Objectives

The status menu in The Sacred Stones explains a chapter's objective.

In every chapter or skirmish in the Fire Emblem series, the player is tasked with achieving a certain objective (Japanese: 目的 objective) or victory condition (Japanese: 勝利条件 victory condition) in order to clear the map.

Common objectives

Seize

The first objective the series offered, and an extremely common one since, is seizing: the aim being to have the player's main character arrive at a certain point on the map and end the chapter by selecting the Seize command once standing on top of it. In the majority of games, seize points are thrones in the heart of a castle or fort in interior maps, or the gates of a castle or fort in exterior maps, although Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, and the prologue maps of Shadow Dragon vary this by having seize points be a space of otherwise innocuous terrain which happens to be marked by a blue glow (Tellius) or yellow glow (Shadow Dragon). Seize points are almost always occupied by the chapter's boss, requiring that the player's army defeat them before they can seize; this task is made more daunting by how typical seize points give their occupier defensive, resistance, and avoidance boosts and heal the occupier at the beginning of their turn.

Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn feature an objective similar to seize called "Arrive"; it differs from seize in that the player army's commander is not necessarily the character who must arrive. In Path of Radiance, any unit may arrive, while in Radiant Dawn, the unit that must arrive differs by chapter—for example, the playable character Laura must arrive in Part I, Chapter 2, while the Part III, Prologue's goal is to have Skrimir – an NPC character – arrive. Arrive also appears in Episode IV of the New Archanea Saga bonus chapters in Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, where Nyna must arrive at a particular fort; unlike the Tellius games, the condition is met when Nyna ends her turn on the designated space, rather than performing a dedicated command.

In Fire Emblem Fates, similar to the arrive objective in Path of Radiance, any character can seize.

Seize objectives are the only objectives in Mystery of the Emblem and Genealogy of the Holy War; the latter uniquely requires that multiple castles be successively seized in the same chapter, with each castle seized opening the way to the next until the player's army reaches the map's final castle. Also, it is the only objective in The Binding Blade, with the exception of the Endgame and the trial maps; and the only one in Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light and its remake, Shadow Dragon, with the exception of the Endgame, as well as the multiplayer maps in the latter.

Rout the enemy

Rout simply requires that every enemy unit currently on the map be defeated in order to clear the chapter. If reinforcements appear, they must also be defeated.

Rout first appeared as an objective in Fire Emblem Gaiden, and serves as the objective in the majority of the battles in it and its remake, Shadows of Valentia. Additionally, all skirmish situations also have a rout objective.

Chapter 2 of Cindered Shadows features an unusual form of the rout objective in which the objective was to "Rout all the enemies except the Death Knight". Even though the Death Knight does not need to be defeated in order to clear the map, the player can still fight and defeat him if they so choose.

Defeat the boss

Worded as "defeat the enemy commander" in Shadows of Valentia and Three Houses, this objective is effectively a typical seize objective minus one step: the goal is simply to kill the enemy boss, and doing so automatically ends the chapter. This objective does not require that all other enemies be defeated as well. In Engage, it is worded to directly indicate who needs to be defeated, even if there are multiple commanders to be defeated, for instance as "Defeat Lumera" in Chapter 2, the first instance of such an objective in the game. The sole exception is Chapter 17, where due to the large number of enemy commanders, it is simply worded as "Defeat all six enemy commanders."

In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Chapter 16 of non-Crimson Flower routes and Chapter 17 of the Azure Moon and Verdant Wind routes have multiple bosses, and the objective is expanded to "defeat all enemy commanders". These otherwise function the same as other "defeat the boss" chapters.

Additionally, in Three Houses, NPC units are incapable of defeating bosses when the map objective is "defeat boss" and there is only one boss to be defeated, likely to prevent them from ending the chapter without giving the player a chance to Divine Pulse. If their attack would otherwise reduce the boss to 0 HP, the boss will survive with 1 HP and combat will immediately end, skipping over all remaining attacks for that round of combat.

Defend or survive

Defensive objectives task the player with enduring an enemy siege for a set number of turns (often between 7 and 15 turns), and the emphasis is on maintaining the defenses of their location to avoid being overwhelmed and defeated, rather than taking an active offensive against the enemy (though in most cases, doing so is certainly possible). Maps termed "defend" typically require the player to prevent enemies from seizing an area or killing NPCs, while "survive" maps generally lack such objectives. Some defense maps can be won prematurely by defeating the chapter boss. In addition, all defense maps in Three Houses and Heroes are automatically won if the player successfully routs the enemy.

The deaths of particular units has been a Game Over condition in every game in the series since the first, and each chapter of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War features a home castle that must be defended from enemies attempting to seize it. Defensive victory conditions were introduced Fire Emblem: Archanea Saga, where each episode required the player to survive the broadcast; they were introduced to the main series in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, and were relatively common until games after Radiant Dawn did not continue to include them.

The following maps are defensive maps. An asterisk (*) indicates that the chapter can also be completed by defeating the boss:

• Fire Emblem: Thracia 776: Chapters 14, 20
• Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade: Chapters 4, 13x, 15H, 17E/18H*, 21E/22H*, 24E/26H, 26E/28H, 29E/31H
• Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones: Chapters 13A*, 10B*, 19*
• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance: Chapters 5, 8, 13, 17 (Area 3), Trial Maps 3 and 6
• Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn: Part I Chapter 5 (Normal and Hard), Part II Prologue, Part II Endgame*, Part III Chapter 5*, Part III Chapter 7, Part III Chapter 13*
• Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest Chapter 10, Ghostly Gold, Vanguard Dawn
• Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia: Lords of the Grave, Siege of Zofia Castle
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Land of the Golden Deer*, Falling Short of Heaven, The Secret Merchant
• Fire Emblem Heroes: Book I Chapter 10 Parts 1, 3, and 4, Book I Chapter 11 Part 3, Book I Chapter 13 Part 3, Book II Chapter 2 Part 5, Book II Chapter 4 Part 5, Book II Chapter 5 Part 2 (Lunatic only), Book II Chapter 7 Part 5, Book IV Chapter 9 Part 5, Book V Chapter 3 Part 5, Book V Chapter 7 Part 5, Book V Chapter 13 Part 2, Book VI Chapter 3 Parts 1 and 5, Book VII Chapter 8 Part 5, Paralogue 10 Part 1

Escape

Escape objectives require the player to reach a point with a number of units; maps with escape objectives typically feature enemy units that are much stronger than the players or that greatly outnumber them. How many units or which units must escape varies by game and by chapter: in Thracia 776, Path of Radiance, and Radiant Dawn, the main character is the only unit that must escape; while in later games, depending on the chapter, every unit must escape.

Escape was introduced in Thracia 776, and has appeared somewhat infrequently since. In Thracia 776, escape has an additional mechanic: any player unit who does not leave from the escape tile before Leif will be considered captured and removed from the player's party. As with other captured units, the player has an opportunity to get these units back in Chapter 21x. Similarly, in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn (except during chapter 1 of the latter game), bonus experience is given out for every additional unit that escapes besides the main character.

• Fire Emblem: Thracia 776: Chapters 4, 4x, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13, 14x, 16B, 19, 21x, 24x
• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance: Chapters 6, 10
• Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn: Part I, Chapters 1 (Normal and Hard), 3 (Normal and Hard)
• Fire Emblem Fates:
  • Birthright Chapter 12; Corrin must be brought to the escape point.
  • Conquest Chapter 12; Corrin must be brought to the escape point within 16 turns or the boss must be defeated.
  • Conquest Chapter 15; all deployed units must escape within 20 turns or the boss must be defeated.
  • Conquest Chapter 21; all deployed units must escape.
  • Revelation Chapter 19; all deployed units must escape within 20 turns or the boss must be defeated.
  • Hidden Truths 2; all deployed units must escape.
• Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia:
  • Outpost Rescue; in addition to player characters Lukas, Forsyth, and Python, the player must also rescue 3 NPC Soldiers.
  • Flight from the Ruins; all units must escape.
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Cindered Shadows Chapter 4; all deployed units must be brought to the second gate within 10 turns.
• Fire Emblem Engage:
  • Chapter 11: Alear must be brought to the escape point.
  • Chapter 15: Seadall must be brought to the escape point.

Unusual objectives

Occasionally, individual chapters in a game may have an entirely unique objective that does not appear elsewhere in the series.

• In Chapter 15 of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, the goal is simply to have Leif choose one of two alternate routes by arriving at one of two seize points or by visiting a house in the center of the map.
• Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade has numerous unique objectives:
  • The objective of Chapter 6 is to find a set of switches to open up a passageway into Castle Araphen; this objective type resurfaces in Chapter 25 of Hector's tale under the name "score 3 points" involving seizing three fortresses with any character of the player's choice. Chapter 28 of Eliwood's tale and Chapter 30 of Hector's tale have similar switches guarded by the chapter boss, but the main lord must end his turn on that switch to complete the chapter.
  • In 16xE/17xH, the goal is to fight through a pirate horde and reach their boss, Fargus, but the player is supposed to talk to him to clear the chapter. Fighting or killing him instead results in a Game Over.
  • 29xE/31xH involves no conflict at all, and instead gives the player several turns to stock up on weapons and items at Ostia's armories and vendors. It is effectively a survive chapter with no enemies to survive against, except possibly Karla and the fighters in the arena.
• In Part III, Chapter 3 of Radiant Dawn, the goal is to navigate the map and set fire to bundles of supplies on the map within a time limit.
• In Part III, Chapter 6 and Part III, Chapter 12 of Radiant Dawn, the objective is to defeat a set number of enemies. This objective appears again in Chapter 6 of Fates: Conquest, where the player must defeat 4 enemies.
• Similar to the above, Part III, Endgame requires a certain number of units to be defeated; this chapter differs in that these units may be of any affiliation.
• In Chapter 22 of Engage, the objective is to reclaim all twelve Emblem Rings from various enemies.

Multiple objectives

A map may have multiple conditions for victory. Depending on the map, victory may result from meeting any one of the conditions, or only once they have all been met. For instance, Chapter 19 of The Sacred Stones is a defend map that player wins once 13 turns have passed, but they player may also win by defeating Riev; conversely, Chapter 20 of Thracia 776 requires the player to defend for at least 15 turns and to defeat the boss, while Chapter 22 of Engage requires the player to retrieve twelve Emblem Rings and rout the enemy. The first map with multiple conditions was the final chapter of Mystery of the Emblem Book II, which requires the player to defeat Medeus, then seize the throne; unlike most bosses, who must be defeated by virtue of guarding their seize points, Medeus does not defend the throne, rather his defeat unlocks the seize command.

Hidden or changing objectives

Infrequently, one or more objectives may be hidden from the player or may change partway through a map. While hidden objectives usually apply at all times, an objective that changes usually only applies once the change has taken place, meaning it is possible to clear the map based on the initial objective. Rarely, changes in the objectives displayed to the player do not reflect changes in the true conditions to end the map, usually because the new condition was previously hidden.

Examples of hidden or changing objectives include:

• Genealogy of the Holy War: Chapter 5, where the stated objective is to seize Belhalla, but the true objective is for Sigurd to talk to Aida. However, due to a developer oversight, the initial true objective is to seize Velthomer, and only changes once Aida arrives; additionally, if glitches are used to seize the otherwise inaccessible Belhalla, the chapter will still clear.
• Path of Radiance: Chapter 27 Stage 2, where the objective is displayed as "???"; the true objective is to escape, defeat the Black Knight, or survive for 5 turns.
• Radiant Dawn: Part III Endgame, where the stated objective is rout, while the true objective is for 80 units to be defeated.
• Three Houses: Chapter 14 of routes other than Crimson Flower, where the initial condition is rout, but can change to defeat boss.
• Three Houses: Foreign Land and Sky, where the initial objective is rout or arrive, but changes to rout later.

Failure conditions

Most chapters feature a failure condition, though several chapters have multiple; when any failure condition is met, the player experiences a Game Over.

The most common failure condition is the defeat of a protagonist; this is sometimes extended to important non-protagonists, such as Sothe through Part I of Radiant Dawn, or Merlinus in Chapter 13x of The Blazing Blade. Preventing the defeat of important characters is a failure condition in the vast majority of chapters. While some or all protagonists must be deployed in most chapters, not deploying them when possible—such as in skirmishes or in games with multiple protagonists (e.g. Robin may be left out of most battles in Awakening)—is not a failure condition. In cases where no protagonists are deployed, the player's army being routed becomes the new default failure condition. This is also the case for Fates on Casual Mode; on that mode, Corrin's defeat does not result in a Game Over.

In addition to defending characters, some chapters—typically those with defend objectives—task the player with defending an area, and will fail accordingly if an enemy reaches the area to defend. For instance, every chapter in Genealogy of the Holy War requires the player to defend a home castle, and Chapter 10 of Fates: Conquest requires the player to protect the north area near where they deploy.

Some chapters require the player to achieve victory in some number of turns; contrary to defend or survive chapters, where reaching a certain turn results in victory, reaching a certain turn in these such chapters results in defeat. Some chapters with turn limits are Chapter 24 of Path of Radiance, Chapter III-1 of Radiant Dawn, and Chapter 24 of Engage; additionally, every battle in Three Houses has a 99-turn limit. Rather than achieving total victory within a turn limit, some chapters require one or more sub-objectives to be achieved within a turn limit, but impose no limit on achieving further objectives; for example, Cindered Shadows Chapter 6 from Three Houses requires the player to dismiss four vortices within 20 turns, but imposes no limit (beyond the universal 99-turn limit) on defeating the boss.

Rarely, a chapter may require that a unit be prevented from leaving the map, typically an important boss that must be defeated—this is contrary to typical requirements, where enemies leaving the map contributes to the rout objective. In Fates, Asugi (an NPC) attempts to escape in the paralogue Saizo vs. Saizo; while in Three Houses, Judith (the boss, who must be defeated) attempts to escape in Crimson Flower Chapter 13. Additionally, while not a failure condition per se, some Thieves in Mystery of the Emblem and New Mystery of the Emblem will attempt to escape carrying some Astral Shards or the Geosphere; their escape does not cause a game over, but does prevent the player from obtaining those items, thus locking into the bad ending on Chapter 20.

In Three Houses and Engage, if the player has charges left for their turn rewind mechanics, a rewind will activate when a failure condition is met, allowing the player to attempt to prevent the failure.

Etymology and other languages

References