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A Skirmish (Challenge in Awakening and Fates) is a battle outside the main story that first appeared in Fire Emblem Gaiden.
Overview[]
Skirmishes are battles that, unlike a sidestory battle such as a Paralogue, have no narrative significance. Most frequently seen in games with a world map, they most often take the form of optional battles against randomly spawned bands of enemies that roam the map. These battles typically offer the player opportunities to earn experience for their units, gold, and items.
Gaiden/Shadows of Valentia[]
Skirmishes first appeared in Fire Emblem Gaiden, and later appeared in its remake, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. Skirmishes in these games take different contexts, with two types of battles that can be repeated, and another where the enemy attacks the Lord character. The first encountered in the game are in Shrines. Most Shrines have at least one enemy encounter. A note to make is Gaiden is the only game where Alm and Celica may move freely like in traditional RPGs. When a room with an encounter is entered a battle starts. Battles of this nature are also encountered in the Lost Woods.
On the map there are also Graveyards and other areas that always trigger a skirmish when moved to. These are generally graveyards, often housing Monster units.
The third kind is when the active lord is attacked by the enemy. Enemy commanders may send their own small squads after the lords and can be spawned indefinitely. These squads move around the map on their own. If one of the lords are attacked in this manner, the enemy goes first.
The Sacred Stones[]
After completing Chapter 8 of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, monsters will begin to emerge throughout Magvel in any area with a simple circle as a stop point. Up to three groups of monsters may appear, although starting at one and increasing slowly by an additional count as the player progresses through the campaign. Any shops and armories in the area will be disabled until the monsters are removed. With the exception of Neleras Peak, all areas have the potential of having Fog of War.
Visiting the Tower of Valni or Lagdou Ruins will despawn any monsters roaming Magvel, although upon leaving, more will take their place in random areas.
In Creature Campaign, monsters will appear immediately without having to visit either location once the last group of monsters are eliminated.
In some areas of the map, monsters can be quite notorious for blocking off specific areas of the map. If the player tries to reach a destination blocked by a monster, the lord will try to make their way there, only to be stopped upon reaching a monster group. To start a skirmish, simply move the lord right onto the monster location.
Ephraim and Eirika are not required for monster skirmishes.
Monster skirmishes do not usually yield much apart from experience. This usually comes in paltry sums of gold or in other cases, a secondary weapon. Tier one monsters will usually have a secondary D or C rank weapon in this case; the only exception is the melee-using Bonewalker, who may have a Runesword on the side. While monster weapon ranks are capped at C for tier one, any Bonewalkers carrying Runeswords will have their sword rank raised to A to use them. Tier 2 monsters in skirmishes will usually carry D or C rank weapons, apart from melee-using Wights who can also use Runeswords.
Skirmishes at Melkaen Coast are particularly notable for an Elder Bael at the north-east corner which usually carries a valuable item, although it may not, have something of lower value or may need to be stolen. Skirmishes at Neleras Peak are notable for the ability to pull off the Enemy control glitch, especially the "Hammerne" variant.
Awakening[]
Starting after completing Chapter 3 of Fire Emblem Awakening, the world map will randomly spawn a Risen unit on a completed location after completing a chapter/paralogue or after a set amount of time. Players can also use Reeking Boxes to summon a Risen on the same location that they are standing on. Risen level and class will depend on the location of that the Risen appears on. This restriction does not apply to Risen summoned through the box on Lunatic and Lunatic+ modes, which will simply spawn any group of powerful Risen. Only one Risen group can be summoned through a Reeking Box; it cannot be used if something else is on the spot (another Risen group, SpotPass team, Merchant).
If a Risen group appears in the same location with another group present there, the amount of enemies are doubled, but upon completion the player is rewarded with 3,000 Gold and a random item, usually being a stat boosting item, Rank A physical weapon or Rank B magical weapon/stave.
If a Risen group appears in a spot with a Merchant, the Merchant will act as an ally, and if she survives the battle, will give the player a reward. If she dies, she will disappear along with the Risen group. The Merchant is usually weak, and will often require protection whether it be a wall of units or a Rescue stave, as the Risen will easily kill her due to her poor stats.
If a Risen group appears in a spot with a SpotPass team, the SpotPass team will act as your ally and will stay if their commander is alive; otherwise they will disappear along with the Risen if the commander falls in battle.
The enemies in the group varies, but are usually linked with the commander's class. For example, if Risen appear and their commander is a Trickster, most of the enemies will be either Tricksters or Assassins, since their base class is Thief (and those two classes are its promotions). In the case of War Monks (their base class being a non-combat), most of the enemies will usually be War Monks or Valkyries.
Rewards include small bullion, weapons and stat-boosting items. Only Risen commanders that are of the Berserker, Warrior, Thief, Trickster and Assassin classes will give stat-boosting items; all other classes will simply reward the player with their weapon instead. In the event that the enemy commander has a forged weapon, they will drop an unforged version of their weapon upon death.
Like in Sacred Stones, Chrom is not required for deployment for Skirmishes.
Fates[]
Like in the games listed above, the world maps in the Birthright and Revelation routes of Fire Emblem Fates will randomly have pockets of ruffians gathering at a completed chapter location after completing a chapter/Paralogue or after a set amount of time.
Players can "scout" for ruffian groups by paying gold, the amount depending on game difficulty and the overall difficulty of that area. For example, if Kana's Paralogue was completed very early at the start, the ruffians there would be a lower level. Meanwhile, if it was done very late in the game (Chapter 26 and higher), the ruffians there would have levels varying from 16-20.
Like in the main storyline, the enemies can be captured and thrown into the Prison. However, their stats are slightly lower then those on the main route, and will only carry skills that their classes can normally learn (from pre-promote classes that it promotes into). For example, a Merchant, whose pre-promotes are the Villager and Apothecary classes, may have Underdog even though their base class is Apothecary.
Compared to skirmishes in Awakening, enemies in skirmishes can carry any skill from their base classes. On harder chapter locations, they will also carry forged weapons, even on Normal Mode. This applies to all weapons except for B-Rank thrown and A-Rank weapons. In addition, the amount of enemies seems to be lowered drastically, although players are able to scout for two groups at one location compared to Awakening where the only way to get two groups in one spot was through luck.
In Paralogues, the strength of the ruffians there are based on when it was completed.
Rewards include gold in quantities of 1,000, and rarely, stat-boosting items, staves or small healing items. Such items are only dropped by ruffian commanders that are of the Adventurer, Master Ninja, Outlaw and Ninja classes. Unlike Awakening where the enemy commander would drop a normal weapon, the enemy commanders in Fates do not drop their weapon.
Like in Sacred Stones and Awakening, Corrin is not required for deployment in Skirmishes.
Three Houses[]
Fire Emblem: Three Houses features Auxiliary Battles, which are functionally similar to skirmishes in previous games in that they are optional battles that the player can engage in for experience and rewards. While there is no world map in Three Houses, the game instead employs a calendar system where, during each in-game week, the player is given the option of participating in Auxiliary Battles. On Normal difficulty, the player may repeat these battles as often as desired, but on higher difficulties, the player has a limited number of times they may engage in such battles during a given calendar week.
Engage[]
Fire Emblem Engage features a world map with skirmishes, but does not feature random enemy spawns that wander the game's world map. Instead, skirmishes will randomly spawn on maps the player has previously cleared.
Trivia[]
- Unlike every other Skrimish location in The Sacred Stones Melkaen Coast has no corresponding chapter in the story. It was presumably Eirika's planned landing point in her journey to Rausten.
- In the Revelation route in Fates, human enemies will appear in skirmishes at Valla rather then Vallites despite being closed off from the rest of the world. While this can be considered a developer oversight, this is likely due to the fact that half of the Revelation route takes place on the main continent and the rest of it being in Valla itself. That means if the player instead fights Vallites, there would be no way to Capture them outside of hacking the game, therefore normal ruffians attack the player so they can capture them.
- The enemies encountered in Fates have skills of their class, like in Awakening, although with a few exceptions:
- Enemies such as Onmyojis may have Miracle (obtainable through Monk/Shrine Maiden), even though upon capturing them, they have a base class of Diviner instead.
- Enemy Mechanists never carry the Apothecary's base skills, Potent Potion and Quick Salve, even though the Mechanist's pre-promotes are the Apothecary and Ninja class. This is odd considering that other enemies, such as generic Heroes, can occasionally be found with Gamble and HP +5, even though upon being captured, they only have access to the Mercenary base.