Castle

This page is about castles as a mechanic in Genealogy of the Holy War. For their role in other games, see Terrain. For the feature in Fates, see My Castle.

Chalphy Castle in the Final Chapter

In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, the central objective around which gameplay revolves is its castles. Each map has multiple castles, with the goal of the player being to seize all enemy-controlled castles. In addition to castles providing their usual terrain bonuses to units who guard them, they also provide numerous facilities for unit maintenance which in other games are typically found in preparations or bases.

Facilities

Inside Sailane, Chapter 4's home castle

Home castle

In every chapter, the player starts at the chapter's home castle with some or all of their units waiting within it. Units which the player chooses not to use can be left waiting in the home castle, and the player can individually sortie each unit out onto the battlefield with no limitations on how many can be out in the field at a time. The home castle can host up to a total of 24 player units; at the top of the castle menu, the throne is where the Lord character of the current generation is designated (Sigurd or Seliph), and a nearby chair is for a Light Priestess closely connected to the Lord (Deirdre or Julia); the character slots at the top corners of the home castle are reserved for two close associates of the main Lord (Quan and Ethlyn for Sigurd, Oifey and Shannan for Seliph); the remaining twenty units are allocated to the columns of character slots in the lower part of the castle interior. Defending the castle is also necessary, if rarely an issue: if an enemy seizes the home castle, it is an automatic Game Over. To this end, the player can station a unit to guard the castle, and the castle is safe until this unit is killed.

Inside the home castle, the player can use numerous administrative facilities to manage their units. In addition to access to the castle town (see below), the player can set a unit to guard the castle and sortie out onto the battlefield. Within the castle, staves can be used on other units in the castle, gold can be exchanged between compatible units, and dance can be used to refresh every ally in the castle, though all of these actions will expend the unit's action. Additionally, from within the castle, ranged staves have both "Inside" and "Outside" options for targeting; "Inside" targets another ally inside the castle, like 1-range staves, while "Outside" has the same effect of departing the castle and casting from the castle gate and then returning to the castle, which can be manually replicated via the "Depart" command; this enables ranged staves to target units outside the castle, including the castle guard (who cannot be targeted by staves cast from within the castle), but as this requires the caster to depart the castle, it cannot be used if the castle gate is blocked by an enemy. The home castle is the only place in which class change can happen, and the only place in which the Valkyrie Staff can be used to revive a dead unit.

Home castles have another property: units cannot end their turn in front of their home castle. If a player unit tries to end their turn in front of their home castle, they will be forced to either enter the castle or guard it (if there is not a guard assigned already). This occurs even if that unit performs a non-wait action that would otherwise end their turn, such as talking, attacking, or using a staff, and occurs even if the unit does not have Canto. Furthermore, this also applies to the enemy, who are also unable to end their turn in front of their castles without being forced inside; as a result, enemies will never end their turn in front of their own castles, with the exception of units emerging from the castle who have no other tile to go to except the tile in front of the castle due to other units blocking them in. If the tiles immediately around the entrance to a castle are blocked by enemies, a unit emerging from the castle may attack and then return to the castle without inhibiting other units' ability to leave the castle; this allows several units—potentially the entire army—to all attack from the same space in the same turn.

Town

Ced visits Chalphy's town

In all castles other than the home castle, the town is all that is accessible. In the home castle, visiting the town for any length of time will not consume a unit's turn, and can be visited multiple times by the same unit in a single turn.

The contents and facilities of all castle towns in a chapter are identical and carried between each other; for example, all castles share the exact same item shop with the exact same finite list of available items, and buying a weapon from one castle in a chapter also causes it to be unavailable in all other castles.

Weapon repair

The weapon repair shop provides a functionality only otherwise appearing in Fire Emblem: Three Houses: free and near-limitless access to repairing the durability of one's weapons. The fee for repairing a weapon is calculated based on its current remaining uses:

(Worth / total uses) × (total uses − current remaining uses) = Repair cost

Example: The Brave Lance has 50 uses and is worth 8,000G. If it had only 12 uses remaining, the price to repair it would be calculated thus:
(8,000 / 50) × (50 − 12) = 6,080
Thus, the fee to repair the Brave Lance is 6,080G.

If a unit does not have enough money to fully repair a weapon or staff, the blacksmith will restore as many uses as their gold permits.

Pawn shop

The pawn shop is the only means for units to do anything resembling swapping their items between each other. Units can sell any of their items to the pawn shop for half the weapon's worth, placing them in a communal storage box; from there, any unit can buy the item back for its full worth (or equivalent; the price decreases as the weapon's durability lowers) to obtain it for themselves.

Item storage

Main article: Supply convoy

The item storage system provides a personal storage box for a unit's items. Unlike the supply convoy of other games, the storage system is not communal and items cannot be exchanged between units in it. The storage system is administered by Anna, marking her primary appearance in Genealogy of the Holy War.

Arena

Main article: Arena

In a variation on the usual arena, each chapter of Genealogy of the Holy War provides a set of seven arena opponents of increasing difficulty. At any castle town, a unit can challenge this arena for gold rewards and comparatively easy experience gain.

The arena is not available at all in the Prologue or in Chapter 6.

Augury

The augury's services are concerned with providing information about individual units. He can provide information on the visiting unit's love status, their win/loss record (excluding arena matches) and, in the second generation, the identities of the unit's parents.

Vendor

Main article: Vendor

The vendor allows purchase of weapons, staves and occasionally ring items. Unlike most other item shops in the rest of the series, these item shops have only one of each item in stock and further instances cannot be bought from that shop, unless they explicitly list a multiple instance of a given item as available.

List of castles by chapter

Prologue: Birth of a Holy Knight

Chapter 1: Lady of the Forest

Chapter 2: Crisis in Agustria

Chapter 3: Eldigan, the Lionheart

Chapter 4: Dance in the Skies

Chapter 5: Doorway to Destiny

Chapter 6: Inheritors of Light

Chapter 7: Beyond the Desert

Chapter 8: The Wyvern Knights of Thracia

Chapter 9: For Whose Sake

Chapter 10: Light and Dark

Final Chapter: End of the Holy War

See also

• Base
• Preparations