23 Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave beginner tips to help you defy fate

Below, we've laid out 23 essential Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave beginner tips to help get you started.

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Do your weekly activities every week

Weekly activities in Fortune's Weave are the backbone of progression. Meals at the inn and giving gifts are how you raise support to recruit new units. Training at the arena helps you increase skill levels so you can pass exams for new classes, and performing temple service unlocks new blessings. There are other weekly activities, though these are the most important. Make sure to return to Dagsion once a week to do them.

Return to Dagsion to force enemy respawns

If you just want more fights, go back to Dagsion to shuffle the available enemies on the world map. Dietrich can use Answerer's special ability to make enemies appear nearby on any map spot, too, and their level will be roughly the same as other random mobs that spawn in that area.

Check the in-game calendar

Press the Plus button to open the menu, and scroll over to the calendar. You'll see upcoming events, matches at the arena you can spectate for skill points, what the inn is serving, which plays are running, and character birthdays if you've begun a bond with them by giving them at least one gift. The calendar shows the next several days ahead, so you can plan with plenty of time.

Don't skip out on paralogues

Paralogues start appearing in September, and completing them is a way to make sure that character — usually one of the Flame Lords, with one or two exceptions — joins you in Act 3 as a guest character without you having to complete their entire first act. The other, non-playable Flame Lords also have paralogues, and the same applies to them. The trouble is timing. Paralogues pop up without fanfare, and they have very short deadlines. Like, sometimes you'll just get a few days. It's not easy to get them all on a single route, but you can replay later or get a few in one route and the others in another if you want to do them all.

Auto-activities are a valid way to spend time

If there's absolutely nothing else you want to do with your free time, head to the inn and choose auto-activities. You can send your team out to search for items, fight, or train, for a set number of turns. Depending on what you chose for them, they'll come back with class, combat, and skill experience, or search items and gold.

Go to church

The city map, accessed by pressing the ZR button, shows icons for different vendors and important locations. When those are a yellow-y gold-ish color, it indicates there's something new or important happening there. For temples, it means the enshrined deity is holding public audiences. Attend them to get a free renown boost of about 50 points without taking up any time or turns.

And serve the gods

Temple service increases your reputation level with the god of that temple, and that's how you unlock new blessings. These are entirely optional, but if you're playing on hard mode, they're still pretty essential. Aurora's blessing halves physical damage taken for one turn and, at rank two, magical damage as well. You can increase hit rates and magic range, nullify bonus damage (like when an archer shoots at a flying unit), and quite a few other things, which lets you take more risks in battle or just save yourself from a less than ideal choice. Just bear in mind that using these costs Divine Sand, the same currency you use to rewind time on hard mode.

You can check your units' stat growth potential

If you open a character's information panel, you'll see two sets of stats. The top one is combat stats, the raw numbers that translate to damage, defense, and all that in battle. The bottom set is basic stats. This one shows your character's growth inclinations and, if applicable, the modifiers that are influencing them in their current class or with a specific accessory. These base stats show you where your character is most likely to grow when they level up. One with a base strength of 17 and magic of 24, for example, is probably going to keep excelling in magic and would do better in a mage or healer role.

Don't ignore the build stat

Speaking of stats, the build stat is back from Fire Emblem Engage, and it's an important one to pay attention to. Characters with higher build suffer fewer speed penalties from using heavier weapons. It makes the biggest difference with medium-build and smaller characters.

Tialla, the mage in Cai's path, for example, has a build stat of 1. Even with her high speed stat growth, she typically only gets to attack one in combat with any tome that isn't wind (the lightest of the black magic tomes). It also makes her more vulnerable to double attacks from enemies. However, if you raise her build stat with an accessory like the Giant's Ring or a mount's paired ability, the boost lets her handle stronger magic more safely and efficiently.

Read up on everyone's personal skills

Each character has a personal skill that influences how they fight, and you should be aware of what they are before a battle starts. Ultand's ability lets her restore a small amount of HP to adjacent units after they fight, for example, so it's best to keep her right next to allies or in the middle of a group of them. Fabio's reduces evasion for adjacent foes, so he's ideal in a more aggressive role, while Io and his little pony love each other so much that Io gains evasion and defense buffs when he attacks as a cavalry unit. You don't have to build or plan around these if you don't want to, but it's worth keeping in mind either way.

Recruit at least a handful of additional units

Act 1 lulls you into a false sense of security with its low unit caps for each battle. You frequently have guests joining you for Heroic Games trials, too. Act 2 bumps that unit cap up per mission to 15, and while you don't need that many, it certainly helps you deal with the hordes of enemies bearing down on you then.

Clear a full Act 1 before starting another

Yes, you can pause one Flame Lord's first act and start another whenever you want, but it's much more convenient to finish one completely before starting another. All subquests you completed on the first arc will count as completed in this one. You don't have to repeat them this way, and you get the gold, rewards, and renown from them at the start of each chapter. Every part of the world map you explored in the completed arc will be visible in the new one, too.

Splash out with your Karma Shards

You earn Karma Shards for completing in-game challenges, like viewing a set number of support conversations or defeating X number of enemies. Head back to the Obelisk Chamber occasionally to see how many you have, and go to the Shrine of Causality at the back of the room to spend them. You can get things like discounts on weapons or gift items or even reductions in the Divine Sand cost for certain blessings.

You can replay chapters

Once you finish an arc, you can interact with the obelisk and replay any of its chapters whenever you want. Stat and roster changes will carry over to Act 2, though, so bear that in mind before making too many wild changes.

Upgraded weapons are often better than new ones

Gold is not easy to come by, so before you go spending what little you have on every iron weapon a vendor stocked, think about upgrading your bronze ones at the blacksmith instead. It's much less expensive, and an upgraded weapon of a lower power tier performs just about as well as an unimproved weapon of a higher tier. Plus you keep more money aside to spend on gifts for recruiting characters.

Repeat dungeon crawls

Dungeons are where you'll find smithing stones and rare minerals for enhancing or repairing weapons. If you're upgrading a lot or just need materials to sell for cash, head inside these to gather them. It's not bad for leveling up units, either, and if you skip skirmishes or use auto-battle, it goes even faster.

Even when you're broke, don't sell your rare veggies without seeing if you can exchange them for a rare item at the Vandahl Trading Company first.

Do the sidequests

People pop up at the start of every chapter with requests, and no matter how tedious they may seem, you should do them. It's an essential way to gain renown, and you pad your pockets, too.

Unlock carriages as soon as you can

When you first visit a region on the world map, make sure to stop by the carriage house. These are fast travel points that carry you across large swathes of Dagda for a few hundred gold and just a single turn.

Don't forget the world map preview feature

If you forget what a shop at the end of the world has for sale, you don't have to go there to find out. Hover over it with the cursor and press ZL to bring up a preview of what's there so you know whether it's worth the trouble.

Stuck on a gift? A meal might have your answer

Some of Fortune's Weave's character descriptions aren't the most helpful for guiding you in the right gift direction. What, for example, do you give someone who likes sad people or food from home? One way to find out at least one thing they like is by seeing the foods they enjoy when you invite them to a meal at the inn. Jester only likes sweet foods, and it turns out he enjoys pastries as gifts too. Simon lights up when veggie dishes are served, and he loves all things vegetable as gifts.

You can always save before delivering a gift

If you're unsure whether someone will like a gift you're giving, and you don't want to waste it or use a guide, save before handing it over. Fortune's Weave only has one save file, but it won't autosave immediately after you give a gift, which means you can reload, pop back in, and pretend it never happened.

Levels matter, a lot

This is true in combat, of course, since being underleveled puts you at a stat disadvantage. But it's also important when you're unlocking new classes. Even if your skill levels are where they need to be, your chances of passing will remain low until you're within two or three levels of that class tier's target level.

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If you're new to Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, we can help you navigate the complex paths of causality. We have put together explainers on which character you should pick first, how to change heroes, and if you should play in casual or classic mode, so you can set up the campaign according to your preferences.

Fortune's Weave is a massive game, that's why we explain how long it will take for you to finish it. As you progress through the initial Heroic Games matches, you should focus on recruiting more characters, unlocking Boons of Salvation, and spending free time in the best way possible. Just don't forget to visit the Perch and have a quick Bird Time session.