Throughout the history of Fire Emblem franchise, many characters have been created that fall into various recurring archetypes. Of these archetypes, one of the most commonly appearing are "Jagens." Named after the character Jagen from the first entry in the series, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Jagens are pre-promoted characters that join a player's forces early into a game and are initially incredibly powerful.
However, as a game progresses, many Jagens offer diminishing returns as their low growth rates cause them to fall off in usefulness in the later portions of a game. Despite this, many Jagens are incredibly useful units that can help set up kills for weaker units, with some of the best Jagens remaining useful for a game's entirety. So today, we're going to examine the Jagens of Fire Emblem and see which are the most useful!
10 Arran
Arran in Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem and its remake, Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem is among the most standard Jagens to grace the series. Available from the first chapter of the game, Arran is a Paladin with above-average base stats and a B rank in lances, yet notably poor growth rates. Arran is perfect for setting up kills for one's weaker units but lacks the longevity to be a mainstay in one's ranks, and he'll often be benched halfway through one's playthrough, if not earlier as a player opts to use Cecil, Roderick, Luke, or Sirius instead.
9 Sothe
Sothe is a rogue who serves as the player's Jagen in part one of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Radiant Dawn's part one features a cast of notoriously lackluster units in the form of the Dawn Brigade, a factor that often results in players viewing these early chapters as quite difficult.
Luckily, players gain access to Sothe in Chapter Two. Sothe boasts comparably impressive base stats and he can make easy work of many enemies that one's other units would struggle to take down. Unfortunately, as the player reaches the later chapters of the game, Sothe's combination of class and lack of availability for much of parts two and three results in him being quite lackluster in the late game.
8 Eyvel
Alongside Dagdar, Eyvel is one of the two available Jagens in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776. A swordmaster with excellent base stats who comes equipped with the flame sword, Eyvel can easily deal with the most difficult enemies that appear in the early chapters of Thracia. While she is a fantastic asset in these chapters, she will automatically leave a player's army after Chapter 3, and she can't be permanently recruited until Chapter 24X. By the time that she rejoins a player, they will likely have superior units to utilize, but she is still a solid unit regardless.
7 Jakob And Felecia
Jakob and Felecia are a butler and maid respectively that are each available in each version of Fire Emblem Fates depending on if a player chose to play as male or female Corrin. Due to their class, while these units don't have the same excellent mobility of other Jagens, they can reliably attack from one and two range, and they automatically join with staff utility
6 Jagen
The namesake character of the archetype, Jagen is a great unit in both the first entry in the series and its remake, Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon. With a high starting weapon rank in lances, Jagen can immediately make use of potent weapons such as silver spears. Due to the reclassing system in Shadow Dragon, Jagen can notably be reclassed into a Draco Knight, providing a player with a potent flying unit early into the game.
5 Oifey
Appearing in the second generation of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Oifey is a Paladin that started his own subsection of Jagens called "Oifeys."
While traditional Jagensare often useful for the early game and fall off in usefulness as the game progresses, Oifey and character that follow his design trend have the high base stats of a Jagen while maintaining serviceable growth rates. This means that he can serve the role of a Jagen in the early game, setting up kills for weaker units, while still being useful in the late game.
4 Marcus
Appearing as the Jagen of both Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade and Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Marcus is an excellent unit in each game respectively. Due to the high difficulty and strength of enemies in The Binding Blade, using Marcus is one of the most reliable ways to feed experience to weaker units. Conversely, in The Blazing Blade, Marcus functions more like Oifey, boating solid growth rates alongside his high bases that allow a player to reliably use him throughout the game.
3 Frederick
Frederick is easily one of the most useful units in Fire Emblem: Awakening. A great knight who is available from the word go, Frederick balances great base stats with impressive growth rates. When playing through Awakening's Lunatic difficulty, using Frederick is practically mandatory, as he's one of the few units that can both deal damage and sustain hits reliably without any investment.
2 Titania
Like Marcus, Titania is a character that appears in two games and is an outstanding unit in each game respectively. Available in nearly every chapter of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and in the majority of parts three and four of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Titania is a paladin with incredible base stats. Titania has notably high growth rates and is easily one of the strongest mounted units in both games she appears in and requires little to no investment to be a great inclusion in one's army.
1 Seth
Seth is not just one of the best Jagens in Fire Emblem, but one of the most brokenly overpowered units in the entire series. A paladin appearing in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Seth is available from the very first chapter and has stellar base stats alongside impressive growth rates like the previously mentioned Titania. With far superior base stats to the other cavaliers in the game and comparable growth rates, even if a player were to train these other cavaliers, by the time they catch up to Seth's level, he will often still be on par with those units, if not stronger.