Battle Advantages and Disadvantages

Learn how to leverage weapon advantages, combat arts, magic, and battalions to gain the upper hand in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. Exploit enemy weaknesses for critical rushes and easier victories.

In Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Battle Advantage is the equivalent of the traditional Weapon Triangle. Understanding these advantages and disadvantages is crucial for strategic combat, making enemies easier to defeat and increasing your chances of triggering powerful Critical Rushes.

Advantages and disadvantages are indicated by blue up arrows (advantage) and red down arrows (disadvantage) on the Battle Map and next to enemy names. The more arrows, the greater the level of advantage or disadvantage. These icons are vital when issuing orders to your units.

Weapon Type Advantages and Disadvantages

The primary source of advantage comes from equipped weapons. The classic Sword > Axe > Lance triangle remains, with additions: Bows > Gauntlets, Gauntlets > Tomes, and Tomes > Bows.

Certain unit types also have inherent weaknesses. Flying units (Pegasus Knight, Falcon Knight, Wyvern Rider, Wyvern Lord) are disadvantaged against Bows. Additionally, specific weapons offer bonuses against unit types like armored units (Armored Knight, Fortress Knight) and mounted units (Cavalier, Paladin), as well as Monsters.

Examples of weapons with specific advantages include:

• Armorslayer: Advantage against mounted units.
• Rapier: Advantage against armored and mounted units.
• Wingthresher: Advantage against flyers.
• Horseslayer: Advantage against mounted units.
• Heavy Spear: Advantage against mounted units.
• Flycatcher: Advantage against flying units.
• Blessed Lance: Advantage against armored units.
• Spear of Assal: Advantage against armored units.
• Hammer: Advantage against armored units.
• Axe of Zoltan: Advantage against armored units.
• Mace: Advantage against armored units.
• Blessed Bow: Advantage against flying units.
• Wolf Fangs: Advantage against flying units.
• Defender’s Tome: Advantage against mounted units.

While weapon types have general advantages, strengths against armored units, mounted units, and monsters are often specific to certain weapons rather than entire classes.

Class and Battalion Advantages

A character's class significantly influences their advantages. For instance, the Dancer class has advantage over Tomes instead of the usual Axes, and Dark Mage/Dark Bishop classes have advantage over mounted units instead of Bows. These class-based advantages are often determined by "Buster" Class Abilities.

Battalions can also customize advantages. Each Battalion typically grants a "Resist" ability, providing one tier greater advantage against a specific weapon type or enemy. Most sword and lance Battalions follow the standard weapon triangle advantages, while magic-using Battalions (Tomes) may offer advantage against Bows or Monsters.