AKA the OMG WTF announcement of Fire Emblem Heroes.
So we’ve been on quite the Fire Emblem kick this year, haven’t we? Understand that it’s from a genuine source of love (and frustration) with the series. Intelligent Systems surprised me when it announced FEH in January. Intelligent Systems doubly surprised me when FEH turned out good. Even though I still haven’t gotten the Hector I’ve wanted since day one (IS plz), I genuinely enjoy playing FEH every day. Now that we approach six months of FEH, let’s talk about the recent livestream that brought out some exciting FEH news, brought to us by Feh the owl!
Hero Battles
Feh first told us of two upcoming battles: a bound hero battle with Cecilia and Lilina, inbound on August 7. Accompanying this is a summoning banner featuring Cecilia, Lilina, and Roy. Bound hero battles are simply special map battles that end if anyone in your party is defeated. You cannot use Light’s Blessings or orbs to resume bound hero battles. Feh then told us about a grand hero battle at the end of August with Valter from Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones. He comes with a unique weapon: the Cursed Lance. This lance gives Valter additional attack and speed but comes at the price of taking 4 HP of damage after combat. Get to it, Restoration Lords and Ladies!
Tempest Trial III
So far, we’ve had two Tempest Trials, lengthy gauntlets of chained battles that net you special rewards the more times you complete them. Starting August 11, the third Tempest Trial begins, along with a summoning banner for Celica, Gray, Delthea, and Sonya. You get triple the points for your first two runs each day in the Tempest Trial. There is also an easy difficulty for newer players whose teams might not yet be up to the harder challenges. The rewards from the Tempest Trial are Clive from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia and an Attack Ploy Seal if you’re good enough!
Version 1.6
Did you ever want a Pokedex of all the heroes you have summoned? Now you have one. The Catalog of Heroes will track all the heroes you have seen and the ones you have summoned. Hero Merit now tops out at 3,000 and you will see more EXP and SP in arena battles. Speaking of arena battles, a new game mode called Arena Assault comes out on August 8. These are continuous runs. Every time you go into a new map, you have to change your team, just like Assault Squad. There are items unique to Arena Assault that damage all enemy units, restore all party members’ HP, and more. This does not use stamina or dueling swords and it rewards you with Sacred Coins. What do these Sacred Coins do? Feh isn’t telling us, but she did want us to know that there are more than 200 types of owls.
Nohrian Summer
I’ll admit that this was the least interesting part of the livestream for me. I wasn’t taken with the Ylissean Summer banner so the Nohrian Summer banner is equally uninteresting to me. However, we do have a new summoning banner featuring female Corrin, Leo, Xander, and Elise in swimsuits. Maybe the most amusing part of it is Xander uses a Lilith inflatable toy as an axe. If you have desired more flying mages, female Corrin has you covered with a blue tome in this banner.
On August 1, the Battle at the Beach Voting Gauntlet begins, squaring off the units of the Ylissean Summer with the units of the Nohrian Summer.
Six Months of FEH
Feh’s biggest bombshell was by far the six-month celebration of FEH (side note: “anniversary” comes from the Latin word for “year,” so calling it a six-month anniversary is nonsense).
First, there will be a big log-in bonus. Two orbs per day from August 7 to September 11, meaning forty free orbs over those twenty days. Expect a lot of new content, including quests for sacred seals and training tower quests. There will also be a new Hero Fest banner on August 10 with a twenty orb log-in bonus and 5% probability of pulling a five-star hero. To mix it up further, starting on August 7 the summoning rates for three-star and four-star heroes will be inverted. When this takes effect, you will have a 36% chance of pulling a three-star hero and a 58% chance of pulling a four-star hero. In addition, you get a free first summon off of the new Hero Fest banner!
The Takeaway
If you haven’t played FEH yet, now is a prime opportunity to try it out. Intelligent Systems is falling over itself to accommodate new players, something uncommon in the world of gacha games. Even with that, I am very pleased Intelligent Systems gave something to everyone. Many games either seem to skew too far to accessibility without challenge or the other way around. This is a healthy mix for every player, whether as a seasoned tactician or someone who doesn’t know which end of the weapon triangle is up. I heartily recommend that you try out FEH next month and try it for yourself.
That’ll do, Feh. That’ll do.
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