To note
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Introduction
Hello everyone, I hope y’all are having a nice day.
Another Mythic Hero joins the fray as a playable character, at first it was thought to be Líf because of his weapon data had two changes, the most notorious is a boolean variable called enemy_only
which determines if a weapon is bound to only enemy characters, once it’s set to false
it’s never touched ever again:
…that’s what happened and now, the Mythic Hero you’ve been looking forward to:
Líf
LINKS | Open the video in a new tab | View the japanese trailer | | | Background music |
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EPITHET | Lethal Swordsman |
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WEAPON TYPE |
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MOVEMENT TYPE |
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INFORMATION PAGES | FANDOM | FE Wiki | FEH info | GamePress page |
MEDIA INFO |
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MYTHIC HERO DATA |
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Bio
Known as the Lethal Swordsman and Cohort of the Dead, Líf is a General of the Realm of the Dead and an enemy to the Order of Heroes. He is named after the first King of Askr, who formed an Alliance with the Divine Dragon Askr and with the Dragon’s Blood gained the power to open gates to other worlds. During the events of the story, it is revealed that Líf is actually Prince Alfonse of Askr from another world, one in which Askr sided with Embla and managed to defeat Hel, but at the cost of the death of all life. Líf serves in Hel’s army, according to an agreement they had that if he were to fight on her behalf, she would gradually bring the people of his world back to life. Having being resurrected by Hel, he has turned into a cold-hearted killer set on destroying all worlds. It’s shown that his disheartened personality is because of guilt over witnessing the death of everyone he ever cared about due to his own actions, with Sharena’s death being the breaking point. As a result, he is so desperate to serve Hel in exchange to restore his Askr, even if it meant the destruction of Alfonse’s world.
Special thanks to @GamingBro1 for writing the bio!
Skillset
Being finally made a playable character after the end of Book III, Líf sports a fresh kit while still bringing along his trustworthy weapon:
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[Sökkvabekkr]: it grants invisible buffs of +4 to all stats and guaranted follow-up attack only by having an ally within a 3-square radius, this comes at the price that the closest ally/allies to Líf will get hurt (lose 20HP) however this backfire can be used for an easy activation of builds involving {brazen}, [Vantage] and/or [Desperation] sets as this damage is non-lethal (will not kill an ally but leave them alive with at least 1HP), this is a sample of its activation:
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[Open the Future]: that’s NY!Alfonse’s special, what it does is boost damage by 50% of the user’s defense while restoring the HP by a quarter of the damage dealt.
The cooldown is relatively lower than [Aether], being at 3 and giving him some nice sustain. - [Distant Counter]: will let him counter at range 2, he actually can make good use out of it but you may change it for more defensive abilities.
- ☆[Deadly Balance]: when a fight starts the game will calculate if his HP is above half its maximum or if he has any form of debuff that lasts until moving, if that’s true this ability will inflict attack and defense -5 during combat and +1 CD charge, this gives him the edge to become tankier and have faster sustain, all in an easy to meet condition. It’s recommended to leave this skill untouched.
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[Time’s Pulse 3]: no longer exclusive to Sothis, this skill will give his special a charge at the start of each turn but ONLY if the special is completely uncharged, so if it’s 3 it’ll go down to 2.
Having guaranteed doubles will let him proc the special on the second hit during his phase
Stats
LINKS | Source | Enlarge |
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- Superboon: attack
- Superbane: speed, resistance
That’s his statline, he’s kind of slow but not that much and it’s actually a workable stat.
His selling point is the attack superboon which is his generally best asset as it’s a super one and will favor damage greatly, it helps his [Sökkvabekkr] guarantees a follow-up, making speed best for avoiding doubles or for when you use other weapons to focus on his defensive capabilities. Speed can also compliment with his speed boost in [AR-O] for preventing more follow-ups via AS.
He has a nice mixed bulk of 76/71, giving him a somewhat good tanking potential, having 5 points more in defense than resistance to go with his [Open the Future] special which takes 50% of this stat for extra damage (along with any buff on it).
I’ve thought of two units that have somewhat similar statlines:
L!Ike is still a great unit but a Mythic Hero has beaten him in magic bulk and slightly by attack power, however L!Ike has the advantage of having [Ragnell] which has only [Distant Counter] and 16 Mgt., he’s still a viable unit you can run with more flexible sets.
Itsuki is even more accurate for comparison as he has a good weapon for more attack and defense depending of allies/enemies that moved and effectiveness against dragons plus more mixed bulk, both are powerful units all-around but Líf gives them a run for their money with ☆[Deadly Balance] and [Sökkvabekkr].
All in all, Líf is a respectably solid unit with strong PRF skills at his disposal.
Statline rating: 9/10
Inheritance options
[Distant Counter] and [Time’s Pulse 3] makes the best combo but your choices are limited to infantry melee units as they’re the only combination able to receive both in one SI.
But if you want an easier choice: [Time’s Pulse 3]… it’s way rarer than [Distant Counter] due to being in two Mythic Heroes so far and you can get [Distant Counter] from some regular pool units, your choices will open to ranged infantry alongside melee infantry
Aesthetics
Facial expressions
While his artwork between the facial expressions doesn’t differ much I still felt like adding it, there are subtle differences in these arts after all:
Sample quote:
I admire artwork like this where cold colors and a deathly essence are the main topics, even other details add to it — for example look at the fur cape, it compliments him so well. And the design of his sword, enveloped in darkness, is one of the best I’ve ever seen.
And his voice acting is really befitting, there’s nothing I can complain about it or artwork itself
Banner
Duration: 2020-01-30T07:00:00Z → 2020-02-06T06:59:59Z
Tip: Click on a unit’s name to see his/her page on GamePress
![]() RED |
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Líf | L!Eliwood | F!Byleth |
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![]() BLUE |
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L!Ephraim | L!Lucina | P!Lukas |
![]() GREEN |
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L!Hector | Yune | Hilda |
![]() COLORLESS |
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L!Leif | Loki | Caineghis |
Insight
- Red: it’s the best color, Líf is accompained by L!Eliwood and F!Byleth, the former a great support unit that grants [Bonus Doubler] status to the ally with highest attack and F!Byleth who has either great fodder or utility (9/10)
- Blue: it has L!Lucina, L!Ephraim and P!Lukas… the last kind of ruins the color but is nice to collect, L!Ephraim has been suffering powercreep but he’s still a good unit and L!Lucina is a competent unit under your hands or that of the AI (7.5/10)
- Green: Hilda gets a rerun on this banner along with Yune and L!Hector, certainly a good color to pick some strong units with a good chance to pick up good L/M Heroes or a strong unit (8/10)
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Colorless: the only thing salvaging this color is the good fodder we have here, mainly [Distant Def 4] and of course L!Leif.
But asides that this color has a poor choice of units, we have TWO 5★ regular pool rerunning for a second time on a Mythic Hero banner, Loki was in Duma’s banner (Jan/2019) and Caineghis on Sothis’ (Jul/2019), they already had their time on different banners and I.S. lags behind with the wait list of units yet to get a rerun in L/M banners, mainly seasonals. IMO a really poor decision of their part (4/10)
Overall this banner is really good, and offers many strong units and fodder packed in, but I.S. will have to give more limited or newer units a chance to shine in future banners of this nature.
I strongly recommend the red pool if you like Líf and the other units accompaining him, while colorless is the least I can recommend
Calendar of returning L/M Heroes
LINKS | Enlarge |
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L!Marth was initially planned to return in February but his rerun was pushed to April
Feel free to share this chart wherever you like, but please don’t edit it!
You may also check out
u/Hax_r_us_kappa
's Reddit account for their latest chart
Ratings
- Artwork rating: 10/10
- Voice acting rating: 10/10
- Banner rating: 7/10
Temporary central glossary/symbology (will be replaced later on here and the other reviews)
Click/tap here to check my other reviews
Third feedback round
Discussion thread
The End
Start/End times of creation
I readied the template 4d ago but started doing the review soon after he was announced, also times are approximate, I do one last check before releasing each review
Thank you so much for reading out my reviews as usual! Your continued support means a lot to me and helps to make more reviews.
Feel free to provide any input in the latest feedback round (as of this review the third one linked above) on what you’d like to improve, find useful, etc. — you can also write either there or privately if you’d like to write a bio for any character, it’ll be appreciated.
As always I hope you enjoyed this work!