—A Villager in Prologue III chapter in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Usage (耐久 Taikyū), often referred to as Weapon Durability, is a gameplay mechanic present in most Fire Emblem games.
Overview[]
Usage refers to the preset number of times a weapon, staff, or item can be used. Consumable items such as Vulneraries and Elixirs have a set number of Uses before the item runs out. These can be utilized in a battle by selecting the item from a character's inventory and selecting the Use command. Many consumable items have a one-time use such as Promotional Items and stat increasing items like Seraph Robes.
Weapon Durability, or just Durability, is the amount of uses a weapon has before it breaks. In combat, the weapon's attack must connect onto an enemy for it to consume a Durability point, even if the attack deals no damage. If the attacker's foe dodges their attack, durability is not consumed. Like a consumable item, once a weapon's Uses have been depleted, it is immediately lost from the user's inventory, usually stated as the "Weapon Broke!". Players can utilize Forges to replenish use of certain weapons or increase the Use amounts of weapons.
In general, most generic weapons have durability comparable to their general power. For example, Bronze Weapons will have high durability with 50, but in exchange, they have the lowest Might of all generic weapons. Silver weapons on the other hand have 20 uses but have the highest Might of all generic weapons. Other factors may contribute to durability other than might for several special weapons like a Javelin having less durability compared to an Iron Lance, but offsets this due to its ability to attack at both ranges. Killer weapons require the same Weapon proficiency rank as Steel weapons. They have lower durability than a Steel weapon, but offsets this by their higher Critical hit chance. Long range weapons such as the Bolting tome have as little as 5 uses.
There are some exceptions to this rule, especially regarding Legendary Weapons as they tend to have more durability than Silver weapons despite having greater power as a result of their scarcity in game. The lowest durability goes to most Legendary revival staffs like the Hammerne or Aum Staff, generally restricted to a single use in an entire playthrough.
Some weapons lack Durability in general. This is mostly because they play heavy story importance. For example, Ike must wield Ragnell when dealing the final blow to Ashera in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn thus it has infinite uses. Some games entirely forego the Weapon Durability system with Fire Emblem Gaiden being the first game to feature no Weapon Durability. Fire Emblem: Three Houses allows the characters to unleash Combat Arts for several points of a weapon's Durability. In addition, a broken weapon in Three Houses merely leaves the weapon in a usable, but weaker decayed state and can be restored to full use with certain Forging items.
Some combat skills can ignore Usage costs such as Armsthrift in Awakening allowing a Luck based chance of not consuming a durability point. Hortensia's World Tree skill has a chance not to consume a use of a Stave's durability. Bunet's Seconds? skill has a chance to not consume a Leftovers.
Game-specific Mechanics and Notes[]
In Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Fire Emblem Fates, and Fire Emblem Engage, there is no durability mechanic, allowing players to continuously use the same weapon without having them break. However, staves in Fates and Engage still have a limited number of uses. Fates offsets the lack of durability with side effects that function as drawbacks for using stronger weapons. In Engage, weapon weight plays a strong role, as some heavy weapons are categorized as Smash Weapons and come with their own unique sets of traits. In Shadows of Valentia, characters learn Weapon Arts as they grow proficient with a specific weapon, but will lose access to Arts that they have learned should they switch to a different weapon.
In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, players can get their weapons repaired at castles they own. Weapons that run out of uses will break, but remain functional and equipped, albeit with significantly reduced power and accuracy. All weapons except the Lands Sword and some staves have 50 uses, with the noted weapons having only 10.
In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, select weapons such as Ragnell, Alondite, and Amiti have no usage restriction. Further, at the beginning of the Chapter 4 Endgame, the weapons currently equipped by the player's chosen force will receive a blessing that gives them all infinite usage for the rest of the game.
In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the weapon durability system is similar to that of Genealogy of the Holy War. Weapons have a limited durability, but upon breaking are still usable with reduced stats, namely lower hit and might, and enemies are likelier to perform follow-up attacks against characters due to the drastic increase in weight. Characters do not unequip their broken weapon automatically. Broken weapons can be repaired for an expense of gold and smithing materials, or can be repaired before they break. Byleth's unique weapon the Sword of the Creator recovers five points of durability each time the player chooses the Rest action at the end of a calendar week, up to its maximum of twenty. Characters can also learn and use Combat Arts, enhanced techniques that can occasionally have different effects, but their usage costs higher amounts of durability than normal use.
Magic usage in Three Houses is on a per-battle basis. Each spell in a unit's spell list has a set number of uses, but these reset with each battle.
In Fire Emblem Warriors, there is no durability tied to weapons. Staves have a limited number of uses per battle, but automatically replenish at the battle's conclusion.
In Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, durability determines the number of times a learned Combat Art or Spell can be used. If the weapon doesn't have enough durability, then the unit will be unable to use the skill. Durability does not otherwise affect the power of the weapon and is automatically recovered after the end of a battle. It is also possible to acquire purple crystals from certain pots and defeated foes that restore a weapon's durability mid-battle. Durability can be raised on a weapon by forging, spending gold and ore at the Base Camp's Blacksmith up to a certain point. Once a weapon's reached its limit in Might and Durability, it can either be restored, which resets its might and durability upgrades to 0, or reforged, which increases the weapon's forging limits.
TearRing Saga: Berwick Saga has its own rules regarding Usage. Throwing weapons have a limited number of uses, like in the rest of the series, while magic has MP that slowly regenerates after each chapter. Non-throwing physical weapons have a set 100 durability that decreases with each use depending on durability rating (F-7, E-6, D-5, C-4, B-3, A-2, S-1). Each weapon also has a chance to break after every attack depending on its durability (100-61: blue - 0%, 60-41: green - 1%, 40-21: yellow - 2%, 20-1: orange - 4%, 0: Red - 100%). Bows, Crossbows, and Ballistae use both Durability (for weapon itself) and number of uses (for ammunition). Like in Genealogy of the Holy War, it's possible to repair weapons for a fee, so long as they don't completely break.