Villager

The Villager (村人, Murabito) is a combat physical class that is introduced in Fire Emblem Gaiden. A trainee class that affords little value apart from possessing much potential to grow into valuable assets of the player's army, Villagers primarily wield either Swords or Lances as their weapons of choice.

History in the SeriesEdit

In Gaiden and its remake, Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Villagers (むらびと, Murabito) wield Swords as their weapon of choice. They are regarded as a "tier zero" class in this title, given that they are able to promote into a variety of first-tier classes. Male Villagers can promote into the Mercenary, Soldier, Archer, Mage and Cavalier classes. Female Villagers (exclusive to Echoes) can promote into the Cavalier, Mage, Cleric, or Pegasus Knight classes. Villagers can promote into any one of these classes by visiting a shrine when their level is 3 or higher. In Gaiden, the class that they promote into is chosen randomly, but in Echoes, the player can freely choose what class they want their Villagers to promote into.

Although weak as a class, Villagers have the potential of leveling up infinitely by following the Mercenary path, as the corresponding third-tier class, Dread Fighter, is able to promote back into this class any time after reaching Level 10.

Futhermore, in Echoes, an item called a Pitchfork can be used to allow any unit in any class at any level to promote into a Villager at a shrine. This gives that unit the ability to then promote into a different class of their choosing, essentially allowing them to reclass in a manner somewhat similar to what is allowed by the Second Seal item in Awakening and the Heart Seal item in Fates. However, this can only be done three times, as there are only three Pitchfork items obtainable in the game, via the "Mila's Bounty" free DLC gifts.

The Villager class returns in Awakening, this time wielding Lances in a manner that is similar to the Recruit class. The class has no promotions and is considered a special class, capping at Level 30. However, unlike most other special classes, it has low stat caps and it is encouraged to reclass into a secondary class to absolve these low caps. It is exclusive to Donnel and is technically a male-only class. Any son of Donnel will inherit the class, however his daughters will not. Male Morgan can inherit the class either from Donnel or a son of Donnel.

In Fates, the class wields Lances as its sole weapon of choice, much like its incarnation in Awakening. The Villager is a fully-fleshed class instead of a trainee-tier one, given that it can directly promote into either the Merchant or the Master of Arms class. It is one of four base classes in Fates that cannot be chosen as the Avatar's secondary class and cannot be accessed via a Partner Seal and Friendship Seal. However, the children of Mozu inherit the class from her.

In TearRing Saga: Berwick Saga, the class is known as Farmer (農民 nōmin), an NPC only class that appears only in Chapter 12. They wield Forks, a subtype of the Spear class of weapons, although their poor stats hinder their effectiveness with them.

CombatEdit

Because Villagers are basically civilian recruits who have not received formal combat training, their starting stats and growth rates tend to be extremely low. They are weak, pitifully so in some instances, and are extremely fragile and can be felled easily by most conventional enemies. In most instances, they appear no later than a quarter into the story, making them even weaker than most units in the army at the time, but not to the point that they are completely unusable. As a trainee class, they are ill suited for long term usage in the class and is merely a starting point. This is reinforced by the fact that their stat caps are generally quite low, forcing the player to promote or reclass them as soon as possible.

While initially weak and ill suited for combat, the Villager class is considered to be more of an archetype than a class. All units who start off as a Villager or a trainee class in general are noted for their potential, generally having some of the strongest growth rates in their respective games and becoming some of the strongest units in the game. If intending to use a Villager character, it is encouraged to use them immediately from recruitment and reclass them as soon as possible. Once they enter an actual combat class, their potential becomes more apparent and usually excels in their new role. Overall, Villagers are considered investment units. They require delicate handling and a bit of risk to give them the experience needed to grow in the beginning but offer large rewards once they are given time to grow.

In-GameEdit

Base StatsEdit

	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Dex	Agl	Lck	Def	Wlv	Res	Bld	Wt
FE2	26	7	-	1	2	0	2	0	4	-	-	Sword
FE13	16	1	0	1	1	0	1	0	5	-	-	E
FE14	17	5	0	4	5	3	4	0	5	-	-	E

Maximum StatsEdit

	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Dex	Agl	Lck	Def	Wlv	Res	Bld	Wt
FE2	52	40	-	40	40	40	40	4	-	-	-	Sword
FE13	60	20	20	20	20	30	20	20	5	-	-	A
FE14	35	19	15	19	19	22	18	15	5	-	-	C

Growth RatesEdit

	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Dex	Agl	Lck	Def	Wlv	Res	Bld	Wt
FE2	150%	50%	-	50%	50%	0%	50%	0%	-	-	-	-
FE13	35%	10%	0%	5%	5%	0%	10%	5%	-	-	-	-
FE14	10%	10%	0%	10%	10%	20%	10%	0%	-	-	-	-

Class SkillsEdit

	Skill	Requirements
FE13	Aptitude Underdog	Learnt at Level 1. Learnt at Level 15.
FE14	Aptitude Underdog	Learnt at Level 1 and above. Learnt at Level 10 and above.

PromotionsEdit

	Base Class	Promotion Method	Promoted Class
FE2	Villager	Visit a Shrine after reaching Level 3+.	Mercenary Soldier Archer Mage Knight
FE14	Villager	Use a Master Seal on a Level 10+ Villager.	Merchant Master of Arms

Notable VillagersEdit

Gaiden/Shadows of ValentiaEdit

• Atlas - A villager from the Mountain Village on Celica's route.
• Kliff - A Villager who loves learning and hungers to see more of the world.
• Gray - An easygoing and loyal Villager who's worldly and competent.
• Tobin - A honest Villager who likes to earn his own living.
• Faye - A devoted Villager that is eager to follow Alm. Exclusive to Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
• Possible promotion for: Saber, Kamui, Jesse, and Deen

AwakeningEdit

• Donnel - A handy and hardy farm boy from a Ylissean country village.
• Holland - A hostile villager who aids the nefarious Nelson in order to support his family.

FatesEdit

• Mozu - A Hoshidan villager who is rescued by Corrin.

NotesEdit

• Villagers and the unplayable Soldier class share the same battle animations in Awakening.
• In Awakening and Fates, Villagers often seem to take the role of the Civilian class in some chapters, frequently appearing as functionally defenseless allied units that must be protected. The exceptions are Holland, who is an enemy, Donnel, who can be recruited, and Morgan who, if he is Donnel's son, starts out as a Villager and can be recruited.
• In Awakening, Villagers boast equal Defense and Resistance, a trait shared with their sister class, Lords, female Great Lords, Tacticians, Grandmasters, Cavaliers, Paladins, Dancers, Manaketes and Grima's personal class. Additionally, they boast equal Strength and Magic, a trait shared by Tacticians, Grandmasters, their sister class and Dancers.
• In Fates, Villagers are the only generic units that cannot be captured. Apart from being the rarest NPCs in-game (they do not appear in Birthright apart from the Arena (those NPCs cannot be captured) and Sophie's Paralogue as allies), the only times they appear as enemies are in Conquest and Revelation as Vallite enemies, who cannot be captured. Despite this, data does exist for captured Villagers, although this unit data is assigned the hooded man portrait rather than either generic Villager portrait.

GalleryEdit