Items (アイテム) are various HP-restoring, status-healing, stat-raising, or class-altering possessions that have many different uses and are held in the character's item pocket. It should be noted that in hand-held Fire Emblem games, each character can hold only five weapons and items combined, but in the console Fire Emblem games, each character can hold up to five weapons and five items.
Items can only be used a certain amount of times like weapons, and they disappear completely when used up. Also, in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, lesser healing items (such as Vulneraries) have more uses than more potent healing items (such as Elixirs). In prior games, however, all healing items had exactly the same usage amount. A few items can only be used by certain Classes like Lockpicks which can only be used by thieves, rogues, or assassins to open chests and doors. Some items have no uses; instead they have an effect when held (such as negating enemy critical attacks, like the Iron Rune).
There are several items that do not have durability, and so can not be broken, but are items such as some personal/legendary/important weapons in some games, such as Ragnell and Falchion. But also there are some items (such as the orbs of the Fire Emblem ds games) that are really useful and don't break.
Items can be bought from various armories and shops either on the field or in the battle preparation menu for certain amounts of gold depending on the quality of the item. Items can also be obtained by opening chests on the battlefield, or by standing on certain squares in a map (there is a higher chance of finding these with a higher Luck factor, and this mostly happens on desert maps). Some classes can steal non-weapon items from enemies. However, in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, thieves and rogues could also steal weapons, as long as the enemy did not have it equipped. Some enemies can also drop items when defeated, as indicated with flashing green or red text when viewing their items.
In the Game Boy Advance Fire Emblem games, dropped weapons are dependent on the slot of the enemy's inventory, not the item itself. This is how players can obtain Vaida's "Uber Spear."