Rolf

Rolf
Names and Aliases
Name (JP)	ヨファ (Yofa, ヨファ), Lofa
Name (Localized)	Rolf
Biological Information
Gender	Male
Race	Beorc
Relatives	May contain spoilers Unnamed Father Rolf's Mother (Mother) Oscar (Paternal Eldest Half-Brother) Boyd (Paternal Elder Half-Brother)
Affiliations
Nationality	Crimea
Faction(s)	Greil Mercenaries
Game Data
Game	Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Fire Emblem Heroes
First Seen	Chapter 2: Rescue (Path of Radiance) Part 2, End Cutscene: Elincia's Gambit (Radiant Dawn)
First Joined	Chapter 9 Gallia (Path of Radiance)
Starting Class	Archer (Path of Radiance) Sniper (Radiant Dawn)
Voice Actors
Japanese	Yū Asakawa
English	Lani Minella (Radiant Dawn) Erik Scott Kimerer (Heroes)
[view]

“Hey! I'm not small! I'm a dangerous mercenary!”
—Rolf talking to Marcia in a support conversation

Rolf is a playable character in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. He is the youngest member of the Greil Mercenaries and the younger half brother of Oscar and Boyd.

Quick Answers

How is Rolf related to Oscar and Boyd?

Rolf is the younger half-brother of Oscar and Boyd. They are all part of the Greil Mercenaries, with Oscar being the eldest, Boyd the middle brother, and Rolf the youngest.

Provided by: Fandom

What role does Rolf play in the Greil Mercenaries?

Rolf, the youngest member of the Greil Mercenaries, is a playable character in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. As the younger half-brother of Oscar and Boyd, he participates in the group's missions, which focus on fighting brigands and protecting villages.

Provided by: Fandom

In which games does Rolf appear as a playable character?

Rolf appears as a playable character in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. He is the youngest member of the Greil Mercenaries and the younger half-brother of Oscar and Boyd.

Provided by: Fandom

What challenges did Rolf face in his early life?

Rolf's early life was marked by his mother's abandonment, leaving him and his brothers with a bedridden father. Oscar took on the responsibility of caring for the family. Rolf's duties were mainly chores, and he lacked combat experience until Shinon taught him to use a bow, enabling him to contribute to the group's efforts.

Provided by: Fandom

What tasks did Rolf perform with the Greil Mercenaries?

Rolf, the youngest in the Greil Mercenaries, initially handled chores like cooking and cleaning with Mist. He gained combat skills after Greil's death when Shinon taught him archery, enabling him to participate in missions.

Provided by: Fandom

Profile

The youngest of three brothers after Oscar and Boyd, Rolf's birth mother left when he was a infant, abandoning her sons and their bedridden father for another man, leaving Oscar to take care of the family. Though he traveled with the mercenaries, Rolf's tasks were mostly chores such as helping Mist with cooking and cleaning. Because of this, he had no combat experience prior to when Greil died.

Rolf was first taught how to use a bow by Shinon, so that, like Mist, he could be of some use to the group rather than staying behind every time the company went to work. Shinon told Rolf during his training never to tell anyone who taught him, and he remained faithful to that promise; his eldest brother, Oscar, figured out the truth, but never told anyone either, respecting Rolf's oath.

When the group encounters his birth mother by chance in Radiant Dawn, Rolf is given the opportunity to live with her, and she begs for him to return. He chooses to stay with his brothers, however, saying that she is a stranger to him, considering the fact that she abandoned him, his brothers and his sickly father when he was a baby to be with another man, and that he would prefer staying with what he considers his true family: Oscar, Boyd, and the rest of the Greil Mercenaries.

Rolf can perform a Triangle Attack with his brothers under certain conditions, being that Oscar and Boyd are upgraded classes with the ability to use bows. This is a default setting in Radiant Dawn (keep in mind that Oscar must be a Silver Knight, and Boyd must be equipped with a crossbow of some kind), but optional in Path of Radiance.

In-Game

Path of Radiance

Recruitment

• Chapter 9: Automatically from the start.

Base Stats

Starting Class								Affinity
Archer								Wind
Level	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Con	Wt	Mov
1	18	5	0	8	6	4	6	2	4	4	6
Skills				Weapon				Starting Items
-				Bow - E				Rolf's Bow Vulnerary

Growth Rates

HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res
60%	40%	20%	45%	50%	40%	30%	25%

Support Conversations

See also: Rolf/Supports

• Rhys
• Shinon
• Marcia
• Mist
• Tauroneo

Bond Support

• Oscar: 10%
• Boyd: 10%
• Shinon: 5%

Promotion Gains

Item Required					Promoted Class
( Master Seal)					Sniper
1	+3	+3	+2	+2	+2	+2	+3	+1	+1

Overall

Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.

One look at Rolf's base stats when he joins your army in Chapter 9 would definitely be worth raising eyebrows at, as he joins with base stats that would be only barely acceptable at the start of the game. He joins as a Level 1 Archer with bases as low as expected for the level he joins at, meaning he only doubles units who are weighed down by Steel weapons on his join map and will have to struggle to get any significant mileage out of his contributions. His E-Rank in Bows is bad, but he gets a unique bow with Steel Bow-level Might in Rolf's Bow, giving him the opportunity to train up his weapon rank quickly. His growths are also quite good for the game he's in, but not using Fixed Mode means that it'll often be left to the RNG whether he can meaningfully caps out any of his stats, and that may not be an investment worth undertaking; like all growth units, his growth rates can be too unreliable to consistently cap out his stats without rampant favoritism, but it can be done. His averages are quite solid at max level in Fixed Mode, but that's a lot of investment needed to get him off the ground.

Rolf also joins in a pretty unfortunate timing at his joining. He joins at around the same time as Marcia and Kieran, and only three chapters away from Jill, three of the best recipients of Bonus Experience in the game that Rolf will have to share with in order to catch up to the rest of his army. However, he's quite useful for shooting down the Raven Laguz in Chapter 12 and 13, and because they give additional experience when killed, this will have Rolf catch up pretty quickly. That said, Chapter 13 is the same time Astrid joins, and if you have been using Rolf, you will have to wage the option of continuing to use Rolf or be willing to train up Astrid due to her extremely useful Paragon skill, access to mounted movement, and ability to have another weapon type when she promotes, including two with highly versatile 1-2 Range weapons. Rolf has the benefit of a higher critical chance as a Sniper and can have a niche at defeating fliers or enemies from afar, but Rolf being locked to Bows means he will often have zero enemy phase without careful positioning.

The only other available choice for a Sniper is Shinon. Both have their upsides and downsides, though neither are particularly efficient; Rolf if trained up to his level will consistently have better stats on average than Shinon, but that in of itself is investment needed to get him to a level that competent. Shinon, meanwhile, has a higher base weapon ranks and can use the Brave Bow at base. Both also share a Support with each other that increases Rolf's critical rate, but it means using both when you either have a unit that outclasses Shinon, or you didn't train up Rolf at all and just need him alive to recruit Shinon.

Rolf also joins with the ability to do a Triangle Attack with his brothers Oscar and Boyd, and assumes all three are promoted by the point it becomes available in Chapter 19, with Oscar in particular choosing to use Bows in his promotion and you choosing an Info Conversation in Chapter 13 to unlock the Triangle Attack. The attack gives a guaranteed critical hit when used, and can be somewhat practical as you don't have to field multiple units of the same kind to use the attack, but it's still a gimmick at best and only useful for a select few units, such as Naesala in Chapter 19, who is almost impossible to defeat via conventional means. Even then, it's recommend one uses Boyd instead for the Triangle Attack, due to his mammoth Strength stat, especially by the time he's promoted.

Overall, Rolf is a difficult unit to recommend training if one is seeking to play efficiently, and he is quite arguably one of the weakest units in the game outside of Sothe due to his unfortunate joining time, terrible starting bases, and Bow-locked units lacking enough of a niche to use over other units. That said, due to the overall very low difficulty of Path of Radiance and the existence of Bonus Experience, he is still very much usable if you like him enough as a character and should have no problem catching up if you seek to use him, and while his niche with Bows makes it hard to recommend him over most choices, it exists as enough of a niche not to completely discredit him.

Radiant Dawn

Availability

Part 1											Part 2					Part 3															Part 4							Endgame
P	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	E	P	1	2	3	E	P	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	E	P	1	2	3	4	5	E	A1	A2	A3	A4	A5
																◎	◎	○	○	○	○		○	○		○	○			○	□	□	□	□	□	□	○	○	○	○	○	○

◎=Forced　○=Available　□=Available for selected

Base Stats

Starting Class								Affinity
Sniper								Wind
Level	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Con	Wt	Mov
1	32	17	3	20	19	13	13	9	6	7	7
Skills				Weapon				Starting Items
Critical +10 Shove				Bow - B				Rolf's Bow Steel Bow Vulnerary

Growth Rates

HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res
85%	75%	10%	45%	45%	35%	35%	20%

Biorhythm

Bond Support

• Oscar: 10%
• Boyd: 10%
• Shinon: 5%

Promotion Gains

Item Required					Promoted Class
( Master Crown)					Marksman
1	+4	+2	+4	+2	+2	+2	+4	+0	+0
Skills					Weapon Levels
Critical +15 Deadeye					A*

Overall

Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.

Shinon joins at the same time as Rolf and at a higher level, but they compete in different stats. Rolf has higher HP, luck, and higher strength, but lower Defenses, Speed, and much less Skill. Compared to Leonardo, Rolf has higher HP, Strength, and Speed, but much less Resistance, Luck, and Skill. It is advised to take at least one Marksman with you to the final chapter so you can use the powerful Double Bow, so who you end up using as your Marksman is completely preferential. Of the three, Rolf has by far the highest HP and Strength, by far the lowest Skill, and the middle ground for Luck and Speed.

During Part 3, Rolf's biggest flaw is that with BEXP abuse, Shinon will cap Strength with relative ease, as well as Defense, HP, Skill, and Speed. Rolf will almost certainly fail to cap Defense, but he can cap Skill and Speed as a Sniper. Rolf takes many levels to get up to speed, as to cap HP and Strength. His Skill and Speed will develop decently well, and he will one-round most enemies if he gets enough in these stats. He's practically guaranteed to cap Strength as both a Sniper and a Marksman, just watch out for his defenses, but his HP and decent avoid can help him sponge some attacks.

Fire Emblem Heroes

• A Monstrous Harvest

Tricky Archer

A member of the Greil Mercenaries and the younger brother of Oscar and Boyd. Joining in on the harvest festivities in a ghostly getup. Appears in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.

Base Stats

Rarity:

✯✯✯✯

		Title
		Tricky Archer
		Group
		Cavalry
Level	HP	Atk	Spd	Def	Res
1 40	16/17/18 34/37/40	5/6/7 25/28/31	9/10/11 31/34/37	4/5/6 22/25/28	2/3/4 18/21/24
Skills			Weapon
Candlewax Bow Shove			Bow

✯✯✯✯✯

		Title
		Tricky Archer
		Group
		Cavalry
Level	HP	Atk	Spd	Def	Res
1 40	17/18/19 36/40/43	5/6/7 27/30/33	9/10/11 33/36/39	5/6/7 24/28/31	3/4/5 20/23/27
Skills			Weapon
Candlewax Bow+ Shove			Bow

Skills

Type	Name	Prerequisite	Default	Unlocked
	Iron Bow	-	-	-
	Steel Bow	-	-	-
	Candlewax Bow	-	-	-
	Candlewax Bow+	-		-
	Shove	-
B	Desperation 1	-		-
	Desperation 2	Desperation 1
	Desperation 3	Desperation 2
C	Odd Spd Wave 1	-		-
	Odd Spd Wave 2	Odd Spd Wave 1		-
	Odd Spd Wave 3	Odd Spd Wave 2

Overall

Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.

Base Set

Counters

Skill Inheritance

Meet Some of the Heroes

Tricky Archer Rolf
	Hmm? Who's that hiding under a sheet, pretending to be a ghost? Let's see who you really are, sheet-ghost! ...Ah-ha, I knew it! It's Rolf!
	So during the harvest festival, there's a tradition where kids ask the grown-ups for candy by telling them "trick or treat!" Rolf may be a Hero, but he's still young enough to want a share of the action!
	Rolf's wearing a cute ghost outfit for the festival, and after this, he'll be going to "treat" his brothers to a few of his tricks. Do you think he'll manage to scare them?
	Well, I'd rather be spooked by a cute ghost than a scary one! I hope Rolf gets a great haul this harvest festival!
Closely Associated Characters
Oscar	A straightforward but accommodating member of the Greil Mercenaries. Has good instincts. He's Rolf's brother.
Boyd	A member of the Greil Mercenaries. Brash and big-hearted, he doesn't care much for details. Oscar is his older brother, while Rolf is his younger brother.

Quotes

Path of Radiance

“I... wonder what will happen to me... I'm so scared... Boyd... Broth--”
—Rolf's death quote

Radiant Dawn

“So this is what fate...had in store for me... I'm so cold... I still had...a lot...to learn. Oscar... B-Boyd... Shinon...”
—Rolf's death quote

Heroes

Rolf/Heroes Quotes

Ending

Faithful Student (若葉の射手, Young Archer)

Rolf remained with the mercenaries. He was always in demand as a tutor of unrivaled marksmanship.

Non-Canon Appearances

Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher)

Rolf is illustrated in the trading card game Fire Emblem Cipher with the following cards:

B03-016HN

B03-017N

B14-087HN

B14-088N

Choose Your Legends Placement History

Round	Placement	Character Version	Votes

CYL1	359	Path of Radiance	482
	377	Radiant Dawn	434
CYL2	468 ↓109	Path of Radiance	279 ↓203
	521 ↓144	Radiant Dawn	218 ↓216
CYL3	369 ↑99 (From highest)	Path of Radiance Radiant Dawn	427 ↓70 (From combined)
CYL4	421 ↓52	Path of Radiance Radiant Dawn	195 ↓232
CYL5	366 ↑55	Path of Radiance Radiant Dawn	148 ↓47
CYL6	393 ↓37	Path of Radiance Radiant Dawn	130 ↓28
CYL7	358 ↑35	Radiant Dawn Path of Radiance	75 ↓55
CYL8	361 ↓3	Path of Radiance Radiant Dawn	81 ↑6

CYL9

335 ↑26

Path of Radiance Radiant Dawn

64 ↓17

Etymology

Rolf is a real name and has its own meaning, but it is an alteration of "Rudolf", which means "fame" and "wolf" in its Germanic roots.

Trivia

• In the English version of Path of Radiance, Rolf erroneously tells Tauroneo in their C support that his mother died and his father left his family. In Radiant Dawn, it is shown that Rolf's mother is alive and was the one who left the family while his father was dying. This error was not present in the Japanese version.
• In Radiant Dawn, in the base conversation "The Three Brothers", the North American version erroneously implies that Rolf and Boyd are step-brothers and not blood-related. The official Path of Radiance Japanese site states that Oscar, Boyd, and Rolf share the same father. This error was not present in the Japanese version and was fixed in the European version.
• In Radiant Dawn, Rolf says in a base conversation with Boyd that he believes skill is more important than strength, even though his growth rate for strength (75%) is higher than the one for his skill (45%).
• Rolf is tied with Aran for highest Strength growth rate in Radiant Dawn, at 75%. Rolf is also tied with Edward for highest HP growth of all beorc units, at 85%.

Gallery

See main article: Rolf/Gallery.