Fire Emblem Engage brings back the weapon triangle that many players that enjoyed the franchise prior to Fire Emblem Three Houses will remember making the most of. Each chapter that a player faces will have specific units that will wield certain weapons, players should consider bringing their own units that have advantages against those weapons while avoiding those that are much weaker to them.
With such a wide variety of classes and therefore specialties of weapons that can be used between them, understanding the Weapon Triangle can become quite the challenge. This guide hopes to shine some light on what the weapon triangle is and how players can use it to better their chances in each chapter from playing the classical to the casual.
What Is The Weapon Triangle
The Weapon Triangle is a concept taken from old Fire Emblem games that shows that each weapon has something it is strong against and something it is weak against. As seen in the diagram above swords beat axes, axes beat lances, and then lances beat swords. Before Fire Emblem Three Houses, players would look back on the triangle diagram as seen above to remind themselves of what units benefit from which battle they take.
Thankfully these weapons are also color-coded to help players remember which order the advantages and disadvantages go before throwing themselves into the battle. Therefore, it may be easier for a player to remember that red beats green and so forth. Besides this, players can also easily see this triangle at all times by press pause while in battle as the weapons can be seen in the corner. Help is also given by pressing on a unit, this will show a red mark on an opponents' weapon symbol if the player has an advantage over them.
Why Players Should Aim For The Advantage
Aiming to take on a foe that has a disadvantage to the player's weapon goes far deeper than just dealing more damage to that unit. Working with the weapon triangle can lead to some amazing yet deadly combos between different characters as hitting an enemy that is weak to the weapon the unit is wielding will cause the Break mechanic to occur.
An opponent that is broken can no longer defend themselves for one more hit during the player's turn, the player technically gets two free hits without taking any damage. Firstly is the first unit that breaks the enemy, so they can no longer hit back during that attack, the second is the next unit which the player wishes to follow up on with the attack with.
The player isn't the only one that can work with the triangle and therefore the enemy will attempt to also break the player. This is why it's also incredibly important to pay attention to where units have been placed on the map to avoid taking unnecessary damage.
Combat Arts Are No Longer Just A Skill
While in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Combat Arts were extra skills learned through focusing on using a certain weapon repeatedly. In Fire Emblem Engage Combat Arts replace brawling as a new type of weapon that is exclusive to characters that specialize in the Martial Monk class. These units are skilled healers that can use the martial arts to protect themselves in combat while also being able to defend others.
As seen from the diagrams, Martial Monks don't fit inside the original weapon triangle and therefore cannot be broken by any weapons inside or out of it. Instead, Combat Arts have their own advantages when taking on opponents as they are able to break units with gray weapons, these include: bows, tomes, and knives. However, even with this Martial Monks are still unable to be broken if wielding their Arts.
Some Characters Reverse The Weapon Triangle
However, there are some situations that cause the weapon triangle to be reversed, these involve the help of the Emblem Rings. Pairing with heroes such as the weapons wielded by Corrin and Roy require some more thought from players.
When engaging with these rings the weapon unlocked by them actually does the opposite of what they are usually good against. This means that Roy's Lancereaver sword has an advantage on Lances but a disadvantage on axes. Players should be mindful of this when deciding who to equip these rings on as well as what unit they attack while engaged.
Fire Emblem Engage is out now on Nintendo Switch.