There’s a lot to do and learn in Fire Emblem: Awakening, but if you need some simple and solid advice before beginning your epic adventure, we’ve got your sorted.

1. Study The In-Game Guide¶

If you’re new to Fire Emblem or need a refresher course, we recommend referring to the game’s own guide if you need help understanding the basics.

You can access the guide during a mission by opening the system menu (press A on an empty space) and going to the “Guide” section or by pressing L when in the preparations menu.

The guide is straightforward and easy to understand, with lots of pretty diagrams.

For technical help, you can check the game’s digital manual from the home menu of your 3DS or 2DS.

2. Recruit Everybody¶

In past Fire Emblem games, it wasn’t always easy to recruit every possible character. However things are more straightforward in this game.

When a mission begins, keep your eyes peeled for suspicious enemy or NPC characters on the field or dialogue. The boss withstanding, any enemy with an unique face and name can probably be recruited – usually by Chrom.

Recruiting characters has a number of benefits, ranging from more characters to pick from, increased variety of personalities and some characters are used to recruit other characters. Plus you don’t want to feel bad when you check this guide and find out you just stabbed Tharja in the face, when you could have recruited her.

3. Check The Enemy’s Range¶

Press A on an enemy unit to display that enemy’s movement and attack range. To view every enemy unit’s movement/attack range at once, press the X button.

It may sound obvious but if your character isn’t in the enemy’s range at the end of your turn, then the enemy won’t be able to attack your character.

Keep track of the enemy’s range and make sure your weaker units or healers are outside of them before you end your turn. This will prevent a lot of unnecessary deaths.

You can also use this information to lure in enemies, by sticking your sturdy or dodgy units at the edge of an enemy’s range.

4. Don’t Be Afraid To Grind¶

While we don’t endorse senseless grinding in this game, when the going gets tough, don’t forget that there are options to grind levels and make your characters stronger.

The further you progress along the game, the tougher the enemies become and it can be easy for characters to fall behind – especially the new recruits, like Donnel.

When this occurs, try fighting the Risen enemies that randomly appear on the world map; the earlier the location they spawn, the weaker they will be. You can also force the Risen to appear by using the Reeking Box, found in some shops (although they cost a lot on Hard mode and above).

5. Reset When Things Go Downhill¶

It might be cheating for some, but if playing on Classic mode and a battle is going downhill, with multiple casualties, it might be a wise decision to throw in the towel and start from the beginning of the mission again.

For one, Fire Emblem is a lengthy game and, while you get a lot of characters through the course of the game, the game will become progressively longer and harder if you keep losing your well-trained units.

Secondly, if you struggled so much during the mission, it’s possible you’ve done something wrong and you might need time to reflect on how to improve your strategy. Were your characters just not strong enough? If so, swap them out for stronger ones or train them in optional battles.

Of course, if you only lost one character – and one you’re not really bothered about losing – and you’re right at the end of the mission, you might as well just finish the mission and call it a day; send your grievances to the poor soldier’s family.