassin class is an optional promotion for both the Thief & Myrmidon classes. They are capable of wielding both Swords & Bows, and learn the skills Lethality & Pass at levels 5 & 15, respectively.

In Fates, the Assassin class is absent. The closest equivalent to this class is the Hoshidan Master Ninja class, a class that similarly learns the Lethality skill and is armed with Shuriken as its weapon of choice. The Master Ninja class promotes from the Ninja class, a class that acts as the game's replacement for the Thief class.

In TearRing Saga: Berwick Saga, the Assassin is an enemy-only class and acts as a beefed up Thief. It does not have the Lethality skill but does have the Shadow and Hide skills. Additionally, they are the sole wielders of the Assassin Dagger, which gives its wielder an 80% chance to inflict a critical hit. With one exception, every Assassin is armed with this weapon, making them extremely dangerous opponents. However, they also give 100 experience when killed or captured, regardless of their level, so it may be worth the risk to engage with them.

In Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE, the Assassin class appears as one of promotion class for Virion.

In the spin-off title Fire Emblem Warriors, they appear as an enemy-only class and clone of the Swordmaster class, with the added benefit of being able to open chests.

The Assassin class makes a return in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and is part of the Advanced Class curriculum for the Certificate Exam. To promote into Assassin, a unit must be Lv. 20, and have their Sword Skill Rank at B and Bow Skill Rank at C. As before, Assassins are considered the promoted form of the Thief class, due to both sharing weapon proficiences in swords and bows.

Overview

Combat

It is important to keep in mind that the Assassin and Thief are different classes in regards to combat performance.

Assassins are considered to be a useful class to have on the battlefield, and they are widely feared when encountered as enemies. While they lose their ability to Steal after being promoted from Thieves, they do retain their ability to utilise Lockpicks and disarm traps. Despite being unable to steal, they gain the potential to be a formidable combat class, as they will, on occasion, perform a special lethal attack in which they will defeat a selected enemy target in one fell swoop, regardless of HP or Defense. This special ability is treated as a skill that is commonly known as Lethality. In addition to this, Assassins are known to possess high Critical hit percentages, and this in turn contributes heavily to their chance of activating the Lethality skill (50%). Lethality can even be activated when facing bosses (excluding final ones), but with 25% of the Critical hit rate instead of 50%. Also, when an Assassin activates a lethal attack, the experience they gain from killing the enemy is roughly double the experience that they would have earned if they had killed the enemy through normal methods.

Despite the strengths that have thus far been laid out for the Assassin class, it is not without its flaws; the class possesses low Strength and an equally low Strength cap, and it is therefore not unheard of for it to inflict zero damage on heavily-armored foes. Assassins should also be wary of the accurate attacks of Mages, as they will be able to take advantage of the class's moderate Resistance. Well-trained Assassins can, however, overturn a good number of these flaws, functioning as extremely effective killing machines with the capability of taking out entire armies with a single Killing Edge. The exception to these weaknesses is Volke, who not only has a very high Strength cap, but also high Strength base and growth. His Defense cap, growth, and base are also much higher than normal Assassins, making him a very powerful unit.

Promotions

Being the promoted version of the Thief class (or Myrmidon class in The Sacred Stones and Awakening), the Assassin cannot be promoted any further.

In Radiant Dawn, the Assassin is considered to be a Third Tier class that is exclusive to Volke.

In-Game

Base Stats

	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Mov	Con	Wt	Wlv	Cha
FE7	16	3	-	1	9	0	2	0	6	6	-	E
FE8	16	3	-	1	9	0	2	0	6	6	-	D
FE9	18	5/4	1	5/3	11/10	0	4/3	2/1	7	10/7	10/7	Knife
FE10	60	28	10	36	38	0	22	20	7	11	11	S
FE13	21	8	0	13	12	0	5	1	6	-	-	E E
FE16	30	17	8	12	14	10	12	8	6	-	-

Maximum Stats

	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Mov	Con	Wt	Wlv	Cha
FE7	60	20	-	30	30	30	20	20	15	20	-	S
FE8	60	20	-	30	30	30	20	20	15	20	-	S
FE9	60	23	20	30	30	40	22	20	7	10/7	10/7	Knife
FE10	55	32	15	40	40	35	30	25	7	11	11	SS
FE13	80	40	30	48	46	45	31	30	6	-	-	A A

Growth Rates

	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Mov	Con	Wt	Wlv	Cha
FE7	50%	5%	-	45%	40%	40%	5%	20%	-	-	-	-
FE8	50%	5%	-	45%	40%	40%	5%	20%	-	-	-	-
FE9	50%	40%	15%	50%	55%	35%	20%	15%	-	-	-	-
FE10	65%	50%	5%	55%	65%	20%	35%	15%	-	-	-	-
FE13	40%	20%	0%	30%	25%	0%	5%	5%	-	-	-	-
FE16	20%	0%	0%	20%	20%	0%	0%	0%	-	-	-	+3 +2

Class Skills

	Skill	Requirements
FE7	Silencer	Class skill of the Assassin class.
FE8	Silencer	Class skill of the Assassin class.
FE9	Knife Steal Lethality	Class skill of the Assassin and Thief classes. Class skill of the Assassin and Thief classes. Occult skill of the Assassin class; assign with an Occult Scroll.
FE10	Shove Critical +25 Lethality	Base skill of all foot units. Class skill of the Assassin class. Class skill of the Assassin class.
FE13	Lethality Pass	Learnt at Level 5. Learnt at Level 15.
FE16	Swordfaire Locktouch Stealth Lethality Assassinate	Class ability of the Assassin class. Class ability of the Assassin class Class ability of the Assassin class Mastery ability of the Assassin class. Mastery ability of the Assassin class.

Promotions

	Base Class	Promotion Method	Promoted Class
FE7	Thief	Use a Fell Contract on a Level 10+ Thief.	Assassin
FE8	Thief	Use an Ocean Seal or a Master Seal on a Level 10+ Thief.	Assassin
FE8	Myrmidon	Use a Hero Crest or a Master Seal on a Level 10+ Myrmidon.	Assassin
FE9 (Volke)	Thief	Choose to rehire Volke at the end of Chapter 19.	Assassin
FE13	Thief	Use a Master Seal on a Level 10+ Thief.	Assassin
FE13	Myrmidon	Use a Master Seal on a Level 10+ Myrmidon.	Assassin
FE16	Any class	Use an Advanced Seal on a Level 20+ unit and pass the Assassin Certification Exam.	Assassin

Notable Assassins

The Blazing Blade

• Jaffar - An emotionless member of the Black Fang assassins known as the Angel of Death.
• Jerme - The Black Fang's Death Kite and a former member of the Four Fangs.
• Possible promotion for: Matthew and Legault.

The Sacred Stones

• Possible promotion for: Colm, Joshua and Marisa.

Radiant Dawn

• Volke - An Assassin who works purely for mercenary reasons and is also known under the alias "Fireman".

Awakening

• Gecko - Leader of a gang of bandits seeking treasure until he is spotted by Owain.
• Jamil - A member of the Grimleal and leader of an unidentified group of bandits.
• Porcus - One of the twelve Deadlords.
• Possible promotion for: Gaius, Lon'qu and Owain.

Three Houses

• Kronya - The hateful and merciless member of Those Who Slither in the Dark.
• Metodey - Bloodthirsty commander of the Adrestian Empire.

Trivia

• Assassin enemies are exceedingly rare in the titles that they appear in. This is most likely due to the Lethality skill being too dangerous for generic enemies to have as it instantly kills a unit based on a luck-based chance. For example, in the GBA games, there are no Assassins faced in the Arena and the only Assassin boss uses magic swords, preventing him from activating his skill.
  • From Awakening onward, there are more Assassin enemies and bosses (including their Hoshidan equivalent the Master Ninja). However, outside of DLC and SpotPass, none of them have Lethality (or their mastery Combat Art Assassinate) equipped on any difficulty.
• Through the use of the Mine Glitch, it is possible to control an enemy thief and get them to use a Fell Contract. The thief will become an Assassin, however doing so will cause the game to freeze.
• Much like Thieves, Assassins are depicted with knives in their Game Boy appearances' graphics despite equipping swords.
• In Awakening, the Assassin and Sniper are tied for the highest Skill cap of all promoted classes. Incidentally, both classes use bows.
  • The Assassin is also tied with the Swordmaster for the highest Speed cap of all promoted classes. Both classes wield swords and are the possible promotions for the Myrmidon in this game.

Gallery

Concept artwork of the Assassin class from Path of Radiance.

Concept artwork of the male variant of the Assassin class from Awakening.

Concept artwork of the female variant of the Assassin class from Awakening.

Concept artwork of the female variant of the Assassin class from Awakening.

Concept artwork of the male Assassin class from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Concept artwork of the female Assassin class from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Artwork of Virion as as Assassin from Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE.

Class portrait of the Assassin class from TearRing Saga: Berwick Saga.

Class portrait of the Assassin class from TearRing Saga: Berwick Saga.

Class portrait of the Assassin class from TearRing Saga: Berwick Saga.

The Raze Assassin that attempts to assassinate Reese during Faye's recruitment scene.

Animation of Jaffar attacking as an Assassin.

Animation of Legault attacking as an Assassin.

Animation of Marisa attacking as a female Assassin.

Battle model of Volke, an Assassin from Path of Radiance.

Battle model of Volke, an Assassin from Radiant Dawn.

Generic class portrait of an Assassin from Awakening.

Battle model of Gaius, a male Assassin from Awakening.

Battle model of Anna, a female Assassin from Awakening.

Battle model of a male Assassin from Fire Emblem Three Houses

Battle model of a female Assassin in Fire Emblem Three Houses

Map sprite of the Assassin class from the GBA games.