Part 91: Lesson Two: Weapon Triangle

Fire Emblem Basics

Lesson Two: Weapon Triangle

The Weapon Triangle is a staple of Fire Emblem combat. Melee weapons are usually broken into three groups: Lance, Axe, and Sword. Lance beats Swords, Swords beats Axes, and Axes beat Lances. The biggest benefit for being on the right side of the weapon triangle is negating weapon rank bonuses. So just carrying a Bronze Sword against an A-rank Axe negates the +1 Atk/+10 hit rate bonus.

Having the appropriate counter-weapon isn't enough, though. Mastery of the weapon gives greater bonuses when you have advantage over the enemy's weapon type.



Starting out with a mere E in Weapons only gives +5 hit when facing Axe wielders while decreasing the enemy's hit by 5. Just by jumping to D rank, the hit increase doubles while doing the same to the enemy. Of course, the opposite applies to the enemy as well so make sure to check their Weapon Rank.

Basically, don't worry about facing opposing E-rank weapon users if you're deciding between a Silver Lance or a Bronze Sword. A dead enemy doesn't have any weapon ranks by the end.



Fred here will take on the Armor Knight. From the last lesson, we can calculate that the Knight should have 80 hit (Knight's Hit minus Fred's Avo) on him.



But wait, the Knight only has 65. That's -10 hit thanks to Fred being in B for the Weapon Triangle, plus negating the A-rank Lance bonus of 5 hit. So in total -15 hit is gone. Fred can deal 2 damage despite the Knight's high defense thanks to +1 from B-rank weapon triangle.



The Knight's hit dramatically rises on a neutral Weapon fight. Fred still gets to deal 2 damage despite lesser Might from a Bronze Lances thanks to the A-rank bonus (+2 atk).



Fred takes the most damage when equipped with a Bronze Sword, and the Knight is practically guaranteed to hit. The difference from the Bronze Axe to Sword illustrates the importance of the triangle.



Now the last explanation are Effective Weapons. These special type of weapons have a picture of a head (Dragon, Knight, Horse, Pegasus) at the far right of the weapon's name and triple the Might of the weapon before striking.

The Hammer is a 10 Might weapon but when used against armored units like the Knight and Great Knights, it's now a 30 Might weapon. Coupled with the Weapon triangle bonus, the Knight's 19 defense can't prevent its death (Fred's 16 str+30 Might+1 Triangle Bonus-19 defense=28 damage).

The Armorslayer only has 8 Might and is further nerfed in damage as the receiver of the triangle, but it can't deter triple might. Carrying these weapons can be the key for easy victories. For context, only one other weapon in the entire game goes over 20 Might (Which the Armorslayer still beats during effective damage) so always carry some when they are available.