Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a turn-based strategy game, meaning one player takes a turn moving his or her units and attacking the enemy. Then the opponent gets a turn to move his or her team and attack. Because of this, the placement of units and the order in which they attack is of vital importance. Raising the stakes is the fact that when a unit’s Hit Points fall to zero, that unit is lost for the rest of the campaign. Be smart and keep your units healthy if you want to keep them alive.

Unit Types

There are three basic types of units in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon – direct attack, indirect attack and recovery units. Direct-attack units like Knights, Lords and Fighters must occupy the space next to an opponent in order to attack. Indirect-attack units, on the other hand, can do damage to an opponent whilst occupying a space at least two-squares from an enemy unit. Archers and Mages are such units that attack from afar. Plus, some units can use both direct-attack and indirect-attack weapons. Other units, such as Clerics, do not attack enemies, but they are used to heal members of your party.

Weapon Triangle

The three main types of weapons - Axe, Lance and Sword - have strengths and weaknesses against each other. For units that can use more than one type of weapon, the Weapon Triangle is an important system to understand. In the Weapon Triangle, the Sword is greater than the Axe, the Axe is stronger than the Lance and the Lance is superior to the Sword. Knowing this triangle of attributes can save you grief in battle.

Before each confrontation, the Combat Forecast window shows you a predicted outcome of the clash. When a green arrow is shown in the window, your weapon has an advantage over that of your opponent. If a red arrow appears, it means you’re at a disadvantage, and if you can change your weapon, you should.

Reclassing

Each unit is defined by its class - such as Knight, Mage and Archer. A class is equivalent to a job that the character performs and determines the weapons that character can use. New in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is the ability for some characters to change their classes and take on a new role in the game. Each unit has a range of other classes that it can change to. This Reclassing Units ability can become important as you progress through the game and begin to lose some of your key team members. Don’t like your character’s new role? No worries. The character can change back to its original class as well.

Forge Weapons

Give your weapons more of an edge. Returning to the Fire Emblem franchise is the ability to upgrade weapons through forging. Before the battle begins, you can select Forge from the Armory section and spend gold to upgrade a weapon. You can also take the opportunity to rename that weapon.