@af1899 reviews [Childhood Encounter] --- Special Heroes of Apr/2021! :feh_larawink:

[af1899]

Hey!

Another review, and this one took longer than expected, there were a bunch of charts to be done, so I hope they’ll be useful to you.
That said, I haven’t been able to test the skills, so I implore you to find and report to me any errors related to the explanations and I’ll get them fixed ASAP, since I mostly wrote the descriptions and mounted sample scenarios based on the official skill descriptions… thank you!

With that out of the way, let me introduce to you the latest review on our second “stronk young gals and bois” banner:

[Childhood Encounter]

LINKS
Open in a new tab Japanese version
BGM: «Binding Vow» (Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones)

Fire Emblem Heroes - Special Heroes (Childhood Encounter)

Special Heroes

Tana

EPITHET	Frelian Starlight
AKA (Also known as...)	Dana
DESCRIPTION	«Princess of Frelia, and sister to Innes. Wants only to be friends with the twin prince and princess of the neighboring kingdom, Renais.»
ORIGIN GAME	Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
WEAPON TYPE	Lance
MOVEMENT TYPE	Flying
INFORMATION PAGES	FANDOM | FE Wiki | FEH info | GamePress page | Gamepedia article
PREV. RELEASES	2 (Original, Summer)

Bio

Tana is the young princess of a nation located in the north-western region of the Magvel continent, called Frelia, she’s sister to Innes and the daughter of the current king of her very nation, Hayden.
A friendly and sociable girl, she wishes to explore more about what the outside world has to offer and make lots of friends (specially if they share her same aspirations) without regards to her social status as a princess — she’s been often caged up inside the castle as part of her training and it’s a thing she doesn’t like.
She also wishes to fight with her friends and to not to be watched over in the battlefield, as she prefers to take care of herself, and is fond of her own home land because of its people and scent, and is a lifelong friend of the twins of the neighbouring nation of Renais, Eirika and Ephraim.

Her younger self doesn’t differ much actually, she wants to get stronger and make friends as well, and is very appreciative of her friendships and nature.

Skillset

☆[Lance of Frelia]: Pref. | Might: 16

About the movement effect: I tried my best to explain it in a resumed, yet hopefully easier way than what the official description does, but if you still have problem understanding this, feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll try to elaborate various scenarios/examples as well as a more detailed description, I don’t do it longer here because the text will have to be even smaller and reading will be harder for some people, I feel I’ve made it hard enough here… but @Intelligent_Systems just likes to adds weird and complex skills randomly (sometimes poorly worded too), so might as well try to have them as covered as possible.
Animation: frames = 3, frame duration = 5~15s, view frames individually here.

[Draconic Aura]: All non-Staff users | AA: 16:3 • LI: 13 | Cooldown: 3 → 2
Upon next strike, 30% of the user’s total attack power will be accrued to the damage dealt to foe.

[Steady Impact]: Inf./Fly. and non-Staff users | AA: 0 • LI: 1 • V4: 1/4 (3:1) | [SP] cost: 300
This skill works on user’s initiation of any given battle, grants boosts of speed+6 and defence+10 and negation of follow-up attacks from the foe.

☆[S/D Near Trace 3]: Cav./Fly. + range = 1 weapon useres | --

Animation: frames = 3, frame duration = 5~8s

[Atk/Spd Rein 3]: Flying units only | AA: 1 • LI: 2
This skill constantly inflicts reductions of attack and speed -4 on foes within a 2-square radius circle centered on the user, during all battles those foes engage, so allies of the user benefit from it as well.

Inheritance recommendations

[Steady Impact] and ☆[S/D Near Trace 3]

{Impact} skills can’t be given to cavalry units sadly, but you can give this combo to any melee flier of your liking, and while we’re at it, turn them into a nice [Galeforce] user, if you have a Brave Roy to spare, since he has the required [Steady Blow 2], Leif has it but he’s harder to get, so your only easy source is Python, who has the skill at 5★… but if possible, I’d fodder a Brave Roy, since he has [Galeforce] as said before, and [Steady Blow 2] which is required in this combo.

☆[S/D Near Trace 3]

I’ll only recommend this skill to be taken alone IF your recipient is a melee cavalry unit, this skill isn’t to be slept on, it improves the offenses of your unit and allows them to move away to safety if used well, with a little of added mobility on it too.

[Atk/Spd Rein 3] or [Steady Impact]… but both are fine

You’re once again required of [Steady Blow 2] if you’re taking both, this combo is also good and having a way to halt a bunch of the follow-up attacks comes in handy.
Both skills are rare so it makes sense if you want to take either, but it’s not highly encouraged.

Stats and gameplay

Tana is a strong and quick unit boasting superior mobility thanks to her ☆[Lance of Frelia] with smart positioning of your allies, her key stats are attack and speed but her PRF also improves her defensive capabilities upon initiation, coupled with [Steady Impact], she becomes an extremely fast and durable player phase unit, as well as {slaying} effect makes of her an extremely good candidate for [Galeforce], since it’ll have cooldown = 4.
On enemy phase, she doesn’t get the same benefits, so she may suffer a little more, that’s where ☆[S/D Near Trace 3] comes in handy, any leftover movement she had (counting dark blue squares in the map she didn’t pass through when only moving through the added movement) will help her to retreat into safety. While such a skill is handy for her, she already gets tons of speed so you might prefer [Dive-Bomb 3] when available, or [Desperation 3] and double [Brazen Atk/Spd], but the former is prefered for the consistency.
All in all she’s a powerful player phase presence in the battlefield.
Also, for stat assets/flaws, it’s hard to go wrong on her, but generally speaking, attack strikes me as the best one, she can’t use [Flashing Blade] but she can use [Heavy Blade], and she already gets a ton of speed, specially as you merge her, so it helps. Both speed and attack are superboons, so unless she’s a merge project and/or plan to get a copy for fodder, you don’t need to fish for another copy.

Att, Spd | HP, Def

“R.I.P. Sumia, you’re still an interesting unit with your refine”, but this is sad, you just got to compare it with Tana’s weapon and you see they’re somewhat similar, however, Tana’s weapon is like a significantly better version.
I would only encourage anyone that’s a big fan of Sumia to build her, at this point, otherwise, if you care more for the gameplay aspect, then Tana is for you.

Res | HP, Def | Added: 2018-07-20T03:00:00Z

L’Arachel

EPITHET	Seeker of Justice
DESCRIPTION	«Niece to Pontifex Mansel and princess of Rausten. Her ultimate ambition is to rid the world of monsters.»
ORIGIN GAME	Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
WEAPON TYPE	Staff
MOVEMENT TYPE	Cavalry
INFORMATION PAGES	FANDOM | FE Wiki | FEH info | GamePress page | Gamepedia article
PREV. RELEASES	2 (Original, Halloween)

Bio

L’Arachel, princess of the theocracy of Rausten, should certainly be a familiar face in Fire Emblem Heroes by now as she appears this time as a much younger version of herself from her first appearance in Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones. She is a supporting character of both Ephraim and Eirika.

However, it seems evident by her dialogue and overall demeanor that she is still the same L’Arachel many of us have come to know and love, infamous for her comedically self-obsessed personality and exaggerated noble persona she displays everywhere she goes and to all whom she speaks. Despite these traits, L’Arachel is kindhearted and honest above all else, and in her youthful state these positive qualities shine even more.

When L’Arachel was a very young girl, her parents died fighting for justice and honor, something she would come to emulate in her adulthood. Though one cannot help but wonder if this version of her is indeed near the age that she lost her parents.

Written by: @Bow-of-Sacae

Skillset

☆[Staff of Rausten]: Pref. | Might: 14

[Rescue+]: All Staff users | Types: healing, movement | AA: 1 • LI: 0

Animation: frames = 2, frame duration = 5s, view frames individually here.

[Windfire Balm+]: Staff users only | AA: 1 • LI: 0 | Cooldown: 1
This skill activates if cooldown = 0 and when the user uses a {healing}-type assist on any given ally, when done, all allies get visible boosts of attack and speed +6 each until the start of their next phase on the next turn.

[Atk/Spd Push 4]: All | AA: 6 • LI: 5 • V4: 11/14 (1:2) | [SP] cost at Lv.4: 300
This skill activates each time the user enters in a battle with at least a quarter of their maximum HP, if true, for the duration of the match, the user gets boosts of attack and speed +7, since they’re in-battle boosts, they stack with other boosts of that nature, like from {drive} skills.

☆[S/R Far Trace]: Fly./Cav. and range = 2 weapon users | --

Animation: frames = 2, frame duration = 5s

Inheritance recommendations

☆[S/R Far Trace 3] and optionally, [Atk/Spd Push 4]

Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to fodder her efficiently without foregoing something valuable in return, adding other skills not named [Atk/Spd Push 4] means wasting a part of another unit’s fodder, which is in general, not a good idea.
[Atk/Spd Push 4] is fine to add because you can sack one of the sources with the Lv.3 version of the skill. *Bullies Petrine again*
But the skill you’ll need for sure is this new one, which will prove to be useful, specially on ranged fliers since this skill was made for a bunch of 'em.

[Rescue+] and [Windfire Balm+]

Two juicy skills for healers and rather easy to get, as you need one of two Lv.1 {Balm} skills which are available on lower rarity units.

One skill

Avoid taking [Atk/Spd Push 4] at all costs, and also, I’d at least try for the recommended inheritance chain, since it’s not too difficult to secure in general, but ☆[S/R Far Trace 3] is handy to have too.

Stats and gameplay

L’Arachel is an offensive healer of sorts, possessing high speed and attack, as well as a kit mostly gearing towards offensive, [Mystic Boost] [Sacred Seal] is recommended to prevent her health being crippled down by her very own [Atk/Spd Push 4].
To start with, she includes one of the brand new {Trace} skills called ☆[S/R Far Trace 3], it plays out like the one we covered earlier, BUT there are two noteworthy gimmicks: as you know, ranged units CAN’T get [Galeforce], so this skill doesn’t work together with {Far Trace} ones, however… one unit we all know for their amazing O/D potential, has a variant of this skill: Legendary Leif and his [Njörun’s Zeal], which is basically the same.
The second is, it doesn’t grant an extra square of re-movement area than what she had of leftover prior to the attack… “wow, so, @Intelligent_Systems still has a notion of balance?”… surprisingly enough, at times, they do, but generally it goes over their head.
This skill is still effective on her, with the help of ☆[Staff of Rausten], which will make the benefits of ☆[S/R Far Trace 3] far more aparent as you use her… why? Her weapon reduces the resistance of the nearest foes to her as well as inflicting on them the status that prevents they counterattack when your units attack them, all within a rather large check pool to make [Dazzling Staff 3] a really questionable skill to use.
As for stat asset: you’d prefer speed, it sorta helps her with “future proofing” and it’s good to go with her role, it also marginally improves her scoring potential but her BST isn’t really high for these seasons. Otherwise, more attack is about as good, its immediate benefit will be slightly bigger healing capacity and certainly attack power, it’s not a bad boon at all.
Overall, L’Arachel offers great support and offensive capabilities, her own weapon, even if not used for her own benefit, already proves to be useful when solely used for supportive purposes to help your teammates safely hit most foes without fear of retaliation.

HP, Spd | Def, Res

For comparison, I had chosen someone more or less similar: Elise.
Her personal refined weapon puts her in a more comparable spot to L’Arachel, however, Elise relies on [Dazzling Staff 3] most of the time to prevent counterattacks, which can be a problem for when she’s in the offensive, preventing her to run ☆[S/R Far Trace 3] if needed be, but she doesn’t need it to be a strong offensive unit, she also can inflict [Gravity] on nearby foes which is still a useful status ailment to benefit from.

No super stats | Added: 2017-02-02T03:00:00Z

⤨Lyon

EPITHET	Grado's Gaze
DESCRIPTION	«Beloved son of the emperor of Grado, Vigarde. Like his father, who is referred to as the Silent Emperor, he prefers to keep to himself.»
ORIGIN GAME	Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
WEAPON TYPE	Tome (Blue)
MOVEMENT TYPE	Infantry
INFORMATION PAGES	FANDOM | FE Wiki | FEH info | GamePress page | Gamepedia article
PREV. RELEASES	2 (Original, Fallen)

Bio

Lyon is the kind and gentle prince of Grado. He is an extremely close friend to both Eirika and Ephraim and shown to care deeply for both of them in the flashbacks to the past. Unfortunately his kindness and desire to help people was his downfall. He thought that Grado’s Sacred Stone had the key to saving countless lives, so he experimented on it with his magic to try to figure out a way to use it to help, but in doing so he released the ancient demon Formortiis who possessed him and used his body to start a war, invading the other nations and destroying their Sacred Stones so he couldn’t be trapped again. While his Grado’s army was doing that, Formortiis was finding a way to go back to his former glory and succeeded only to be defeated by Eirika and Ephraim just in time, unfortunately killing Lyon, their friend, in the process.

Written by: @RoysOurBoy

Skillset

☆[Tome of Grado]: Pref | Might: 14
This weapon grants to Lyon a constant base stat boost of [Attack +3] while equipped.
It also grants him the following effects if either the foe initiates a battle on him or if his attacker is at full health:

• Inflicts reductions of attack-6 and resistance-6 in-battle, to foe.
• Eliminates visible stat penalties on attack and resistance.
• If foe is colorless and uses a range = 2 weapon like a tome, they suffer weapon disadvantage (lose -20% ATT in-battle) while Lyon gains advantage (gain +20% ATT in-battle).

[Iceberg]: All non-Staff users | AA: 14:1 • LI: 14 | Cooldown: 3
Upon next strike, user’s half of their total resistance is accrued to their damage dealt.

[Atk/Res Solo 3]: All | AA: 3:0 • LI: 3• V4: 2/6 (1:1) | Available at 4★
It activates each time the user enters in any given battle without adjacent allies on the map, in such cases, the user gets boosts of attack and resistance +6 in-battle.

[Def/Res Gap 3]: All | AA: 0:0 • LI: 2 | Available at 5★

Inheritance recommendations

[Atk/Res Solo 3]

This is probably his best fodder, {solo} skills are quite good and this one sees use, it’s also the 4★ skill so you don’t need to promote Lyon to get it, it’ll also enable you to optimally fodder units with the Lv.4 version of the skill.

[Def/Res Gap 3]

Not as useful but it’s worth noting it’s been so far on a Mythic Hero and another seasonal who’s best foddered for his weapon: Winter Zephiel, seeing that Lyon’s fodder isn’t as strong as Winter Zephiel or Mirabilis, I’d say this is a good opportunity to secure a rare skill if someone is collecting them all.

Stats and gameplay

Lyon is the “partial demote” of the banner, his statline makes of him a deceptively bulky unit with high attack power but rock-bottom speed, relying on follow-up attack guaranteeing skills such as [Quick Riposte 3], his weapon primes him mainly for enemy phase, which is where he should primarily be used since the mentioned [Quick Riposte 3] exists as a [Sacred Seal] and it works when the foe initiates on the user, his bulk will help him stay healthy for longer periods of time and will help him gain terrain against several of the ranged colorless foes.
The clear winner for stat asset is, without a doubt: attack.
He doesn’t really need extra bulk or becoming a support bot, he should excel at what he’s made for: defensive, and he’s not short in potential for that, an attack boon will help him hit harder on retaliation.

HP, Att | Spd

Sonia was released earlier this month and wow… you’re right, she’s already being won over by Young Lyon overall, he has a PRF unlike Sonia, and a more optimized statline for tanking too, Sonia’s speed is partially dumped and it has a superboon, but without further investment it becomes somewhat useless.

Spd | HP | Added: 2021-04-05T03:00:00Z | Was reviewed

ↀEirika+Ephraim

EPITHET	Twin Refulgence
DESCRIPTION	«Twin prince and princess of Renais, children of King Fado. This lively brother and serene sister make for quite the pair.»
ORIGIN GAME	Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
WEAPON TYPE	Sword
MOVEMENT TYPE	Infantry
INFORMATION PAGES	Eirika: FANDOM | FE Wiki Ephraim: FANDOM | FE Wiki FEH info | GamePress page | Gamepedia article
BST PUSH	177 → 190
DUO SKILL
PREV. RELEASES	Eirika got 4 (Original, [Sacred Memories], Legendary, Winter) and will get a Brave alt due to [Choose your Legends] around mid-August/2021, she landed second in women's division this year. Ephraim got 5 (Original, Brave, Legendary, Winter, Duo+Lyon)

Bio

Eirika

Eirika is the princess of Renais and has come to Askr along with her twin brother Ephraim. Eirika is a kind and gentle girl who doesn’t like fighting but is willing to do so to protect those in need. Ephraim on the other hand wants to fight a lot to grow stronger so he can protect their kingdom someday. Despite their almost polar opposite personalities, the two care a lot about each other and are often worried about the other, Ephraim wanting to protect Eirika while she feels he is often too reckless and eager to fight. In the future they will go on to defeat the Demon King Fomortiis and bring peace to Magvel.

Written by: @Thehalohedgehog

---

The review had to be split here due to character limit per post but it continues right below.

[af1899]

Ephraim

Ephraim is the prince of Renais and older twin brother of Eirika. He is renowned for his spearmanship, which was taught to him by Duessel, a general of the neighboring kingdom of Grado. Ephraim is also known for his confidence, as he doesn’t pick fights he thinks he can’t win, and he also succeeded in taking a castle with only three other men on his side. His twin sister Eirika is also very important to him; he’ll always strive to protect her and see that she improves her sword technique, and he also worries about her when she’s away.

In this appearance, Ephraim and Eirika are summoned from the time they were children, before they met their dear friend Lyon, and before Ephraim learned the lance under Duessel. Even as a child, Ephraim does whatever he can to ensure Eirika is safe, and he is confident that the two of them can handle anything together. The younger Ephraim feels that it is his duty as prince of Renais to grow stronger so he can protect his people.

Written by: @dimitrisnoodlehair

Skillset

☆[Blade of Renais]: Pref. | Might: 16
It grants lowered cooldown for all special skills by -1.
The game also checks if there’s 1+ allied unit(s) within a 2-square radius circle centered on the Duo, if this is true, the following effects are granted:

• During battles, the Duo gets a boost to all stats +5.
• If there’s at least a small visible bonus, positive status, visible penalty or status ailment: the Duo will deal additional damage and recover HP equal to 1/5 their foe’s DEF (accounts visible DEF only), the healing works even if the Duo can’t damage their foe.

[Luna]: All non-Staff users | AA: 21:7 • LI: 9 | Cooldown: 3 → 2
When activated, user’s next strike will ignore half of the foe’s total of defence.

If the user of this skill wields any kind of magical weapon or is able to deal “adaptive damage”, they may target resistance instead.

[Distant Foil]: Range = 1 weapon users | AA: 1 • LI: 0 | [SP] cost: 300
This skill activates when the foe initiates a combat on the user, in such cases, if the foe happens to be using any kind of physical damage (normally targets DEF) weapon, the user gets boosts of attack and defence +5 in-battle, as well as the possibility to counterattack ranged foes that use bows and daggers.

[Null Follow-Up 3]: Infantry units only | AA: 7 • LI: 2
This skill has two effects constantly active:

• Prevents that any skill on the user/foe impedes the user from making follow-up attacks if they can.
• Prevents any effect in the skills of the foe that guarantees their follow-up attacks.

[Joint Drive Spd]: All | AA: 2 • LI: 1 • V4: 3/7 (2:2) | [SP] cost: 300
It’ll be active so long as there’s at least 1+ allied unit within a 2-square radius circle centered on user, granting an in-battle boost of speed +4 to both the user and the allied units in the specified area, does nothing if there’s no allied unit there.

Inheritance recommendations

[Distant Foil] and [Joint Drive Spd]

This is what I personally would take out from the Duo, it’s the least restrictive combo and [Joint Drive Spd] is only on 2 regular pool 5★ units compared to the 7 that [Null Follow-Up 3], making of this combo the most effective.
If you happen to be foddering the Duo to an infantry unit that can consistently make follow-up attacks on their foes, throw in [Null Follow-Up 2] too, it can always be used in advance, you just need their HP to be equal/above half the maximum, and it can be helpful on certain inheritance sessions, one example that comes to mind is Shamir, because you can take out [Null Follow-Up 3] and [Rouse Atk/Spd 3] later on.

Two of three, alternatives

• [Distant Foil] and [Null Follow-Up 3]: this is probably the one I’d encourage the most, easy to get as you don’t need to fodder anyone else, and you get rare skills too — but the units that could use both well are limited, they’d need either a high amount of speed or at least a way to consistently follow-up on the foe, plus workable DEF.
• [Joint Drive Spd] and [Null Follow-Up 3]: another great combo and has more flexiblity of usage, you’re only required to get [Drive Spd 2] which is on 4★ Tailtiu.

One of the skills

One of them alone is a big waste unless you urgently need only one skill on the recipient, but I’d encourage going for at least another skill to add to your inheritance session, since it’s very easy to combo two skills.

Stats and gameplay

Our latest Duo Hero is a young version of Ephraim and Eirika, the twins of Renais, who are the fastest infantry unit now, breaking the former record of 42… but Freyja is still the naturally fastest unit in the game with her 45 speed points at base.
Anyway, the Duo is really fast and best used while the player has control over them as their Duo Skill helps them with damage reduction on odd-numbered turns, so it can be used more than once per map, which is really handy and goes well with his high speed and decent mixed bulk. They’re initially primed for countering physical enemies at enemy phase, but they’re fine to counterattack other kinds of foes too, with the appropiate investment.
They’re best built with a way to keep their weapon effects active, so a consistent way to get a “blue buff” really helps… for example, an {Oath} skill, it’s hard to go wrong with the Duo regarding the stats you’ll target with any of the skills on the family, but I feel that [Atk/Spd Oath 3] will help them the most, or just use an ally that shares [Ally Support] with the Duo, that ally can serve as a support bot of sorts running {tactic} skills.
Speed is a superboon, there’s no contest here, not only it helps with future proofing the Duo, it also helps with the Duo Skill, which relies on visible speed.

Spd | HP, Def, Res

Fallen Ike has been chosen for comparison this time, one main advantage the Duo has over him is that you can run their base [Null Follow-Up 3] and still reduce damage taken, but can they run another A-skill instead of [Distant Counter] when they’d prefer that skill? No! Fallen Ike has his base [Darting Breath] which helps him charging his [Mayhem Aether], and there’s his [Chaos Ragnell], even though it requires him to get some visible penalties in, it’s actually pretty good as it reverses those penalties into in-battle bonuses, making of him to date a fearsome presence.
The Duo also has a {slaying} effect in their weapon, giving them the same cooldown on [Aether] as Fallen Ike’s version, should you need to use it.

Spd | HP | Added: 2020-05-07T03:00:00Z | Was reviewed

◍Innes

EPITHET	Frelian Moonlight
AKA (Also known as...)	James
DESCRIPTION	«Son of Frelia's king, Hayden. Harbors a fierce rivalry with the prince of the neighboring kingdom, Renais.»
ORIGIN GAME	Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
WEAPON TYPE	Bow (Colorless)
MOVEMENT TYPE	Infantry
INFORMATION PAGES	FANDOM | FE Wiki | FEH info | GamePress page | Gamepedia article
MEDIA INFO	Kano Akira Xander Mobus
PREV. RELEASES	2 (Original, Summer)

Bio

Innes is the crown prince of Frelia, and a friend and rival to Ephraim. He has a tendency to be arrogant, with his pride is not unfounded as he is an extremely talented archer, known as possibly even the best in all of Magvel, and he knows it. He’s also shown to be somewhat rude and brash at times, shown with how he’s not always the kindest to his sister, Tana. But even with his harsh personality, he’s shown to be good at heart. When being attacked in Carcino with the mercenaries he hired, Gerik and Tethys, he tells them to leave when the situation gets bad to keep them safe, saying that they’ll just get in his way. Though they stay, thankfully Eirika shows and saves them, and all three of them join Eirika’s party.

Written by: @RoysOurBoy

Skillset

☆[Bow of Frelia]: Pref. | Might: 14
It grants lowered cooldown for all special skills by -1.
Also, the following effects are granted to him at the start of any given match he begins with HP equal/above 25% of the maximum:

• Gets attack and speed +6 in-battle.
• If an offensive special skill triggers, upon the next strike, the strike deals an extra fixed 7 damage and ignores {damage mitigation} passive/weapon skills such as [Close Call 3], this excludes the special skills like [Escutcheon].

[Glimmer]: All non-Staff users | AA: 13:5 • LI: 10 | Cooldown: 2 → 1
Upon next strike, the damage the user deals increases by 1.5×, rounded up to integer.

[Swift Sparrow 2]: All non-Staff users | AA: 11:2 • LI: 23 • V4: 11/32 (2:9) | Available at 5★
This skill grants the user a boost of attack and speed +4 each during battles they initiate.

[Distant Guard 3]: All | AA: 4:2 • LI: 4 | Available at 4★
This skill offers protection against ranged attacks when foes initiate, to nearby allies (within a 2-square radius circle).
Grants them in-battle boosts of defence and resistance +4 each, if the foe initiates on those allies and the foe uses a ranged weapon.

Inheritance recommendations

@Intelligent_Systems has been making some terrible decisions as to which skill should belong in one rarity or another, I think that either/both Merlinus/Linhardt should’ve had [Distant Guard 3] at 4★ while we got [Swift Sparrow 2] as the 4★ skill here, since it’s 2021 and we still have the Lv.3 (2) version only at 5★…
Also, I would recommend to keep him around if his fodder isn’t needed, we’ll talk about that in the next section but here are my recommendations if you’re set in getting rid of him:

[Swift Sparrow 2] and [Distant Guard 3]

You’re required to promote him, but [Swift Sparrow 2] allows you to efficiently fodder most [Swift Sparrow 3] sources with ease, all while you get a not-so-rare but situationally useful skill, all you need is [Darting Blow 1] and [Distant Guard 1], both of which are easy to secure these days.

[Swift Sparrow 2]

If there’s a skill you should value, it’s this one, you’re not required to fodder other units and you also need 20k [Hero Feathers] like in the previous combo.

[Distant Guard 3]

I would only recommend it if you’re giving it to a staves user or have no need for [Swift Sparrow 2] at all, that’s okay since we all don’t have the same playstyles! But bear in mind you’re getting one free source of [Swift Sparrow 2], with no cost at all, so I would still recommend to get it on one of your favorite offensive units (on non-{area-of-effect} based builds since those skills take VISIBLE attack).

Stats and gameplay

Man… Young Innes really promises, you just have to start by looking at his preference weapon, and then, his statline, he’s not short in reasons to be a worthwhile investment, specially for anyone that likes him.
Examining what his weapon does, it grants him faster special skills, which is already handy, but he also gets two added effects which are both easy to met (just requiring him to have at least 25% of his HP), more boosts to his offenses and, on top of that, the ability to null any form of {damage mitigation} when an offensive special skill activates during battle, as well as a fixed +7 damage when that happens, isn’t that great? And, as if it wasn’t enough, he has a speed superboon, and he’s your next [Heroic Grails] unit, he also carries [Swift Sparrow 2] at base which can at least help with inheritance efficiency in the future, should you get the Lv.3 version…
Such an amazing unit, specially in these days where {damage mitigation} grows a common menace in the metagame.
His bulk is alright, but I would recommend to focus on his mentioned strengths.
Finally, I would like to recommend speed as your asset of choice for him because it’s a superboon so +4 to the stat instead of +3, which pushes up his stat total to 175 when merged, it’s really somewhat high and he’ll be a bonus unit every now and then, so that helps.

Spd, Def | Res | IVs can be changed with [Trait Fruits]

I chose Legendary Alm for the comparison… why? Their offensive capabilities are sort of comparable, Legendary Alm is still a known threat with his high speed and offenses, as well as his two preference skills, but Young Innes offers something new in the F2P pool as mentioned before.
But, if you’re working on Legendary Alm, unless you’re about as strongly attached to Young Innes, I wouldn’t recommend to invest on him and viceversa, both have strongly similar roles and it’s best to focus on one than two.

Res | HP, Def | Added: 2019-04-26T03:00:00Z | Lgn. Hero: Earth, HP+3, Pair-Up

---

Aesthetics central

QUOTES
Tana L'Arachel Lyon Eirika+Ephraim Innes
Open videos in a new tab... Banner characters' quotes Innes's quotes

Fire Emblem Heroes: Voice Clips - Childhood Encounter (Tana, L'Arachel, Lyon,...

Fire Emblem Heroes: Voice Clips - Innes: Frelian Moonlight (TT+ "Princess's...

ARTWORK

Tana

---

Original

...

---

---

FEH

...

---

---

---

L'Arachel

---

Original

...

---

---

FEH

...

---

---

---

Lyon

---

Original

...

---

---

FEH

...

---

---

---

Eirika+Ephraim

---

Original

...

---

---

FEH

...

---

---

---

Innes

---

Original

...

---

---

FEH

...

---

---

---

Banner

Duration: 2021-04-19T07:00:00Z → 2021-05-19T06:59:59Z

GENDER RATIO	1(+2)	3

Overview

Ah yes… Ephraim makes his second appearance on a Duo Hero, this time, he’s a cheerleader… his position in the Duo Heroes he’s appeared matters not when what’s there to question is that he has made two appearances, but out of the two, the first one seems more questionable to me, because Ephraim was the lead and Lyon the cheerleader… it’s true they’re good friends since childhood, but it’s there where we could’ve had Eirika as cheerleader or viceversa, and either delegate the Duo post in this banner to other characters or just roll with a solitary character… although Duo/Harmonic Heroes are now customary of this kind of banner so… yeah, I’m not really questioning Eirika getting an alt though, actually, I think that either she should’ve been paired up with Seth since he’s one of Eirika’s closest people and we know he took an injury when first protecting her from Valter in an attack to Renais around the beginning of The Sacred Stones, showing how dedicate he is to the royal family and the future hope of their country. That said, I’m not saying Ephraim doesn’t make sense being part of the Duo, since it’s mentioned a couple times that Eirika and Ephraim share a very strong bond… it just feels like at this point, someone else should’ve made up the Duo.

Anyway, this what I think of the Duo Hero, with that out of the way, I’d like to comment on the other choices: overall, they’re all nice, Tana hasn’t gotten an alt in a long time (2~3 years or so) and the others are pretty welcome too, with L’Arachel having gotten an alt after a shorter span of time and Lyon making it as the “partial demote”, he’s somewhat popular and that’s nice.

Aesthetics

We’ll start with discounting just a minor fraction of Tana’s VAing score… because of this:

Believe me… I tried to make heads or tails of this but no other conclusion that the sound at the beginning could be a burp. But I’ll not be really so pensive on rating down this aspect of her as a unit, specially since this is just a minor nitpick and something I’d have revised, otherwise her VAing is top notch, and so is everyone else’s but… Ephraim’s voice is the same as his grown-up self lol, I would’ve expected something at least slightly higher pitched but otherwise his quotes and Eirika’s are what I’d expect, proof of how strong the bond between the twins of Renais has been for so long.

The artwork is nothing I’m going to substract points from anyone, since everything I see is beautifully done and re-imagines everyone as children excellently.

Ratings

Y’know, I’m gonna hate myself for this because Tana is my favorite FE8 girl but I’m not going to skew the ratings in favor of my favs because I think being as unbiased as possible in evaluating units is important.

Other resources

EVENT INFO

Event type: [Tempest Trials+]
Event name: “Princess’s Gloom”
Duration: 2021-04-20T07:00:00Z → 2021-04-30T06:59:59Z
Seals: [Atk/Def Form], [Ward Dragons]
Event/reward unit: Innes: Frelian Moonlight
Bonuses: banner units + Young Innes + the original/OG versions of the following Heroes: Tana, L’Arachel and Ephraim. (Adds a 1.4× multiplier to your base score and gives the following base stat boosts to those units in the event, if fielded: HP+10; +4 to ATT,SPD,DEF,RES; double [EXP] and [SP] gain — non-bonus units also get those boosts in the first two sessions of battles per day).
Scoring: starting software update 5.3.0, which was previously released, the way you score in this type of events changes slightly, as described in this archived notification.

DATAMINE LINKS
View grab bag
List of asset rips Get assets rip for this update

The links above allows you to review essential bits of info obtained through datamining the latest update, including the lineup for the next [Hall of Forms].
You can also download the assets, this includes the artwork for the latest Special Heroes in full quality and even Resplendent Lilina’s artwork too, as well as other graphic and audio files that were updated/added.

ODDS BREAKDOWN
Source
Enlarge

For an analysis on odds and how summoning works, refer to this video.

---

New central glossary/symbology ([BETA] as of this review’s release date!)
Third feedback round
Click/tap here to check my other reviews

Changelog

...

---

• Seeing that redditor and dataminer u/MrGengar123 is now posting separate charts with the stats on each unit, there’s no need for me to make my own in order to save time, so we’ll use theirs so long as they’re made available. Here’s the source with their charts: https://redd.it/mtu3et
• The [Associated event data] section is replaced with [Other resources], which is intended to become a li’l central of other helpful things related to the latest data update. In addition to that, it was revamped a little.
• Added a few terms to the glossary and a WIP [Spoiler] section, currently only making mention of Nergal’s children.

---

The End

Thanks as always for checking out my reviews, I hope this one has been your liking!
Seeing Tana get another alt made me really happy, she’s my favorite FE8 character and I’m glad her young self isn’t that much different from the lovely and sociable grown-up version, I’ve tried to write her bio from memory also, and I’d say I did fine probably.
I decided to extend the trailer’s background theme when presenting the seasonals also, because it wasn’t somehow, so here you go:

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones - "Binding Vow" (Ext. 30m + projectM...

Feel free to subscribe to my reviews, you’ll get instantly notified with each release, to do so, please check out this quick tutorial:

HOWTO: watch a tag

---

1. Look for the #af1899-reviews tag.
2. You’ll spot a bell icon immediately on the tag’s page, click/tap it.
3. A menu will appear, to get only notifications for new reviews, select the option “Watching First Post”, this’ll notify you of new releases.
   
   
   

As a matter of fact, you can certainly use this with any tag.

---

Whenever you subscribe, you’ll get a notification like this automatically after each release:

[dimitrisnoodlehair]

Great review as always Af! Also, thanks for letting me have the opportunity to write one of the intros. I was unsure about it at first, but I liked doing it

Also, I’d like to point out that in Tana’ section, under the “Not Recommended” for fodder, you wrote [Sturdy Blow] instead of [Steady Blow]. I don’t blame you though, those names are really similar

[af1899]

Thanks so much! Your bio was excellent and I appreciate you and the others + their work for agreeing to collab with me.

As for the li’l error, I fixed it right away, I can miss a bunch of little details randomly when working on a long draft like those of a review, so I appreciate others looking for my errors, little as they may be.

[af1899]

Oops, the chart for [S/R Far Trace 3] has a positioning error, I’ll probably fix it later but I take it how the skill works is still clear?

[NickofTime80]

Great Review and tgood job to do those who did the bio!

It’s nice that SS got a full seasonal banner all to itself in a long time.

The units have good art, the new skills are good for the calvary and flying classes and they’re all really strong units even though some of them powercreep three of the units I’m building very hard like Sumia, Sonia and Maribelle

Mininnes being one of the best F2P units we’ve gotten in awhile was a surprise but a welcomed one.

[Arm_The_Homeless]

Great write-up.

This child banner–IMHO–was better from a fodder standpoint and many of the units will have more meta uses.

My only gripe is that I ended up with more bebe Eirika than I wanted, not enough Tanas (Tani?) (Tanos?) for foddering purposes. I get the feeling going forward that duo birdcages in AR will nerf many of the duos and their competitive use will be more limited unless you’re max-merging for Arena. That’s not a bad thing after IS created a monster with DuoFonse.

I will max out Innes and hopefully get more Lyon merges on the DSH–if he’s on it. He’s primed to be an asset against cav-lines

[tiredandtrue]

I’m actually reading one of these for the first time and I do have some critisims I’d like to point out.

I’ve noticed there’s a lot of extra filler that doesn’t really need to be here. For example: There’s not really a need from what I can tell for Previous Releases, as we’re talking about this alt, not those alts. Also, the gender ratio at the bottom; it kinda doesn’t really matter in the sake of a review.

And a lot of the wording here seems to be an attempt to simplify things when there’s nothing to simplify, making it more complex and cluttered as a result. Because you really can’t any more simple than “If unit initiates combat or if unit is within 2 spaces of an ally…”

or “Reduces foe’s Def/Res by 50%”.

It’s like stalling on a 500 word essay assignment in high school.

And one of the biggest critisims I have is probably the reason why I’ve never really tried to read any of these before:

It’s just really really really lengthy.

It gets discouraging to read through all of it if there’s so much and I could just read or watch someone elses shorter review elsewhere and get all of the same required information I need in a shorter amount of time.

Cutting the post size down can also allow for these reviews to come out quicker and closer to when the heroes just released.

You can cut down the overall length of the post in nature by cutting out some of the previously mentioned clutter and using more of the “Hide Details” to organize the units or cover the skill descriptions for those who already know what they do excluding personal skills/weapons or new inheritables like the newly introduced Tome of Grado or S/D Near Trace.

Alternatively, you can hold a glossary at the bottom of the review (also with the “Hide Details”) for said recurring skills like Atk/Spd Push 4 and and also items like Orbs or Flowers. Overall reducing the size of the main review.

Overall it’s not a bad review, by any means, it does cover a lot of useful material, but there’s way too much to take in with a good portion not even being neccessary information or just extra clutter.

However, I will suggest one last thing. Maybe turn reviews like these into full on videos or apply to be an official page writer for the main GP info pages. Those type of things seem to be much better places for such in-depth analysises and reviews imo.

[kakyoin01]

I’m gonna be honest…these reviews of yours are incredibly, incredibly detailed but also equally lengthy. I had to stop reading them a while back because it was too much information to try to absorb in post format. It’s a heck of a lot to read through and it mostly rehashes and sometimes even overcomplicates mechanics. For the mechanics and skills breakdowns, I genuinely believe ‘less is more’ here. The character profiles and extra backgrounds are nice though, I would say this is a good niche that doesn’t get filled by many others on GP/in YT video analyses of new banner units.

What you’re making with each of these reviews seems like a hefty amount of work–maybe better immortalized in video slideshow format with audio commentary? As much as I would like to keep up with these, it’s just too much most of the time.

Just my two cents, mind you. Do keep up the good work, especially if you really enjoy making these yourself!

EDIT: Heh, seems like @tiredandtrue beat me to it.

[_Help_Me]

Great review as always.

Really tempting to build Lyon, but I have other things I want to use my orbs for.

[af1899]

Oh… wow… shockers, I see.
First of, thanks for the input.

@tiredandtrue: I get that, some skills are starting to appear now and then so it can get tiring to read them over and over.
But wording is a thing I’m afraid I can’t make any amends of, since not all skills are easy to understand at first glance and illustrative charts are a thing I enjoy doing, it may take more words to explain everything? Yeah, but as long as this makes them easier to understand, I’m glad.
Some details like previous releases will stay, Imo, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with adding some curiosities or additional data of sorts, gender ratio… will probably remove it though, since people can tell the genders of each character but I like to add statistics.
Skill listing, I can only add recurrent ones to a separate glossary of sorts, I’ve been having that idea in my mind before, but new skills will still appear in the review the first time of appearance, whether or not it’s a new family of skills as well, like the {Trace} ones in this batch.
The counter of previous users also stays, because it gives the reader a quick glance to how many seasonal units and the like have the skill prior to the release of the current unit.

I considered applying but I thought I had to wait for #gamepress to open up a recruitment period since I’ve seen they used to pin threads for that, but I’ll think of it, I’ve been thinking about opening up donations for a while but that’s probably not a good idea, so I’ll just look for a job, be it as writer here or something else.
I don’t think I’ll do videos though, lots of links to place here and there + I need a more potent computer for actively editing videos, the laptop I’m using now is… way too low on specs, I can use Camtasia Studio just fine but editing a video in this machine and with this software (which is the easiest on my resources that has what I need) is a lot work, possibly more than a review, text works easy for me because I have templates already done, the other option is moving to PDFs, but that’s probably not as convenient, I’ll probably try anyway.

@kakyoin01: like I told to Pactato, I’m afraid I can’t think of shortening the skill descriptions because I’m very mindful with skill understanding, but I can make my own skill reference in an online Excel spreadsheet for recurrent skills, that’ll at least make the reviews less prone to be divided in two parts and be shorter, thus more people will likely read them, thanks though.

[_Help_Me]

I honestly wouldn’t worry about shortening things.

I admit they are long, but most readers know what they are getting into.

In addition, there are many shorter reviews, and it’s easy to get them/opinions like that. Having one long, in depth review isn’t a bad thing, and yours fills that role well.

[kakyoin01]

Alright, that’s fair enough then. I guess these review posts are not for everyone then, and it can be left at that.

@_Help_Me: I really don’t think this review stands out as long and in-depth when compared to the many other such video reviews that go over banner unit reviews/mechanics/should you summon. Comparing reviews like this to the typical video reviews puts them about on par with each other length-wise. I would agree, however, that if you narrow it down to only GP, certainly only af makes such lengthy and detailed unit/banner reviews. I doubt the majority of GP users do not reference PM1, Akariss, TheSacredSpear, etc.

[anon56270914]

thank u all for teh civil, productive disagreements
ya’ll are living up to the high gp standard

keep on doin yo thang af1899

[af1899]

I’m glad to read they’re your liking, I’ll still definitely think of other ways to shorten them since some parts can get tiring to read… and I really see that.

@kakyoin01

@_Help_Me: I really don’t think this review stands out as long and in-depth when compared to the many other such video reviews that go over banner unit reviews/mechanics/should you summon. Comparing reviews like this to the typical video reviews puts them about on par with each other length-wise. I would agree, however, that if you narrow it down to only GP, certainly only af makes such lengthy and detailed unit/banner reviews.

Look…I’m not going to compete with anyone, I reject that idea, I don’t do this to strive to be better than anyone else doing reviews… I just do it because I enjoy doing it and I’m highly appreciative there’s people interested in them, it makes me really happy to read people’s comments and see how this is helping them in one way or another, or that they enjoy reading it.
Pac is right, it’s a lot of work, but seeing I have a lot of free time while looking for a job, I’ve decided I wanted to work on the reviews simply because it’s a thing I like doing, and I haven’t said I’ll not take in consideration everything you guys said, I just need time to process it.

But competing for who makes the best review is out of my mind.

---

I think I’ll need some time to reflect upon things, I feel in shambles as of this moment, but I guess some feedback is necessary every now and then. Hopefully the next Legendary Hero will give me some inspiration to write about them, otherwise I’ll be absent for a longer period of time until my inspiration comes back.

[anon56270914]

[kakyoin01]

Yeah, exactly. You don’t have to compete with any others. In the end it’s best to just be you. If all this so far is you, keep being you. However, I get the feeling (mostly from your chosen verbiage so far) that you maybe are largely trying to make these exercises about both yourself and others. Trying to handle both at a high level as a content creator can be very stressful. I think most of the criticism so far does have its merit, but if you have an agenda and you’re the sole creator of this honestly impressively detailed content, you just do what you want and people who like your content will naturally flock to it. That said, I think the criticism so far, if considered and factored in to future endeavors, could potentially greatly widen your target audience and engagement–however you try to cut it, you do seem to attract a more niche audience with these as-is. Nothing wrong with that, but maybe if you’re expecting or at least hoping for more engagement from these it could be time to consider some tweaks, that’s all.

[OverpoweredSoap]

Nice stuff as always af!

I will say that I feel Sumia is still in an ok spot when compared to baby tana just because baby Tana is a seasonal (harder to merge) and that she may run into the issue of oneshotting too often in order to galeforce properly imo.

Sumia being a 4* special, being on weekly banner reruns and just being in the regular pool means getting copies of her makes it a lot easier to invest in to her. Her weapon’s requirements are also pretty easy to fulfill to at least give her the ability to match baby tana’s speed.

Additionally, while the -spd/def portion of trace is nice, the movement ability Sumia has built into her weapon, which gives Sumia the option to run Dive bomb without having to use trace instead.

For reference her are the stat differences (the blue numbers are the stats from their weapons but pretend baby tana has +2 extra to her def and res).

I think the big difference between the two is actually the slaying effect, if Sumia had a slaying effect I would personally think that she would be a better build option compared to baby Tana because she’s easier to get merges for.

Just a thought, I think you’re underestimating Sumia a little here (I don’t blame you, Sumia’s stats are rather blah outside of speed). But Baby Tana does scare her quite a bit in terms of viability as a one off.

[af1899]

Thanks, I always think of ways to improve my work but it often ends up lengthening it instead of shortening it, I know the feedback really helps, and whatever I think is best will be put in consideration.
I really would like to try reaching a wider audience, and there are some things I’m willing to do, actually… I’ve set the groundwork for something new to come:

This is just a simple schema, at any given rate, the design isn’t final but I think this will make for a nice reference for recurrent skills, while covering partially the length issue… I’m liking the ideas I can add here…

[af1899]

Thanks! I appreciate you took the time to make a comparison between both Young Tana and Sumia — but I agree, I had understimated a little Sumia, though I didn’t intend to completely disencourage people to build her or undermine her, and there’s rarity of merges to factor in, as well.
All in all, Sumia’s refine is still looking like fun and I may invest on her if I ever get one.