Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is a weird game. It’s brutal. It’s unapologetic. Unlike its sibling Birthright, which lets you grind your way to victory like a standard RPG, Conquest puts you in a chokehold from chapter 10 and doesn't let go until the credits roll. But the real reason we're still talking about it isn't just the map design; it's the fire emblem conquest characters and how their specific mechanical quirks create a puzzle-solving experience that feels fundamentally different from any other entry in the series.
You aren't just managing health bars here. You're managing personalities that translate directly into mathematical advantages on the battlefield.
The Royal Family and the Centralization of Power
If you've played Conquest, you know Xander. He’s basically a mobile fortress. He arrives late, sure, but his personal weapon, Siegfried, gives him a defensive buff and 1-2 range that most other units would kill for. He’s the literal backbone of a Lunatic-run. But Xander isn't just a stat stick; he represents the game's philosophy of "power at a price." He’s slow. Without the right Pair Up partner—usually Charlotte, who exists in this game almost exclusively to give Xander Strength and Speed bonuses—he gets doubled by Ninjas and dies.
Then there’s Camilla.
Camilla is arguably the most "broken" unit in the franchise's modern era. She joins early, she’s in an advanced class (Malig Knight), and she has access to both axes and tomes. Most games punish you for using "pre-promoted" units because they steal experience from weaker characters. Conquest flips that. You need her. She is your panic button.
Leo and Elise round out the royals. Elise is your quintessential glass cannon healer—literally, don't let a stray breeze hit her—while Leo provides the much-needed magical tanking. The synergy between these four is what makes the Nohr side of Fates so mechanically tight. You aren't just picking favorites; you’re building a machine.
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Why the "Bad" Characters are Actually Good
People love to dunk on Arthur. He’s the heroic axe-wielder with a luck stat so low he’s prone to getting hit by 1% critical hits. It's hilarious. It's also terrifying. In any other Fire Emblem, a unit with zero luck is a liability you bench immediately. In Conquest, Arthur is a niche king.
His personal skill, Misfortune, lowers the critical evade of enemies within two spaces. If you pair him with someone who already has a high crit rate, you’re looking at a strategy that deletes bosses before they can move. This is the nuance of fire emblem conquest characters. Even the ones that seem like jokes have a specific, developer-intended role in solving the game's hardest maps.
Take Nyx. She’s another polarizing one. Her accuracy is atrocious. Seriously, she couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if she was standing inside it. But her magical damage output? Ridiculous. If you take the time to fix her hit rate through Heart Seals or specific Pair Ups, she can one-shot General units that would otherwise wall your entire army.
The Retainer System: More Than Just Flavor
Every royal comes with two retainers. This isn't just a story beat; it's a way to ensure the player has a balanced roster regardless of how they play.
- Effie and Arthur: Xander’s retainers provide the physical muscle. Effie, in particular, is a legend in the community for her "Effie-force" builds where she basically solo-holds the middle of the map in Chapter 10.
- Selena, Laslow, and Odin: These three are returning favorites from Awakening, but they’ve been rebalanced. Odin is a Dark Mage now, but his stats actually scream "Swordmaster." If you use a Heart Seal to switch him to a Samurai, he becomes an entirely different beast.
- Niles and Peri: Niles is your only source of capturing enemy units (a mechanic most people forget exists but is vital for getting high-stat generic units), and Peri is a high-mobility cavalier who rewards aggressive playstyles.
Skill Inheritance and the "Perfect" Child Units
We have to talk about the kids. The inheritance system in Conquest is a deep, deep rabbit hole. Unlike Birthright, where you can just out-level the enemy, Conquest demands that your child units inherit specific skills to stay relevant in the late game.
Kana, Shigure, and the rest aren't just carbon copies of their parents. They are templates. If you marry Mozu—the "villager" archetype who starts weak but grows fast—to someone like Xander or Silas, her Aptitude skill passes down, creating a child unit with astronomical stat growths.
The community often debates the "canon" parents, but for a high-level run, it's all about the classes. You want Nina (Niles' daughter) to have access to Shining Bow builds. You want Ophelia (Odin's daughter) to inherit Malefic Aura and Death Blow so she can reach a 100% crit rate. It’s basically Pokémon for people who like medieval warfare.
The Difficulty Gap: Lunatic vs. Everything Else
In most strategy games, "Hard" just means the enemies have more health. In Conquest, the fire emblem conquest characters you face as enemies actually use the game's mechanics against you. They use Pair Up. They use Dual Strikes. They have skills like "Lunge" that will pull your tank out of position and into a deathtrap.
This forces you to value characters you’d otherwise ignore.
Benny is a great example. He’s a Knight. Knights are usually too slow for Fire Emblem. But on Lunatic, his ability to take zero damage from almost everything makes him a human wall. You don't use him to kill; you use him to clog a hallway for ten turns while your mages do the work.
Honestly, the complexity of these builds is why the "Conquest is the best gameplay in the series" argument still holds up years later. Three Houses gave us more freedom, and Engage gave us flashier visuals, but Conquest gave us a set of characters that feel like specific tools in a toolbox.
How to Optimize Your Roster Right Now
If you're jumping back into a playthrough, don't just use your favorites. Think about the "internal" logic of the Nohrian army.
- Prioritize the "Early-Game Three": Silas, Effie, and Niles. These three are the bridge that gets you to the mid-game. If they fall behind, the mid-game maps (like the infamous Ninja Cave) will be a nightmare.
- Abuse the Heart Seal: Don't keep characters in their base classes if they don't fit your needs. Jakob, if he's your first servant, is arguably the best unit in the game if you reclass him to a Paladin immediately. He keeps his high internal level but gains the stats of a promoted unit. It's basically a cheat code.
- Don't sleep on Beruka: Everyone uses Camilla because she's flashy, but Beruka has the Defense stats to actually stay in the front lines. Give her a Lancelayer and she becomes the ultimate counter to the Pegasus Knights in the later Hoshido maps.
- Kitchen and Mess Hall: It sounds silly, but the stat boosts from the Mess Hall are mandatory for certain "one-round" thresholds. A +2 in Speed can be the difference between Xander doubling an enemy or being doubled himself.
The beauty of the fire emblem conquest characters is that there is no "correct" way to play, but there are definitely "smarter" ways to play. The game respects your intelligence by being difficult, and it rewards your creativity by giving you a cast of misfits that can be molded into gods if you know which buttons to press.
Stop treating it like a standard RPG. Start treating it like a tactical puzzle. Once you stop worrying about "leveling everyone up" and start focusing on "who can solve this specific room," the game finally clicks. Focus on niche utility over raw stats, and you'll find that even "low-tier" units like Gunter or Nyx have a moment where they are the only ones who can save your run.