A Guide to Fire Emblem Awakening *Introduction*

Hey there! If you're reading this, then hopefully your interested on reading on how Fire Emblem Awakening works, as well as some tips and tricks! Now, before I officially start, I should tell you all about Fire Emblem Awakening.

Fire Emblem Awakening is a game that was released in Japan on April 19th, 2012, and was also released in North America on February 4th, 2013, and it's only for the Nintendo 3DS. It used to came out with a 3DS bundle on certain participating stores, but, only as a limited edition bundle. Anyways, for those of you new to Fire Emblem Awakening, it features a Classic and Casual mode. For those of you who have previous Fire Emblem games, the Classic mode stand as is - if an of your unit's die, they are gone from your play through for the rest of the game. On Casual mode however, you'll be able to use your units again in another chapter even after their HP reaches '0'.

The game also features DLC levels, as in, you'll be able to buy DLC levels later on in the game, which I do recommend that you buy them, as they'll help you out a very big deal in this game! I'll go more on to the DLC levels later on in this guide!

Now then, as you start the game, it'll ask you if you'd like to play on Normal, Hard, or Lunatic. Of course, I recommend Normal mode if you're just beginning, of course! Now, after it brings you to a section where you can make your very own character, or 'an avatar', as it were. Choose if you're a male or female, choose your build, what sort of face (eyes, nose, mouth) you have, your hair color, and finally what sort of voice you have, from a choice between three voice types for your character. After that, enter your birth date, as well as your name! Keep in mid that this character will be sent to street pass, which I do recommend street passing to people whenever possible, as some people still play this game from time to time, and you can acquire their own avatar for characters, for a price.

Now it's time to think of a stat your character will be strong and weak in. Before we move on, allow me to tell you about the stat mechanics. Basically, in the Fire Emblem games, each unit have individual stats: HP, Strength, Magic, Skill, Speed, Defense, Resistance, and Movement. I'll explain about them much more in detail below:

• HP: Basically... your character's Hit Points. The HP is represented by a number, which measures your character's stamina upon taking opposing attacks. A unit with more HP can take more attacks. Most Fire Emblem games, including Awakening can have units with a maximum of 80 Hit Points (or more in certain units w/ skills). If the unit's HP reaches '0', they're dead. ;o;
  
• Str: The Strength stat measures your character's damage output using physical weapons, meaning, their power if they use swords, lances, arrows, or axes. If the character has 1 Str point, they can do +1 damage to the enemy unit. And thus, the higher the Str stat, the more damage the unit can deliver. In some games, I believe it can measure Attack Speed too, in games like Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn, if the character has more strength, they can wield heavier weapons..but, Awakening does not have that mechanic, so, don't worry about that.
  
• Mag: The Magic stat measures your character's magic damage output. Unlike the Strength stat, the Magic stat is dependent on magic spells like Fire, or Wind. If the character has a 1 Mag stat, they can do +1 magic damage to the enemy unit. And like the Str stat, the higher the Mag stat, the higher the magic damage a unit can dish out. It also effects the effectiveness on staves as well. For example, if you use a rescue staff, you can reach characters from further away with a higher Mag stat than with a character with a lower Mag stat.
  
• Def: The Defense stat lowers damage from physical attacks. Every time you have 1 point in defense, you can take away the Str damage by 1 point. Or in other words, in a skirmish, let's say you have 15 defense points in your Def stat, and the enemy has 17 points in their strength stat. The enemy attacks with a sword, which his strength stat is then subtracted by your defense stat (17 - 15 = 2), which means you'll take 2 points of damage.
  
• Res: The Resistance stat lowers damage from magical attacks. Every time you have 1 point in resistance, you can take away the Mag damage by 1 point. Like the defense stat, let's say you have 10 defense points in your Res stat, and the enemy has 18 points in their magic stat. The enemy attacks with a Fire, which his magic stat is then subtracted by your resistance stat (18 - 10 = 8), which means you'll take 8 points of magic damage.
  
• Spd: The Speed stat basically measures your, well, units in speed. The higher your speed stat, the more evasive you can become to dodge attacks, and it also measures how much times you can attack. What I mean is, if you have enough points in your speed stat, you can attack the opponent twice in one skirmish. If you have about 4-5 more points in your speed stat than your enemy does, then you can attack twice.
  
• Luck: This affects many things. It can boost your evasion rate (2 Luck = +1 Avoid), lower your opponents critical hit rate (1 Luck = -1 Enemy Crit), and boosts your own hit rate (2 Luck = +1 Hit).
  
• Mov: Essentially how much spaces a unit can move in a turn. If the unit has, say, 5 Mov points, they can move 5 spaces.

Alright now, with all that said, it's time to choose your avatar's asset and flaw on Awakening. If your worried about your character staying alive, then you can have HP has your strength, but I'd also recommend Str or Mag to get your unit to be on the strong side. The flaw can be anything as it's not too detrimental throughout the game, but, I like to choose Luck because.. it's not a huge factor in the early levels, until later on when certain skills come into play.

After you choose your asset and flaw, it's finally time to play on the first level of the game! The guide will continue on the next post!​