Brigand

The Brigand (さんぞく or 山賊 Sanzoku, also known as Bandit), is a combat physical class of common enemies in the Fire Emblem series and TearRing Saga: Utna Heroes Saga. Wielding Axes as their sole weapon of choice, Brigands are often encountered in the early stages of most games. Despite being present in a majority of the games within the series, Brigands rarely are a playable class.

History in the SeriesEdit

While the class does not appear in Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, there are enemy Fighters that act as mountain bandits in the story.

In their original inception in Gaiden, Brigands act as an enemy-only class that is used by criminal characters. They are the first enemies encountered within the game.

Brigands return in Mystery of the Emblem with the same purpose as enemy axe users. Brigands reuse Fighter sprites, but have higher stats. Brigands are in the criminal class category, and thus are weak to the Ladyblade.

In Genealogy of the Holy War, Brigands remain an enemy only class, but gain a new purpose within the series. Brigands now operate on the sole purpose of plundering and looting Villages for personal benefit. Sending a unit to defeat them, and pay visits to Villages are necessary to ensuring that they do not succeed in their devious schemes.

In Thracia 776, Brigands are known as Mountain Thieves (マウンテンシーフ Maunten shīfu), serving much the same purpose as their predecessors. For the first time in the series, the class is made playable, taking the form of Marty, a subordinate of Dagdar. In this title, Mountain Thieves are able to promote into Warriors.

In TearRing Saga: Utna Heroes Saga, the Brigand class is enemy-only, and serves the same purpose as its non-playable predecessors.

In The Binding Blade, the Brigand class is yet again made playable, taking the form of Gonzalez. The class promotes into the Berserker class in this title. The class is thenceforth rendered an enemy-only class in the rest of its appearances in the series.

While Brigands remain enemy-exclusive in The Blazing Blade and The Sacred Stones, their ability to promote into Berserkers remains in place from The Binding Blade. In The Sacred Stones, Brigands can alternatively choose to promote into Warriors, giving them the same promotion options as Pirates.

In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Bandits promote into Berserkers, although none are playable without hacking. Their promotion gains are +3 in every stat except Magic and Resistance.

Bandits appear again in the direct sequel Radiant Dawn, but do not promote as the Berserker class is absent.

In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the Brigand (ブリガンド Burigando) class is a potential class path for playable characters. A Commoner or Noble unit must be at least Lv. 10 and have an Axe Skill Level of C or Higher with an Intermediate Seal during the Certification Exam for this optional class. 

Brigands are an enemy exclusive class in TearRing Saga: Berwick Saga. They are joined by Snow Brigands, and Barbarians (known as Sand Brigands). They often have thievery related skills.

In Vestaria Saga I, the Brigand is known as the Ruffian. It is an enemy-only class. There are two variants of this class, the Mountaineer, which can traverse mountains and the Chief Thief, which has higher stats and can wield Swords (though none of the Chief Thieves in the game come with Swords).

OverviewEdit

CombatEdit

The main characteristics that brigands have are high HP and Strength, only offset by their low Skill and Defense (Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 is an exception where the only notable brigand, Marty, has low strength and high defense). This stat distribution means that in combat situations, brigands often have a difficult time hitting their enemies (due to the low skill). However, if they do land successful hits, they are capable of inflicting considerable amounts of damage. When attacked, they often sustain tremendous damage themselves due to their relatively low defense, although their high HP helps immensely in countering this, much like Fighters. They are also able to cross peaks and mountains like Berserkers, but not water.

Brigands are known for their ability to destroy Villages, a trait which they share with the Thief and Pirate classes. During the enemy phase, if a brigand unit ends its turn on a village entrance, the village will be destroyed, and any item that could have been gained from the village will be lost. This can be prevented by visiting the village with any ally unit before it gets destroyed. Fittingly, brigands often appear as reinforcements near villages in order to incentivize the player visiting the village as soon as possible.

Most games with a sword-using Lord have the player fight brigands as the most common units in early stages, due to the Weapon Triangle advantage and their generally low hit rate.

Some enemy brigands in Thracia 776 possess the Steal skill, being the one of the few non-thief class/promotion to ever utilise this ability.

In Fire Emblem Gaiden, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Pirates are rolled into this class, with the Bandit class being assigned to both land- and seafaring ruffians.

In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the class is freely able to be reclassed into granted that the unit passes the Certification Exam. Though only an Intermediate class, the Brigand is an essential class for most physical based units to reclass into as soon as possible as it has the highly coveted Death Blow skill as a Mastery skill, which increases that unit's Strength by 6 when they initiate combat, granting them even greater power.

In-GameEdit

Base StatsEdit

	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Mov	Con	Wt	Wlv
FE2	26	7	-	1	2	0	2	0	4	-	-	Axe
FE3	24	5	-	0	3	0	3	0	6	-	-	Axe ?
FE4	35	5	0	0	7	0	5	0	6	-	-	B
FE5	22/24	5	0	0	0	0	3	-	6	9	-	E
TS	25	4	0	1	4	0	3	-	4	-	-	1
FE6	20	5	-	1	5	0	3	0	5	12	-	D
FE7	20	5	-	1	5	0	3	0	5	12	-	D
FE8	20	5	-	1	5	0	3	0	5	12	-	D
FE9	25	5	0	2	4	0	2	0	6	13	14	D
FE10	25	9	0	4	6	0	3	0	5	13	13	D
FE15	26	7	-	1	2	0	2	0	4	-	-

Maximum StatsEdit

	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Mov	Con	Wt	Wlv
FE3	52	20	-	20	20	20	20	20	6	-	-	Axe 20
FE4	80	20	15	15	22	30	20	15	6	-	-	B
FE5	80	20	20	20	20	20	20	-	20	20	-	A
TS	60	19	15	16	19	30	18	-	12	-	-	16
FE6	60	20	-	20	20	30	20	20	15	20	-	A
FE7	60	20	20	20	20	30	20	20	15	20	-	A
FE8	60	20	-	20	20	30	20	20	15	20	-	A
FE9	40	20	15	20	20	40	20	20	6	13	14	A
FE10	45	20	10	20	20	35	20	10	5	13	13	A
FE15	52	40	-	40	40	40	40	40	4	-	-

Growth RatesEdit

	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Mov	Con	Wt	Wlv
FE2	150%	50%	-	50%	50%	0%	50%	0%	-	-	-	-
FE3	90%	50%	-	10%	20%	-	50%	0%	-	-	-	-
FE6	82%	50%	-	30%	20%	15%	10%	10%	-	-	-	-
FE7	82%	50%	-	30%	20%	15%	10%	13%	-	-	-	-
FE8	82%	50%	-	30%	20%	15%	10%	13%	-	-	-	-
FE9	90%	60%	10%	30%	50%	25%	40%	20%	-	-	-	-
FE10	105%	60%	10%	85%	75%	70%	90%	50%	-	-	-	-
FE15	120%	45%	-	40%	45%	0%	40%	10%	-	-	-	-

Class SkillsEdit

	Skill	Requirements
FE5	Steal	Base skill of Mountain Thieves.
TS	Mountain Fighter	Base skill of Bandits.
FE16	Death Blow	Mastery Ability of Brigand.

PromotionsEdit

	Base Class	Promotion Method	Promoted Class
FE5	Mountain Thief	Use a Knight Proof on a Level 10+ Mountain Thief.	Warrior
FE6	Brigand	Use a Hero Crest on a Level 10+ Brigand.	Berserker
FE7	Brigand	Use an Earth Seal on a Level 10+ Brigand.	Berserker
FE8	Brigand	Use an Ocean Seal on a Level 10+ Brigand.	Berserker Warrior
FE9	Bandit	Use a Master Seal on a Level 10+ Bandit or train a Bandit to Level 21.	Berserker
FE16	Any class	Use an Intermediate Seal on a Level 10+ unit and pass the Brigand Certification Exam.	Brigand

Notable BrigandsEdit

Fire Emblem Gaiden/Echoes: Shadows of ValentiaEdit

• Brigand Boss - Leader of the Thieves' Shrine.
• Barth - A brigand who is responsible for the death of Valbar's family.
• Garth - A brigand who captures people for the Grieth Pirates.

Mystery of the Emblem Edit

• Hyman - The leader of the Soothsires, a feared group of thieves. (Fighter in Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light / Shadow Dragon).

Thracia 776Edit

• Marty - A youth from Fiana and a member of the Mount Violdrake Bandits.

The Binding BladeEdit

• Gonzalez - A dull but kindhearted bandit with a very rough exterior.
• Scouran - A brigand who works alongside Zinc to destroy villages.

The Blazing BladeEdit

• Batta - A Ganelon Bandit who is called the Beast for his savagery.
• Zugu - The leader of a group of bandits sent by Lundgren to kill Lyn.
• Migal - A member of the Ganelon Bandits.
• Carjiga - A member of the Ganelon Bandits.
• Bug - The most powerful of the Ganelon Bandits.
• Groznyi - A bandit hailing from Caelin.

The Sacred StonesEdit

• Bone - The only named henchman of Bazba's Bandits.
• Bazba - The leader of Bazba's Bandits.
• Nameless Bandit - A nameless bandit from Carcino with unique stats.

Path of RadianceEdit

• Zawana - The leader of a group of bandits plundering a village in Caldea.
• Ikanau - A bandit part of the same group as Zawana, he is responsible for kidnapping Mist and Rolf.
• Havetti - A pirate who extorts money and supplies from villagers.
• Nedata - A relatively more honorable pirate who enjoys singing.

See alsoEdit

• Pirate
• Barbarian

GalleryEdit