The Fire Emblem series totes a massive cast of characters, with each entry in the series containing a wide variety of characters a player can utilize in their army. While some characters immediately appear to be worthwhile inclusions to one's forces, other characters are much more useful than they may appear at first glance.
Whether it be their design, class, or their stats, these characters' lackluster first impressions may hide excellent potential. So today we're going to examine the ten most subversive Fire Emblem characters who are significantly stronger than their first impressions may imply!
10 Silque - Shadows of Valentia
When players first encounter Silque in Alm's route of Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, she may come across as little more than a run of the mill healer. However, due to Shadows of Valentia's magic system that allows individual magic units to learn different character-specific spells as they level up, Silque is much more than meets the eye.
While players may want to prioritize feeding kills to more offensive units, it's a good idea to level up Silque as quickly as possible. This is because she learns the incredible Warp spell at level seven, unlocking a deep well of strategic potential.
9 Ross - The Sacred Stones
Ross is a level one Journeyman that players recruit in the second chapter of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. As one of the game's three "trainee" units, Ross joins a player's army as a weaker class that can be promoted into more standard classes in nature similar to how baby Pokémon function.
While the game's other "trainee" units can be a huge pain to level up, grinding one's progression to a screeching halt, Ross's early accessibility makes him rather easy to level up and promote.
8 Aran - Radiant Dawn
The units players have access to in the earliest chapters of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn tend to get a bad rap due to their low base stats and somewhat questionable growth rates. Despite this, the soldier Aran can be somewhat of a saving grace of Part One.
While Aran joins a player's army as an unassuming level seven Soldier, his access to lances grants him reliable access to 1-2 range weapons such as Javelins. Aran is also an excellent recipient of bonus experience players can distribute at their base, as his incredible growth rates in Strength, Defense, and Skill will ensure that he'll consistently grow both defensively and offensively.
7 Gonzales - The Binding Blade
Gonzales is one of the few playable Brigands in the Fire Emblem series and is worth much more than his appearance may let on. While Brigands traditionally make up a great deal of the weakest foes that players will slay throughout a game, Gonzales possesses a potent blend of strength and speed that will allow him to deal insane amounts of damage to foes.
Additionally, upon promoting into a berserker, Gonzales gains access to The Binding Blade's fantastic +30% critical boost that is found on all Swordmasters and Berserkers in the game.
6 Wendell - Shadow Dragon
A pre-promoted Sage, at first glance, Shadow Dragon's Wendell may look rather underwhelming due to his low magic stat of four. By the time he's recruited, his magic is likely to be lower than that of the first recruitable mage, Merric.
However, Joining with a B rank in tomes and a D rank in staves, Wendell can serve as an excellent utility unit or secondary healer. Additionally, his notably high-speed stat ensures that the vast majority of enemies will be unable to double him, rather, he will most likely be capable of doubling them instead.
5 Elincia - Path of Radiance
Elincia is a very unique unit in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance who may turn players off due to her very late join time and low starting level. Despite this, Elincia is one of the most useful support units in the game due to her distinct access to a pegasus and her starting staff rank of A.
Elincia can reliably wield important staves such as Physic as soon as she becomes playable, and can safely move out of harms way after attacking thanks to Canto. Though her frailty and lacking base stats will incentivize players to keep her out of combat, one couldn't ask for a better late game healer.
4 Fiora - The Blazing Blade
A pegasus knight that joins a player's forces once they reach the Dread Isle in the eighteenth chapter of Eliwood's story (Chapter Nineteen of Hector's story), Fiora of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade is much better than many players may first glean. Some players using Florina may write Fiora off due to her lesser availability, especially if they'd leveled up Florina to a point in which her stats are superior to those of Fiora.
Despite this, Fiora requires much less dedication and training to become useful in combat, as she totes higher base stats than her sister. Additionally, while a player may have access to a superior Pegasus Knight in the form of a trained Florina, players should never shy away from using more than one unit of a strong class such as Pegasus Knights.
3 Shanna - The Binding Blade
Shanna from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade is a unit that epitomizes the strengths and weaknesses of the Pegasus Knight class. Lacking in both offense and defense, players may immediately write Shanna off as a worthless unit due to her inability to immediately contribute to combating.
However, what players should note about Shanna is what she can do. As the first and only flying unit players will have access to for the first ten chapters of the game, she can be used to ferry one's less mobile units around a map, quickly visit villages, and assist in nuanced rescue strategies thanks to her access to Canto!
2 Mist - Path of Radiance
In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, by the time that Ike's little sister Mist joins one's party, they will already have access to a superior healer, Rhys. While Rhys will join with a higher staff rank and higher stats in nearly every category, it is still in a player's best interest to utilize Mist.
This is because while Rhys is capable of promoting into the Bishop class, Mist can promote into the only playable Valkyrie in the game. As a Valkyrie, Mist's movement will grow significantly, and she'll become the most widely accessible healer with Canto, allowing her to simultaneous heal allies while fleeing from harm's way.
1 Every Dancer
When new players begin to play Fire Emblem, it is quite common for many to write off a game's dancer due to their traditionally low stats and inability to directly fight foes. However, across the board, Dancers are some of the most powerful and flexible units in the series.
Rather than fighting, Dancers allow another unit to move and fight a second time each turn. This essentially allows these dancers to double the usefulness of any one unit each turn, allowing a player to reuse whatever unit would be the most helpful under a given circumstance!