Heroes are playable units in Fire Emblem Heroes.
Profile
Heroes are Einherjar-like units that are summoned in the countries of Askr and Embla. Unlike Einherjars, Heroes are complete visual recreations of various Fire Emblem protagonist and antagonist characters throughout the franchise. They also exhibit the same personalities as their original in-game versions, have some memories of events of their original games, and even wield recreations of their in-game special weapons if they have any.
Heroes are summoned through special pedestals in the Askr and Embla kingdoms. The Askr Kingdom utilizes the Breidablik and Orbs to summon Heroes. Aside from the Askr Trio, Fjorm and Eir, Kiran summons all Heroes that fights on behalf of the Order of Heroes using the relic. While Heroes retain their original personalities, they are contractually bound to their summoner's cause and may perform actions that go against the character, usually when used by Veronica, Surtr, and Hel
As their summoner, all Heroes form a special bond with Kiran, becoming treasured allies as they help them get stronger. All Heroes express their gratitude to the Summoner upon reaching their full potential.
In Game
Heroes are mainly recruited through Summoning by expending Orbs. They can also be recruited by completing Missions, defeating a Hero Battle and Grand Hero Battle team, or receiving them as a reward for Tempest Trials.
Summoning
Heroes are summoned either via Summoning, clearing a Hero Battle/Grand Hero Battle map, achieving a certain score in the Tempest Trials, purchasing with Heroic Grails, or completing certain quests.
Unit Basics
When obtained, all Heroes start at Level 1 and have an assigned Rarity of 1 to 5 stars depending on their method of summoning. Every unit has unique properties including the unit types, their weapon of choice, and their stat trends.
| Icon | Name | Movement Range | Forest Movement | Special Quirks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Infantry | 2 | Reduced to 1 | - |
 |
Armored | 1 | No movement penalty | - |
 |
Cavalry | 3 | Cannot traverse | Movement reduced by 1 when moving through Trenches |
 |
Flying | 2 | No Movement Penalty | Can move over all terrain. |
Stats
Every individual Hero has a fixed growth rate and ally copies of the same Hero will adhere to a strict stat growth rate pattern up until they reach Level 40. For example, this means that every person who summons Marth will have a similar Marth at Level 40 in terms of stats. However, Heroes that are Summoned may be subjected to a stat Asset and Flaw, increasing one stat's maximum while reducing another. This gives each Summoned unit, even of the same Hero, a bit of individuality while remaining relatively the same as any other player who has obtained that unit.
Heroes features 5 stats for every unit that vary between units: HP, Attack, Speed, Defense, and Resistance
- HP or Hit Points determine the Hero's maximum health. In battle, they can take damage and can be healed if hurt. If a unit's HP falls to 0, that unit is defeated and removed from the map.
- Attack is the unified Strength and Magic stat for all units. The higher their Attack Stat, the more damage they inflict during combat.
- Speed is the stat that determines if they are able to launch Double Attacks. If the difference in speed stats between two battling Heroes is 5 or more, the unit with the 5+ Speed will perform a Double Attack
- Defense is the stat that determines how much damage a unit takes when they are attacked by an enemy unit using a Sword, Lance, Axe, Bow, Dagger, and Beast weapon.
- Resistance is the stat that determines how much damage a unit takes when they are attacked by an enemy unit using Tomes, Staves, and Breath attacks.
Rarity
The Rarity of a unit changes several aspects of a unit including their maximum stat distribution and the skills that they are able to learn. Skill-wise, the higher rarity a unit is, the more skills and higher tier of skills they are able to learn. For example, Chrom is able to learn up to Spur Def 2 as a 4-star rarity while he can learn Spur Def 3 as a 5-Star rarity.
All Heroes have a fixed skill set that they learn naturally that is universally shared by all units of the same name and title. Hence all copies of Hector will have the same base skills in his kit.
General learnable skill trends for units follow the table below based on the unit's rarity level.
| Rarity | Starting Weapon Tier | Highest Learnable Weapon Tier | Support | Special Skill | Passive Skills | Send Home Feathers | Feathers to Upgrade to next tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1✯ | Tier 1 | Tier 1 | Heal Only | No | One Tier 1 Passive Learnable | 5 | 20 |
| 2✯ | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Heal Only | No | One Tier 2 Passive Learnable | 10 | 200 |
| 3✯ | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | All Support Skills and Tier 2 Healing Spells | Tier 1 Special Skill | One Tier 2 and one Tier 1 Passive Learnable | 150 | 2000 |
| 4✯ | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | All Support Skills | Tier 2 Special Skills | One Tier 3 and One Tier 2 Passive Learnable. | 300 | 20,000 |
| 5✯ | Tier 4 | Tier 4 | All Support Skills | All Special Skills | All Passive Skills learnable | 1,000 | - |
Training
All Heroes under Level 40 gain experience whenever they battle another unit or defeat a unit. Staff units also gain EXP whenever they heal an ally. Players can also expend Shards and Crystals to level up their Heroes. Maximum EXP required to reach Level 40 depends on their rarity. All battles, aside from any battles in the Arena Assault after the first daily attempt, will give EXP. Units gain EXP even if they do not defeat an enemy, but receive more EXP if they do.
Skill Points
Heroes also earn Skill Points in order for them to learn skills. Skill points are earned every time they Level Up and whenever they defeat an enemy unit that is no less than 5 Levels under their current level. If a Hero defeats an enemy, they will earn 3 SP. Every Staff heal gives 1 SP up to 5 times per battle. SP gains can be multiplied based on the following circumstances:
- The Hero has a Blessing
- A Hero currently deployed on the map has a Valor Skill C equipped that coincides with their weapon type.
- A universal SP multiplier is in effect (either x2 or x5)
- The Hero is participating in a Tempest Trials as the bonus unit.
All multipliers stack on each other, leading to a maximum of 120 SP gained per battle if all four conditions are met or 48 SP for most universal SP multiplier events for an attacking unit. Staff units can gain a maximum of 40 SP per heal with maximum universal multiplier or 16 SP during a normal multiplier weekend.
Merging
Players can Merge Heroes together if they have two copies of the same Hero, sacrificing one copy to give the other SP. If the sacrificed unit has learned skills, the inheriting unit gains immediate access to the skill if they have not already. All unlearned skills by the sacrificed unit also passes onto the inheriting unit. Heroes who have multiple forms such as Marth, who has his Prince of Altea and Hero-King forms, cannot merge with each other as they have different titles.
If the two Merging Heroes are the same rarity, the new merged unit receives a Bonus Level that does not contribute to the Heroes' 40 Level Cap. Each merge level up grants a bonus point to two stats, granting a maximum of +4 to each stat when they reach the maximum merge level of 10, shown in game as LV. 40+10. Heroes who have reached this level have the boarder of the character to a brighter shade of their rarity and can no longer receive merges. Additionally, upon acquiring the first Merging Level, that Hero will lose its Flaw penalty alongside the bonus stat increase. If the unit has no Asset/Flaw, they will instead gain a stat point to three fixed stats alongside the normal bonus increase. If the Merged unit is 4-Star rarity or less, they will have a reduced Hero Feather cost to upgrade their Rarity for each Merged Level they have.
Combat
Battles in Heroes are conducted in battles between a team created by the player that contains up to four of the player's recruited Heroes up against an enemy team that ranges from 1 to 5 depending on the mode. The Weapon Triangle system applies to the game, with Swords, Lances, and Axes being designated under three colors; Red, Blue, and Green respectively and cannot be any other color. Tomes are also given different color designations that are fixed. For example, Merric is always a Green Mage, Lilina is always a Red Mage, and Male Robin is always a Blue Mage. Similarly, Breath and Beast units have the same weapon colors as tomes which are fixed; Young Tiki is always a Red Breath user while Ranulf is always a green Beast unit. Staves, Bow, and Dagger are primarily Colorless units and are not affected by the Weapon Triangle unless a specific weapon has a specified advantage against them such as Blárraven. Some units have Color Bows and Daggers such as Ylgr and Legendary Lyn.
All Swords, Lances, Axes, Breath, and Beast units are can only initiate attacks against adjacent foes. While they can counterattack against adjacent foes during the enemy phase, they can only counterattack indirect units if they carry Distant Counter or a weapon with that effect. All Tome, Bow, Dagger, and Staff units can only initiate attack from two tiles away from them and can only counterattack at the same range unless they have a skill that allows them to counterattack adjacent enemies. Daggers inflict stat penalties and Bows deal effective damage against Flying Units.
In combat, battles are won by defeating all enemy units on the enemy team by reducing their HP to 0. Allied units whose HP is reduced to 0 are removed from a map, but are not lost form a player's Hero Roster, taking a Casual Mode approach to the game.
Skills
- See also: Skills#Heroes
All Heroes are given a set of skills that they use in battle. They have a plethora of effects in battle and are categorized under one of five skill types:
- Weapon Skills - Every unit in the game comes with a Weapon skill which is their main method of attacking in Heroes.
- Support Skills - Support skills provide a variety of actions that allow allied units to interact with each other. These include unit placement manipulations, Rally skills, Healing spells, and Dancing.
- Special Skills - Skills that, when activated, provide numerous effects in battle. These skills are given a Cooldown counter, which requires that the unit attack an enemy, be attacked, and/or heal an ally a set number of times before it can activate.
- Passive - Skills that provide numerous effects in battle. Every passive skill is designated one of three skill slots and can only be equipped in that slot.
- Sacred Seal - Sacred Seals are equippable skills that can be equipped to any character in game. Unlike all other skills, Sacred Seals are not learned by a character and are instead treated as equipment skills, freely allowing the player to place a Seal on whatever character they want it on at any time.
Skill Inheritance
- See also: Inherit Skill
Aside from the skills that a Hero starts off with, they are able to acquire new skills through Skill Inheritance. Skill inheritance allows a unit to take up to three skills from another unit and adds it to their skill list to learn. Any skill that a unit inherits receives an increased cost to learn compared to the base unit who has it in their skill set, requiring 1.5x more SP than the base unit. For example, Lon'qu requires 350 SP in order to learn Vantage 3 while a Hector who inherited Vantage 3 would require 525 SP total to learn the skill.
Variations
Many Heroes have variations of themselves that are largely different from each other. There are seven different variations of Heroes available.
- Standard Hero - Standard Heroes are normal versions of the respective character. They are largely based on their original appearance from their home title. All Standard Heroes are added to the regular summoning pool after their introductory summoning event.
- Variant Hero - Variant Heroes are special Heroes added to the game who have an already existing Standard Hero variation in the game. Like Standard Heroes, these heroes are added to the summoning pool after their introductory event. Examples include Meisterschwert Reinhardt and Pegasus Nino.
- Brave Hero - Brave Heroes are similar to Variant Heroes as they are special Heroes added to the game who may or may not have an existing Standard Hero variation. While Variation Heroes are decided and designed by Intelligent Systems, Brave Heroes are selected based on a popularity vote held by fans of the game. The characters who place in the top two for both genders are given a special variation released at a later month. For the Hero who received the highest votes for both genders, they will also have an exclusive skill in their set. While they are given a special month long banner like a Seasonal Hero, Brave Heroes are added to the Summoning Pool after the conclusion of their event. Examples include Brave Lyn, Brave Veronica, Brave Ike and Brave Ephraim
- Seasonal Hero - A Seasonal Hero are special variations of a Hero made to celebrate a real world event such as Christmas or Halloween as well as special themes like Brides and Summer Swimsuits. After the end of their Summoning Event, Seasonal Heroes are not added to the Summoning Pool and can only be summoned during Legendary Banners or future Seasonal Events. Examples include New Year Laevatein, Performing Arts Azura, Valentines Roy, and Festival Elincia.
- Legendary Hero - Legendary Heroes are special Heroes that appear during a special banner at the end of each month. Legendary Heroes include members of the Nifl royal family and enhanced variations of Lord characters or other key story characters. All Legendary Heroes have an exclusive skill, are naturally locked to a specific elemental blessing (Fire, Water, Wind, or Earth). Each Legendary Hero also provides a specific stat boost to all allies who have the same Blessing element as that Hero. Legendary Heroes can only be summoned during a Legendary/Mythic Hero summoning event and only if they are in that summoning pool. Legendary Hero examples include Fjorm, Hero-King Marth, and Marquess of Ostia Hector.
- Mythic Hero - Mythic Heroes are similar to Legendary Heroes as they are special units who appear during a special banner at end of each month. Mythic Heroes include mainly divine entities and historic figures from across the franchise. Like Legendary Heroes, Mythic Heroes are locked to a specific elemental blessing (Light, Dark, Anima, or Astra). Each Mythic Hero also provides a specific stat boost to all allies with the same Blessing element as that Hero. Mythic Heroes can only be summoned during a Legendary/Mythic Hero Summoning Event and only if they are in that summoning pool. Mythic Hero examples include Eir, Duma, and Naga
- Duo Hero - Duo Heroes are a unique unit that is comprised of two different characters who act as a singular unit. The leading character, whom the Hero unit is named after, is the one who participates in battle. The supporting character appears in battle, but only cheers for the leading character from behind as an aesthetic. Each Duo Hero also has a special Duo Skill which can be activated on the overworld map via a special button on the touch screen once per map. The effects range from dealing damage to enemies in a column around the unit or accelerating nearby allies special cooldowns. Duo Heroes can be either a Variant Hero or a Seasonal Hero. Duo Heroes include Dressed-Up Duo Hector (featuring Lilina) and Askran Duo Alfonse (featuring Sharena).