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Research Notes
Tristan Weech edited this page Sep 27, 2026
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- Abilities / Skills
- Over Fire Emblem history, there has been a wide variety of times units can have special abilities / skills
- None: In this section, there were no special abilities or skills. Keeps things simple.
- Class only: When a unit promoted to an advance class, they may gain some sort of special ability.
- Manual: Every now and then, you may receive a manual as loot which when consumed by a unit, will grant them that ability for the rest of the game.
- Character specific: Each character has a specific ability that is unique or semi unique to them.
- Mastery / Equip-able Skills: Each unit has some sort of point system that can be used to learn skills. They then can equip a certain amount of skills at a certain time, and can swap what skills they have active outside of combat.
- Notes from MythrilZentih's The Fire Emblem AI Masterclass
- Passive AI: does nothing until an AI change is triggered. Very rare
- Stationary AI: doesn't move, but will attack if a unit ends their turn in attack range. Common for boss units, or units using catapults, or similar artilary.
- Defensive AI: remains stationary until a valid target enters their move and attack range, then moves to attack. Subtypes include:
- Double-target AI: Only attack if 2 or more enemies are in range of the target
- Double-move AI: Enemies will 'see' targets at a distance of 2 turns of movement range, rather than normal attack range
- Linked AI: All units in a linked group will move as soon as any one unit in the group gets triggered to move towards a target
- If there are no enemies in range, some AI will remain at their new location, some will return to their old defensive location, or change scripts to aggressive AI
- Agressive AI: Moves towards target units so long as a viable path exists, via the most direct route available. Subtypes include:
- Mindless AI: More likely to attack the closest target or randomly pick a target rather than calculate the best viable target (like a zombie enemy)
- Smart AI: Calculate kill first, then highest possible damage, or similar attacking strategies
- Pillaging AI: given to thieves and bandits, they will target map side objectives like chests, doors, and villages instead of prioritizing combat. If they can make progress towards their goal, they will move towards it. If they can't move, they will attack, wait, or even steal. Once their goal is done, they will either find a new goal, flee, or attack. Some thieves will steal from your units if they are blocking the way to a chest or escape point.
- Healing AI: Triggered AI switch on most units that forces them to retreat to a heal tile or healer, or use a healing item. Usually at under 1/2 or 1/3 HP they will heal and stop once at 3/4 or full HP.
- Formation AI: Move pattern variant of Aggressive AI. Units move toward their target while maintaining formation, often moving at less than max distance to keep formation, sometimes following or surrounding a formation leader
- Gather Point AI: Move pattern variant of Defensive AI. Units will move as close as possible to a arget position unless a viable target enters their move and attack range. Like reinforcements flying towards the castle and staying there until units come to attack.
- Decision Tree Breakdown:
- At start of enemy phase, list all units as not having moved, and select units one by one causing them to act.
- Check for Healing AI, then check the specific enemy AI. If attacking, see what the best target is (kills first, then dealing damage, then minimizing damage taken, than other priorities such as proximity or crit rate, or choose randomly). Choose best weapon based on most damage or have at least a certain threshold for chance to hit.
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Different map objectives include:
- Seize (Move a unit on a castle or throne and 'seize' it to complete the map to win)
- Defeat Boss (Defeat boss to win)
- Rout (Defeat all enemies to win)
- Defend / Survive (Survive 'X' amount of turns before the map auto ends)
- Escape / Arrive (Move a unit on one of a few specific zones and 'escape' or 'arrive' to end the map)
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Experience
- Experience needed for next level: 100 for most games
- Player deals no damage: 0 XP gain for most games
- Player deals damage but doesn't kill the enemy: Lots of different calculations
- Killing an enemy: Lots of different calculations
- Using a staff or white magic: Lots of different calculations
- Other actions (like dancing, stealing, or summoning): 10
- Hit Rate
- Variety of different Battle Formulas Below is specifically FE 7 battle formulas.
- Attack Speed = Speed if Weapon Weight <= Con, else = Speed - (Weapon Weight - Con)
- Unit can attack twice in a battle if its speed is 4+ speed higher than opponent. If A initiated the battle, then A attacks before and after B. If B initiated the battle, then B attacks first, then A attacks twice afterwards.
- Hit Rate = Weapon Accuracy + Skill x 2 + Luck / 2 + Support Bonus + S-Rank Bonus (+5 bonus if the character has S rank in that weapon) + Tactician Bonus (I have no idea what this is)
- Avoid = Attack Speed x 2 + Luck + Terrain Bonus + Support Bonus + Tactician Bonus
- Accuracy = Hit Rate (Attacker) - Evade (Defender) + Triangle Bonus (+/-1 damage and +/- 15 Accuracy) with a Max of 100 and a Min of 0
- Defense = Terrain Bonus + Defense + Support Bonus for Physical attacks, and Terrain Bonus + Resistance + Support Bonus for Magical attacks
- Damage = Attack Power (attacker) - Defense Power (defender) with a minimum of 0
- Critical Damage = [Attack Power (attacker) - Defense Power (defender)] x 3, with a minimum of 0
- Critical Rate = Weapon Critical + Skill / 2 + Support Bonus + Class Critical (+15 if you are specific classes) + S-Rank Bonus
- Critical Evade = Luck + Support Bonus + Tactician Bonus
- Critical Chance = Critical Rate - Critical Evade, with a maximum of 100 and a minimum of 0
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Action cost in FE7
- Free actions: Discard, equip, arena (check)*, vendor / armory (check)
- Partial actions: trade, merch, take**, give**, ride***, exit****
- Full actions: drop, rescue****, use, talk, support, chest, door, visit, and vendor/armory (purchase or sale)
- Ending actions: attack, staff, dance / play, steal, arena (battle), use (promotion item), wait, and seize
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