Fire Emblem Heroes is out now for iOS and Android, but there’s a lot that the game doesn’t teach you in the opening tutorial, namely on the subject of levelling up your heroes and unlocking their potential.
To get the best army in Fire Emblem Heroes , you’ll either have to be really lucky while summoning heroes or you can grind it out and raise your characters to become even stronger.
We’ve compiled this guide to explain how leveling up your heroes works, and how to unlock their potential. This guide will also explain what materials you’ll need and how to obtain them.
LEVELING UP
Heroes in Fire Emblem Heroes begin at level 1 when you either summon them or win them in Special Maps.
It’ll be up to you to level them up to grow their strength. Heroes gain experience when initiating or defending (and surviving) a battle. However, the most experience is granted for defeating a particular enemy.
It needs to be noted that if your hero is at a higher level than the enemy, the experience gained will be minimal, and in some cases you won’t gain experience at all. The best way to gain the most experience is to face off against opponents at a higher level than you.
Each level up increases the hero’s stats (at random) and you’ll gain Skill Points (SP) for each level up, which go into learning new skills to make your hero even stronger.
MERGING ALLIES
Sometimes you’ll get multiple heroes of the same name. They can either be of the same rank or a lower/higher rank than the hero you originally obtained.
With only 200 slots to hold heroes, you’ll want to convert some of the heroes you aren’t using. In Fire Emblem Heroes this is called Merging Allies. With this method, you can break down a hero into either one of two things: Skill Points or stat boosts.
You obtain stat boosts if you break down a higher ranked hero to use on a lower one. The recipient’s stats will be boosted but, in our opinion, this is not the best way to go about merging allies.
Obtaining Skill Points makes more sense. By breaking down a lower ranked hero to use on a higher ranked hero, they will obtain Skill Points. You can then use these Skill Points to learn new skills.
The reason we believe getting Skill Points over stat boosts are better has to do with unlocking a hero's potential.
UNLOCKING POTENTIAL
There are five ranks of heroes, ranging from one-star to five-star. And while five-star heroes are extremely rare and hard to obtain, you can put the time in and unlock a hero's potential and raise their rank.
First, you’ll need to level up your hero to level 20. You won’t be able to unlock their potential any other way.
Once they are at level 20, you’ll need feathers and the correct corresponding badges to unlock a hero’s potential. There are four different colored badges you can obtain (blue, red, colorless and green).
The color of the badge corresponds with the weapon of choice. Red for sword and red tome users, blue for lance and blue tome users, green for axe and green tome users and colorless for the archers and ninja.
Four-star characters need great badges to rank up.
Player can win badges by completing maps in the Training Tower, and certain days give specific badges. Here’s the schedule of badges obtained through the Training Tower -- via usgamer.
Scarlet Badge (Red) : Tuesday (12 am to 11:59 p.m.). Complete 6th Stratum and above for Great Scarlet Badge.
Azure Badge (Blue) : Wednesday (12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.). Complete 6th Stratum and above for Great Azure Badge.
Verdant Badge (Green) : Thursday (12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.). Complete 6th Stratum and above for Great Verdant Badge.
Transparent Badge (Colorless) : Friday (12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.). Complete 6th Stratum and above for Great Transparent Badge.
While badges are relatively easy to get, feathers are a different story. Feathers don’t drop as rewards for completing maps, but they can be gained in a number of ways.
In the home menu (at random times), one of your heroes will have hearts surrounding them. Tap on them and they will gift you some feathers. You can add friends to your friends list, and tapping on them when they visit will earn you a feather. You can also “send home” a hero to, essentially, delete them. Three-star heroes will earn you 150 feathers, four-star heroes will earn 300 and five-star heroes earn 1,000 feathers.
But it’s in the Arena Duels that you’ll gain the most feathers. The higher your ranking the more feathers you receiving with the max being 1600 feathers.
Here’s how many feathers and badges you’ll need to unlock your hero’s potential based on their rank:
1 STAR -> 2 STAR
2 STAR -> 3 STAR
3 STAR -> 4 STAR (2,000 feathers) (20 badges)
4 STAR -> 5 STAR (20,000 feathers) (20 great badges)
Now that you have the necessary material to unlock a hero’s potential, you should know that once you raise their rank they go back to level 1 and you’ll have to level them up to level 20 again. Also, any stat boosts you may have gained will reset back to level 1 stats, but will rise at a higher rate when you level up.
Is there anything we missed? Have you had success getting the amount of feathers and badges needed to unlock your hero’s potential? Let us know in the comments section below.
