—In-game description in Engage
The Griffon Rider, or Griffin Knight, is a Griffon-mounted combat physical class that first appeared in Fire Emblem Awakening.
History in the Series[]
Griffon Riders debuted as the alternative promoted form of the Wyvern Rider class, opposite Wyvern Lord, replacing Wyvern Knight from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. The Griffon Rider class wields Axes as its sole weapon of choice. Griffon Riders are treated as both Aerial and Beast units and are thus vulnerable to a combination of Bows, Wind Tomes and beast-slaying weapons.
Griffon Riders, having their English name rechristened to Griffon Knights, return in Fire Emblem Engage as a possible promotion for the base pegasus mounted classes. In this game, they can wield Swords, Lances, or Axes in addition to Staves.
Combat Overview[]
The Griffon Rider is a class that is known for its remarkably average stats across the board as well as its extreme mobility, which is bested only by that of units armed with Galeforce.
Griffon Riders possess more balanced stats than those of the Wyvern Lord or the promoted Pegasus Knight classes. Compared to the Wyvern Lord, Griffon Riders have better Speed and Skill, but lower Strength and Defense. While they're fairly well balanced, other fliers may do better depending on the situation. As a compromise between these two extremes, they can be considered the aerial equivalent of Heroes. They are, however, marred by their poor resistance, which is carried over from their previous class, even with the use of Iote's Shield. Furthermore, they are limited to wielding Axes, resulting in a lack of various weaponry, especially if facing a unit with Axebreaker.
Deliverer increases the user's Movement by 2 when he/she is in a Pair Up. This pushes their movement to 10, or 11 with specific units. With use of Rally Heart, Rally Movement and the stat bonuses of Movement +1, a maximum move of 14 can be achieved, and when used with Galeforce, one can cover an extremely large area. The very high movement can also be used to bring units like Generals, who have very poor movement and struggle to reach the front line.
Lancebreaker gives the user a bonus of 50 points to both their Hit Rate and Avoid against Lance wielders permanently, making them excellent against those with high Skill in particular. This allows them to emerge victorious more frequently when facing against any lance user in battle. Notably, it makes them close to a hard-counter to Falcon Knights (who barely lack the speed to double Griffon Riders) and allows them to overcome their weakness to the Beast Killer.
Following the class's return after a near-decade absence, their statistics undergo a drastic change thanks to being a promotion option of the Sword/Lance/Axe Flier; due to this class replacing Falcon Knight as the "standard" promotion for the pegasus flying class, its statistics change to become functionally identical to the absent promotion, focusing on high skill, high resistance, high luck, and especially high speed while specializing in one of the three primary weapon types between swords, lances, or axes in addition to being able to wield basic staves with a passing magic stat for a physically-inclined unit, making them similar to Falcon Knight's incarnation in Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates specifically. Any unit with a proficiency in swords/lances/axes and staves can promote or reclass into this class without needing to train as a Sword/Lance/Axe Flier first (especially considering that said class is restricted to female units). Without a "beast" attribute being present in this game, it only possesses a weakness to anti-flier weaponry, and its survivability against such weaponry is the opposite of what it once was thanks to being modeled after the Falcon Knight in statistics who possessed low defense but high resistance. The sole class skill they possess, Clear the Way, makes them more support-oriented in which all tiles adjacent to them as well as the tile they are occupying only cost 1 point for any ally moving through them; this allows for the hard to navigate terrain such as forests and quicksand to be traversed with less issue for other non-flier units. especially for allies passing from one side of the Griffon Knight to the other.
In combat, one must be wary of enemy Griffon Riders as they, like several other classes including the Paladins, Wolf Knights, Generals, Great Knights, and fellow Sword/Lance/Axe Flier promotion option Wyvern Knights, can come equipped with any of the three primary weapon types to break a unit with the weapon triangle advantage or use their staves to hinder the player's army by healing other wounded enemy units or harrassing player units with offensives staves such as Freeze, Silence, or the newly introduced Obstruct staff which can block a tile and slow advancement. As a playable class, it is one of the classes that permits a playable unit to increase its A rank in Swords, Lances, or Axes to an S rank should they specialize in one of the weapon types which allows them to wield one of the two legendary weapons of their primary weapon type: Caladbolg, Georgios, Brionac, Venomous, Fragarach, or Ukonvasara; it also permits staff specialists to increase their staff C rank into the B rank, allowing usage of the highly potent Recover, Warp, and Rescue staves along with arming themselves with the new and deadly Fracture staff that inflicts the break status on any chosen enemy should it hit (even ones who are unaffected by the weapon triangle).
In-Game[]
Base Stats[]
HP | Str | Mag | Skl | Spd | Lck | Def | Res | Mov | Con | Wt | Wlv | Cha | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FE13 | 22 | 9 | 0 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 8 | - | - | E | - |
FE17 | 22 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 5 | - | A^ A^ A^ C^ | - |
Maximum Stats[]
HP | Str | Mag | Skl | Spd | Lck | Def | Res | Mov | Con | Wt | Wlv | Cha | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FE13 | 80 | 40 | 30 | 43 | 41 | 45 | 40 | 30 | 8 | - | - | A | - |
FE17 | 68 | 40 | 37 | 48 | 49 | 35 | 27 | 35 | 8 | 14 | - | A^ A^ A^ C^ | - |
Growth Rates[]
HP | Str | Mag | Skl | Spd | Lck | Def | Res | Mov | Con | Wt | Wlv | Cha | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FE13 | 45% | 25% | 0% | 20% | 20% | 0% | 5% | 5% | - | - | - | - | - |
FE17 | 0% | 10% | 15% | 15% | 20% | 15% | 0% | 15% | - | 0% | - | - | - |
Class Skills[]
Skill | Requirements | |
---|---|---|
FE13 | Deliverer Lancebreaker | Learnt at Level 5. Learnt at Level 15. |
FE17 | Clear the Way Darting Blow | Class Skill of Griffin Knights. Maddening mode skill. |
Promotion[]
Base Class | Promotion Method | Promoted Class | |
---|---|---|---|
FE13 | Wyvern Rider | Use a Master Seal on a Level 10+ Wyvern Rider. | Griffon Rider |
FE17 | Sword Flier | Use Master Seal on Level 10 or higher Sword Flier with Staff Proficiency. | Griffin Knight |
FE17 | Lance Flier | Use Master Seal on Level 10 or higher Lance Flier with Staff Proficiency. | Griffin Knight |
FE17 | Axe Flier | Use Master Seal on Level 10 or higher Axe Flier with Staff Proficiency. | Griffin Knight |
Notable Griffon Riders[]
Awakening[]
Engage[]
- Possible promotion for: Chloé.