Fog of war

Chapter 8x of Thracia 776, with fog of war in effect. In Thracia, fog of war renders the rest of the map completely unviewable, adding a further element of uncertainty to navigating the map.

“	This is no good. If the fog thickens, we'll be blind in battle. It will be difficult to fight what we cannot see.	”	— Kent

Fog of war (Japanese: 索敵 searching for the enemy) is a weather condition first implemented in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 and the most frequently recurring weather, present in all subsequent games until New Mystery of the Emblem. Designed to add a level of tactical uncertainty and caution to gameplay, a map where fog of war is in effect limits the player's view of the map and its contents to a smaller field. Fog of war is normally portrayed as fighting in the midst of literal fog, rainfall, darkness, or on one occasion as fighting in a sandstorm.

In fog of war conditions, only a small area of vision surrounding each individual player or neutral unit can be seen properly. Enemies which do not fall into this field of vision cannot be seen at all, and as such cannot be attacked. As enemies cannot be seen, when moving allied units it is possible to accidentally run into them; if this happens, the moving unit automatically waits at the spot just before the enemy they collided with, and cannot attack. In Engage specifically, player units cannot even enter spaces that are not properly visible. The AI for enemy and NPC units does not play by the same rules, however, as enemies and NPC units will not be affected by fog of war and thus will attack even units which would not fall into their field of vision. A unit's field of vision will only be updated after a unit performs an action, such as waiting or attacking.

In most appearances of fog of war, the fog will merely dim and/or darken the rest of the map; the layout can still be easily seen and terrain data is still actively available. This is not the case in Thracia 776, where the shrouded parts of the map are instead blacked out entirely and the terrain window is hidden, adding a trial-and-error element to navigating the area.

Vision

Sain runs into an enemy hidden by fog of war. This interrupts his selected movement path and forces him to wait where he is.

Generally speaking, the battlefield area visible to the player at any given time depends on the vision of their units in play. The majority of units in every game have only mediocre vision, but from The Binding Blade onward, a handful of classes—Thieves, Assassins, Rogues and Whispers—possess an innate greater field of vision in fog of war. A thief unit will typically possess double the vision range of a normal unit; the exact degree of increased vision varies depending on the game and depending on the base vision field.

Units' vision in fog of war by game
Game	Normal units	Thief units
Thracia 776	3	3
The Binding Blade	Chapter-dependent, see below
The Blazing Blade	3	8
The Sacred Stones	3	8
Path of Radiance	See below
Radiant Dawn	See below
Shadow Dragon	2	3
New Mystery of the Emblem	2	3
Three Houses	2*	2*
Engage	3	5

Nealuchi stands in the middle of fog of war. In his bird form, he has zero vision and cannot reveal the spaces adjacent to himself to view enemies or terrain.

Beyond the use of a Thief unit, there are two items with the ability to temporarily increase visibility on a fog of war map: the Torch item and the Torch staff. When used, they provide an increase to the unit's field of vision, slowly decreasing back to normal at a rate of one tile per turn. In some games, the Torch staff instead casts a vision increase at a fixed spot within a certain casting range, independent of the casting unit. Most games will readily point this out and emphasise the value of bringing a thief unit to a fog of war map. Another means of increasing vision is available in Radiant Dawn with the character Janaff, whose personal skill Insight increases his vision.

In Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, unlike in other games in the series, every class has a different vision range. For laguz classes, their vision range usually depends on whether or not they are shifted or unshifted. Notably, all bird tribe laguz have very poor vision in fog of war conditions as a trait of their species, to the point that their vision is reduced to 0 in Radiant Dawn when shifted, which makes them (with the exception of Janaff, due to Insight) the only classes in any game to be completely unable to reveal enemies and spaces hidden by fog of war.

Additionally in Radiant Dawn, fog of war also prevents the player from viewing a space's terrain effects.

List of classes in Radiant Dawn by vision

Beorc classes Laguz and other classes

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On rare occasions, environmental obstacles can allow for increased vision. In Radiant Dawn, obstacles called watch fires are placed at intervals around some fog of war maps. When lit by a unit, a watch fire casts a wider field of vision at a fixed space until extinguished by a unit; both allied and enemy units are capable of lighting or extinguishing them. In Engage, similar obstacles called beacons are placed in some fog of war maps.

Fog of war maps by game

Thracia 776

• Chapter 2x: The Pirate Isles
• Chapter 4x: Hero on the Wind
• Chapter 8x: Dagdar's Manor
• Chapter 11x: Murder Holes
• Chapter 12: The Bandits of Dacia
• Chapter 12x: The Dandelion
• Chapter 14x: Yearning to Breathe Free
• Chapter 24x: The Loptrian Altar

The Binding Blade

• Chapter 9: The Misty Isles
• Chapter 12x: The Thunder Axe
• Chapter 14: Arcadia
• Chapter 17A: The Bishop's Teachings
• Chapter 19B: Bitter Cold
• Chapter 20A: The Silver Wolf
• Chapter 21x: The Elder Revelation
• Trial Map 2: Rainy Island

Units' vision in fog of war by chapter
Chapter	Normal units	Thief units
Chapter 9: The Misty Isles	5	10
Chapter 12x: The Thunder Axe	5	10
Chapter 14: Arcadia	4	9
Chapter 17A: The Bishop's Teachings	3	8
Chapter 19B: Bitter Cold	3	8
Chapter 20A: The Silver Wolf	9	14
Chapter 21x: The Elder Revelation	8	13
Trial Map 2: Rainy Island	5	10

The Blazing Blade

• Chapter 9: A Grim Reunion (partial)
• Chapter 13x: The Peddler Merlinus
• Chapter 18E/19H: The Dread Isle
• Chapter 19x pt 2H: A Glimpse in Time
• Chapter 20E/21H: New Resolve
• Chapter 22E/23H: Living Legend (Hector hard mode only)
• Chapter 23E/24H: Four-Fanged Offense (Lloyd variant)
• Chapter 26E/28H: Battle before Dawn

The Sacred Stones

• Chapter 6: Victims of War
• Chapter 11A: Creeping Darkness
• Chapter 11B: Phantom Ship
• Chapter 19: Last Hope

Additionally, any skirmish (excluding visits to the Tower of Valni and Lagdou Ruins) has a random chance^{[what chance?]} of having fog of war in effect in any given visit.

Path of Radiance

In Path of Radiance, fog of war will only be present on these chapters when played in Hard Mode or Maniac Mode^JP. Easy Mode^USEU and Normal Mode do not have fog of war in any chapter.

• Chapter 5: Flight!
• Chapter 14: Training

Radiant Dawn

• Part I, Chapter 9: One Survives
• Part II, Chapter 2: Tides of Intrigue
• Part III, Prologue: The Great Advance
• Part III, Chapter 1: Laguz and Beorc
• Part III, Chapter 6: A Reason to Fight
• Part IV, Chapter 1: Road to the Empire

Shadow Dragon

No chapter of the main story mode has fog of war. Fog of war only exists in the multiplayer battle mode, where it can be enabled or disabled for use in a round of multiplayer gameplay.

New Mystery of the Emblem

• Chapter 13x: Within the White Darkness
• Chapter 20x: Bottom of the Deep Abyss

Additionally, fog of war can be enabled or disabled for use in rounds of multiplayer gameplay.

Fates

In Fire Emblem Fates, traditional fog of war is not present, though two chapters have mechanics that function somewhat similarly. Chapter 7 of Revelation obscures rooms until a unit walks into them. Chapter 10 of Revelation obscures unit vision by covering the entire map in snow; units in the snow cannot move and the player cannot move into it unless they destroy the snow first. The snow also partially obscures the terrain.

• Revelation Chapter 7: Unspeakable World
• Revelation Chapter 10: Voice of a God

Three Houses

• Chapter 3: The Magdred Ambush
• Paralogues:
  • Falling Short of Heaven
  • Forgotten Hero
  • Legend of the Lake

Engage

• Chapter 6: The Stolen Ring
• Chapter 13: Heroes of the Oasis
• Chapter 20: The Kingless Castle

Trivia

• There is an unused item in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, the Telescope; its function, increasing a unit's "enemy search" ("さくてき", which is the same term used for fog of war maps in Japanese), may imply that fog of war was slated to feature in the first game in the series.

Etymology and other languages

Names, etymology, and in other regions
Language	Name	Definition, etymology, and notes
English	• Fog of war • Low-Visibility Map	• Often abbreviated to "FoW" in the fandom. Refers to fog of war, the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations. • Used in Three Houses.
Japanese	索敵	Searching for the enemy
Spanish	• Campo de visión • Visibilidad reducida	• Field of view • Reduced visibility; used in Three Houses.
French	• Carte brouille • Carte à visibilité réduite	• Blurred map • Reduced-visibility map; used in Three Houses.
German	• Nebel • Karte mit geringer Sichtweite	• Fog • Map with low visibility; used in Three Houses.
Italian	• Visibilità limitata • Mappa con scarsa visibilità	• Limited visibility • Map with low visibility; used in Three Houses.
Korean	탐색 맵	Searching map
Simplified Chinese	寻敌地图	Enemy-searching map
Traditional Chinese	尋敵地圖	Enemy-searching map

Gallery

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  Fog of war in Thracia 776.

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  Fog of war in The Binding Blade.

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  Sain runs into an enemy hidden by fog of war in The Blazing Blade.

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  Fog of war in Path of Radiance.

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  Fog of war in Radiant Dawn.

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  Fog of war in Shadow Dragon's multiplayer.