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The Hero is a physical combat class that recurrently appears across the Fire Emblem Series, beginning from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light. In a majority of its iterations, the Hero class is the promoted form of the Mercenary class, and in titles where branched promotions are available, it is the secondary promotion option for Fighters. Heroes commonly wield Swords and Axes as their primary weapons of choice.

History in the Series[]

In its original inception in Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, the Hero class is established as the promoted form of the Mercenary class, wielding Swords as its sole weapon of choice.

In Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, the Hero class is known as the Myrmidon. The class is the promoted form of the Mercenary class yet again, and can be further promoted into the Dread Fighter class. There is another Hero class that is Alm's exclusive promotion.

In Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, the Hero class is again the promoted form of the Mercenary class and cannot be promoted any further.

In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, the Hero class is renamed to Forrest. Owing to the fact that the Mercenary class is absent in this title, the Hero class is thus not its promoted form; it is instead one of the promoted forms of the newly-introduced Sword Fighter. This class acts as the promoted form of a few selected Sword Fighters, including Chulainn, Ulster, Creidne and Dalvin, while the rest promote into Swordmasters. Like its predecessors, the class also wields Swords as its sole weapon of choice. This title is credited as being the first in the series within which a female character can access the Hero class, with Creidne being the only playable character given this honor.

In Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, the Hero class is renamed to Mercenary. The class is again one of the promoted forms of the Sword Fighter class; within the playable cast, Machyua is the only Sword Fighter who promotes into this class. The Mercenary class in this title also acts as the promoted form of the Axe Fighter class. This title is credited as the first in the series within which Heroes are able to arm Axes alongside Swords.

With the onset of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, the Hero class is cleanly separated from the Sword Fighter class and is instituted as the staple promoted form of the Mercenary class. This title is the first in the series where female Heroes first begin to be formally introduced to the series, taking the form of Echidna.

In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, the Hero class is not just one of the promoted forms of the Mercenary class, but is also a class that Fighters are able to promote into.

In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, the Hero class is exclusive to Greil, who assumes the class when he appears in the tutorial segment of the game. Originally defined by weakened stats for tutorial purposes, a stronger version of the class is used in the story sequence when he chases off Petrine. Ike's Lord class shares the same statistical caps as the Hero class in this game, minus the ability to arm Axes.

In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, the Hero class is exclusive to Ike and, much like its older predecessors, wields Swords as its sole weapon of choice. Despite resembling its Path of Radiance incarnation, the Hero class only gains the ability to wield Axes when it is further promoted into the Vanguard class.

In Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, the Hero class is reverted to being the promoted form of the Mercenary class and is again able to wield both Swords and Axes. These remakes of the Archanea Series also sees a number of characters who were originally Mercenaries and would eventually promote into Heroes being altered to start out as Myrmidons instead. These characters are Navarre, Radd and Samuel.

In Fire Emblem Awakening, Heroes are again one of the promoted forms of not just the Mercenary class, but also the Fighter class. Prior to the introduction of this title, all female Heroes are either pre-promoted or promoted from the Sword Fighter class.

In Fire Emblem Fates, the Hero class is known as Brave Hero in the Japanese version. Treated as a Nohrian class, the Hero class is again one of the promoted forms of both the Mercenary and Fighter classes.

In Fire Emblem Warriors, the class returns as the promoted class of Navarre. The class only wields Swords and functions as a clone of the Blade Lord class. There is also an enemy-only version that serves as the Nohrian clone of the Swordmaster class.

In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the Hero class is male only, like with the Dark Mage, Dark Bishop, BrawlerGrappler and War Master classes. The Hero Class is an optional promoted class of the Commoner or Noble class if the unit passes the Certification Exam at Lv. 20 with a Sword Skill Level of B or higher, an Axe Skill Level of C or higher and an Advanced Seal.

Other Games[]

In TearRing Saga: Berwick Saga, the class is known as Bastard. It serves as the promotion for Kramer, the sole playable Mercenary, granting him the Blade skill if he is not yet permanently recruited. Additionally, Sherpa's version of the Highlander (ハイランダー) can be considered a variant of the Hero, as lore-wise, it also represents a veteran mercenary and swordsman. In gameplay, the two classes share the same stat spread, the ability to use Blades, and sprites, with only slight differences in combat animations.

In Vestaria Saga I, the Hero is known as the Gladiator. The class comes with the Critical Edge skill which increases their crit rate equal to their Skill. The only Gladiator in the game is Zayid.

Overview[]

Combat[]

Statistically speaking, Heroes are somewhere in between the General and Swordmaster classes. While they are speedier and have less Defense compared to Generals, they are slower but more defensive than Swordmasters. As a result, well-trained Heroes are capable of effectively defending against attacks like Generals, but still have enough agility to dodge assaults like Swordmasters. This in turn posits Heroes as be one of the more "balanced" classes of the Fire Emblem series alongside the Soldier class. Many characters that are/can become Heroes across the series typically become very powerful units.

Heroes usually possess abnormally high Skill for axe users and unusually high Constitution for sword users. This combination means that Heroes are proficient with Hand Axes, which most axe users have trouble hitting consistently with.

In WiFi battles, Heroes are usually considered bad units. They have a low Speed cap, meaning they can be struck twice (four times if the opponent is using Brave weapons) without being able to retaliate in kind. Their average Defense means that they usually cannot survive being hit four times from forged brave weapons by the more offensively-oriented classes.

Uniform[]

Many times over, the hero class's attire have been shown to be adorned with moderate to heavy plate armor encasing them from head to toe. Armor pieces most recurrent throughout include breastplates with tassets and barbed pauldrons, a metal head-guard, leg armor from poleyns to sabatons, and a large shield strapped to the left arm.

Outside of these common armor pieces, other additions and variations upon this build are seen in each game. Early TCG artwork, TearRing Saga: Utna Heroes Saga, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, the Tellius Duology, and Priam from Fire Emblem: Awakening depict the hero class with a flowing cape (tattered shawl in Priam's case) wrapped around the front of the breastplate while Fire Emblem Fates depicts a single cape-like scarf over the left bicep and underneath the shield.

Raven's and Linus's variants of the hero class in the GBA titles have them wearing unarmored tunics with knee-length trenchcoats rather than the breastplates with barbed pauldrons. (Raven, however, is depicted as wearing a breastplate in his artwork in Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher) while Linus continues to go shirtless.) Other times, a single loincloth is seen hanging from above the groin like with the myrmidon class in Echoes and the Forrest and Mercenary classes in the Jugdral duology for males, while females wear long skirts (female members of this class in Fates) or tunics (Echidna from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade); Alm also wears such a tunic in Echoes.

On the head-guard, sometimes they are depicted absent as in the Archanean DS titles, replaced with simple headbands such as with the Tellius games and TearRing Saga, upgrade into head-guards like in Awakening and Fates (the latter of whom incorporates bird-like designs akin to the eagle, a bird recognized for its bravery symbolism much like the class) or full-blown helmets in the older TCG and in Echoes; Echoes stylizes the helmet after a samurai's kabuto, presumably to liken it to the Dread Fighter, its ninja-themed promotion.

Lastly, on the subject of their second-most famous armament after their sword—their shield—its size and shape has varied considerably throughout titles; most of the time it is a large enough to nearly (if not completely) cover their entire arm and is rectangular in shape. The GBA titles and Awakening put a unique spin on this particular design: the GBA titles (much like Echoes later would do) had its Heroes sheath their swords or even their axes in their shields like Roman gladiators did, and though Awakening lacked this feature, their shields were radically different from others in that their oval-shaped shields were comprised of two individual components that were worn over both the shoulder and the forearm to allow greater flexibility.

Other times, the shield was much smaller and more varied in shape, either being worn on the forearm or in the hand as seen in the first three games in the series and the older TCG (and Echoes) or on the shoulder as seen in Fates; Echoes shields retain the GBA games ability to sheath swords inside of their them. The shield is completely absent from the Tellius duology and from TearRing Saga.

In Fates in particular (and in line with many other promoted classes), the standard uniform that Heroes wear are built more upon their preceding tier's original attire (or rather literally on top of it); additional embellishments include the breastplate over the diamond-patterned vest, metal guards added onto the forearms and shins, and a cape-like scarf worn over the left arm and underneath the shield, and the replacements are a larger circular shield over the original heater shield and a headguard fashioned after a bird's wings over the original forehead guard.

In-Game[]

Base Stats[]

HPStrMagSklSpdLckDefResMovConWtWlvCha
FE1248-14140807--Sword 10-
FE23011-11140765--Sword-
FE3226-10120737--Sword 10-
FE44012312120736--FE4 Sword A-
FE524/206/5178/90568/7--FE5 Sword Icon D FE5 Axe Icon E-
TS25708705-6--TS Sword 5-
FE6226-9/1010/1108/62/3610/9-Sword C Axe E-
FE7226-9/1010/1108/62/3610/9-Sword C Axe E-
FE8226-9/1010/1108/62/3610/9-Sword C Axe D-
FE9226191008271213FE9 Sword A FE9 Axe A-
FE103891131109271213FE10 Sword S-
FE11226110120738--FE12 Sword D FE12 Axe E-
FE12246110110738--FE12 Sword D FE12 Axe E-
FE13228111100836--SwordIconFE13 E AxeIconFE13 E-
FE1420801083726--FE14 Sword E FE14 Axe E-
FE153011-11140765--Echoes sword weapon type icon-
FE16301781214101285--FE16 sword icon B FE16 axe icon C0
FE1723808935257-FE17 Sword A FE17 Lance C^ FE17 Axe C^-

Maximum Stats[]

HPStrMagSklSpdLckDefResMovConWtWlvCha
FE15220-20202020712--Sword 20-
FE35220-20202020207--Sword 20-
FE480271827273022186--FE4 Sword A-
FE580202020202020-2020-FE5 Sword Icon A FE5 Axe Icon A-
TS60221523223020-12--TS Sword 20-
FE66025/24-30263025/2422/241520-Sword S Axe S-
FE76025/24-30263025/2422/241520/25-Sword S Axe S-
FE86025/24-30263025/2422/241525-Sword S Axe S-
FE9602620272840202071213FE9 Sword S FE9 Axe S-
FE10502710303030261571213FE10 Sword S-
FE1160252030263025228--FE12 Sword A FE12 Axe A-
FE1260252030263025228--FE12 Sword A FE12 Axe A-
FE1380423046424540366--SwordIconFE13 A AxeIconFE13 A-
FE1460322535323130276--FE14 Sword A FE14 Axe B-
FE177545203741333422716-FE17 Sword A FE17 Lance C^ FE17 Axe C^-
FEW9991382817117514281815--FEW Sword S-

Growth Rates[]

HPStrMagSklSpdLckDefResMovConWtWlvCha
FE1? ?- ? ?0% ?0%-----
FE2150%50%-50%50%0%50%0%-----
FE380%30%-20%20%-30%0%-----
FE4100%30%10%30%30%0%30%10%-----
FE590%30%3%30%30%20%20%-0%40%---
FE675%30%-30%20%25%20%10%-----
FE775%30%-30%20%25%20%10%-----
FE875%30%-30%20%25%20%10%-----
FE990%45%15%45%40%25%25%20%-----
FE1080%50%10%70%40%30%40%15%-----
FE1160/80%20/30%-20/0%25/20%20%0%5/30%-10/20%-----
FE1250/80%20/30%-20/0%25/20%20%0%10/30%-10/20%-----
FE1345%/90%20%/45%0%/0%25%/50%20%/45%0%/40%10%/30%5%/25%-----
FE1420%15%0%20%15%5%10%0%-----
FE1590%50%-50%50%0%35%0%-----
FE1630/50%10/22%0%0/5%10/15%0%0/30-5%---FE16 sword icon +3 FE16 axe icon +25%
FE1715%15%0%10%15%15%0%10%-0%---

Class Modifiers[]

HPStrMagSklSpdLckDefResMovConWtWlvCha
FE16320021101---0

Class Skills[]

SkillRequirements
FE4PursuitPursuitClass skill of Swordfighters, Bow Fighters, Thief Fighters and Master Knights.
FE9FE9 AetherAetherOccult skill of the Hero and Lord classes; assign with an MasteryBookOccult Scroll.
FE10ShoveShoveBase skill of all foot units.
FE13Sol (FE13)Sol
AxeslayerAxebreaker
Learnt at Level 5.
Learnt at Level 15.
FE14Sol (FE13)Sol
AxeslayerAxebreaker
Learnt at Level 5 and above.
Learnt at Level 15 and above.
FE16Swordfaire FE16Swordfaire
Vantage FE16Vantage
Defiant Str FE16Defiant Strength
Class Ability of the Hero class.
Class Ability of the Hero class.
Mastery Ability of Heroes.
FE17FE17 Brave Assist IconBrave Assist
FE17 Triangle Adept IconTriangle Adept
Class Skill of Heroes.
Maddening mode skill.

Promotions[]

Base ClassPromotion MethodPromoted Class
FE1FE1 Mercenary Map SpriteMercenaryUse a Hero Proof on a Level 10+ Mercenary.FE1 Hero Map SpriteHero
FE2FE2 Mercenary Map IconMercenaryVisit the Shrine after reaching Level 7.FE2 Sword Fighter Map IconMyrmidon
FE2 FE2 Sword Fighter Map IconMyrmidonVisit the Shrine after reaching Level 10.FE2 Dread Fighter Map IconDread Fighter
FE3FE3 Mercenary Map SpriteMercenaryUse a Hero Proof (FE3)Hero Proof on a Level 10+ Mercenary.FE3 Hero Map SpriteHero
FE4FE4 Sword Fighter Sprite (M)Sword FighterChoose the "Class Change" option in the Home Castle when the relevant unit reaches Level 20.FE4 Forrest Sprite (M)Forrest (Chulainn, Ulster, Creidne, Dalvin)
FE5FE5 SwordfighterSword FighterUse a Knight Proof (FE5)Knight Proof on a Level 10+ Sword Fighter.FE5 HeroMercenary (Machyua)
FE5 FE5 Axe fighterAxe FighterUse a Knight Proof (FE5)Knight Proof on a Level 10+ Axe Fighter.FE5 HeroMercenary
FE6FE8 Mercenary Map SpriteMercenaryUse a HerocrestHero Crest on a Level 10+ Mercenary.FE8 Hero Map SpriteHero
FE7FE8 Mercenary Map SpriteMercenaryUse a HerocrestHero Crest on a Level 10+ Mercenary.FE8 Hero Map SpriteHero
FE8 FE8 Mercenary Map SpriteMercenaryUse a HerocrestHero Crest on a Level 10+ Mercenary.FE8 Hero Map SpriteHero
FE8 FE8 Fighter Map SpriteFighterUse a HerocrestHero Crest on a Level 10+ Fighter.FE8 Hero Map SpriteHero
FE8 FE8 Journeyman Map SpriteJourneyman (2)Use a HerocrestHero Crest on a Level 10+ Journeyman.FE8 Hero Map SpriteHero
FE10FE10 Ike Hero Sprite
Hero
At the end of Chapter 3-E.FE10 Ike Vanguard Sprite
Vanguard
FE11FE11 Mercenary Map SpriteMercenaryUse a FE11mastersealMaster Seal on a Level 10+ Mercenary.FE11 Hero Map SpriteHero
FE12FEDS Mercenary Map SpriteMercenaryUse a FE11mastersealMaster Seal on a Level 10+ Mercenary.FEDS Hero Map SpriteHero
FE13 FE13 Generic Mercenary (M) Map SpriteMercenaryUse a Master Seal FE13 IconMaster Seal on a Level 10+ Mercenary.FE13 Generic Hero (M) Map SpriteHero
FE13 FE13 Generic Fighter Map SpriteFighterUse a Master Seal FE13 IconMaster Seal on a Level 10+ Fighter.FE13 Generic Hero (M) Map SpriteHero
FE14 FE14 Generic Mercenary (M) Map SpriteMercenaryUse a Master Seal FE13 IconMaster Seal on a Level 10+ Mercenary.FE14 Generic Hero Map SpriteHero
FE14 FE14 Generic Fighter Map SpriteFighterUse a Master Seal FE13 IconMaster Seal on a Level 10+ Fighter.FE14 Generic Hero Map SpriteHero
FE16Any classUse an FE16 Seal IconAdvanced Seal on a Level 20+ male unit and pass the Hero Certification Exam.FE16 Hero IconHero
FE17LapisFE17Sprite Sword FighterUse FE17MasterSealSpriteMaster Seal on Level 10+ Sword Fighter with FE17 LanceLance or FE17 AxeAxe Proficiency.GoldmaryFE17SpriteHero
FEWNavarre Warriors SpriteMercenaryUse a Master Seal FE13 IconMaster Seal on Navarre.Navarre Warriors SpriteHero

Notable Heroes[]

GBAhero

Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light/Shadow Dragon[]

  • Samson - An Altean gladiator and eventually Sheema's bodyguard in Mystery of the Emblem.
  • Astram - Midia's lover and loyal soldier of Archanea.
  • Promotion for: Ogma, Caesar, Radd and Navarre (only in Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light).

Gaiden[]

Mystery of the Emblem/New Mystery of the Emblem[]

  • Promotion for Samuel in Mystery of the Emblem only; otherwise same as above, with Navarre only promoting to a Hero in Mystery of the Emblem.

Genealogy of the Holy War[]

Thracia 776[]

The Binding Blade[]

The Blazing Blade[]

The Sacred Stones[]

Path of Radiance[]

Radiant Dawn[]

  • Ike - The son of Greil and Hero of The Mad King's War. A swordsman who is fondly referred to as the Savior of Crimea.

Awakening[]

Fates[]

Possible promotion for: Selena, Laslow, Arthur, Charlotte, Soleil, Zhara (captured), and Gazak (captured).

Engage[]

Vestaria Saga I[]

  • Zayid - A laconic ex-gladiator who swore to protect Sheela to repay a debt.

Vestaria Saga: The Holy Sword of Silvanister[]

  • Zayid - A laconic ex-gladiator who swore to protect Sheela to repay a debt.

Trivia[]

  • Heroes almost always wield swords and shields, sometimes including axes in their armament. The GBA titles and Echoes, however, are unique in that they keep their weapons inside their shields (at least the generic units in Echoes), similar to Roman warriors. They are at their most acrobatic in the GBA and 3DS titles, with somersaults being a mainstay of their animations.
  • Hero is the only non-unique class in Three Houses that is never used by any of the named NPCs.

Gallery[]

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