Freelancer

Freelancer File:Bs fe12 xane freelancer.png A Freelancer in the Nintendo DS games. Units with little combat skill of their own, but who can assume a comrade's form.

Unit type(s) Unknown Weapon(s) Sword (Ankoku Ryuu, Mystery of the Emblem) None (Shadow Dragon, New Mystery of the Emblem) Skill(s) Imitate

The Freelancer (コマンド Commando) is a class introduced in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light. Appearing only in the two Archanea titles and their remakes for Nintendo DS, this class is entirely exclusive to the playable character Xane. In the original games, the Freelancer class can wield swords, but in the remakes they wield no weapons of their own.

The main function of the Freelancer class is its ability to transform into other classes. Xane can stand next to any ally and select the "Imitate" function on the menu, and he will transform into the neighboring ally's class, copying all of his or her stats and weapon ranks. Five turns later, he will transform back, and the player can choose a different ally to copy. In this transformation, Freelancers copy not only stats, but also properties of some other classes, such as a Thief that can pick locks; however, they cannot copy a Lord's ability to seize or a Dancer's ability to dance.

Freelancers have low stats in and of themselves, though they have adequate resistance. Their low stats are, of course, balanced by the fact that they can copy the stats of any ally. Freelancers cannot class change, nor can they be reclassed. The remakes classify Freelancers as a special class and thus allow them to grow to Level 30, though it tends to prove unnecessary because most of the time they spend in battle will be spent using someone else's stats.

Stats

Base stats

Game	HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution	Weapon level
Ankoku Ryuu	16	1	--	1	10	0	4	0	6	--	Sword: 2
Mystery of the Emblem	16	1	--	1	6	0	4	10	6	--	Sword: 7
Shadow Dragon	16	1	0	1	6	0	4	10	6	--	None

Max stats

Game	HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution	Weapon level
Ankoku Ryuu	52	20	--	20	20	20	20	20	20	--	Sword: 20
Mystery of the Emblem	52	20	--	20	20	20	20	20	20	--	Sword 20
Shadow Dragon	60	20	20	25	25	30	20	20	?	--	None

Class growth rates

Game	HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Charm	Constitution*	Movement*	Weapon level
Mystery of the Emblem	30%	30%	--	30%	30%	0%	30%	30%	--	--	--	--
Shadow Dragon	60%	20%	0%	40%	50%	0%	30%	0%	--	--	--	--

See class growth rate for more details on the mechanics of class growths in each game.

Class skills

Game	Skill	Learning conditions

Notable Freelancers

Playable Characters
Name	Game
Xane	Ankoku Ryuu, Mystery of the Emblem, Shadow Dragon, New Mystery of the Emblem
Playable Freelancer units in the Fire Emblem series.

Etymology and other languages

Names, etymology, and in other regions
Language	Name	Definition, etymology, and notes
English	Freelancer	Refers to the concept of freelance employment, in which one is hired out on temporary jobs without a formal committment binding them to the employer in the long term.
English (Europe)	Chameleon	Refers to the distinctive lizard species of the family Chamaeleonidae, famous for their ability to naturally change their skin coloration to camouflage themselves into to their environment.
Spanish	Camaleón	Chameleon
French	Caméléon	Chameleon
German	Chamäleon	Chameleon
Italian	Mutamorfo	From the Italian word mutare ("change") and the Greek morfo ("form")

This article is part of Project Classes, a project focused in writing articles for every class present in the Fire Emblem series.