Skills

The skill system (Japanese: スキル Skill) is a Fire Emblem series gameplay mechanic revolving around the use of special abilities, called skills, which grant additional abilities to individual units which subvert the normal flow of gameplay. Learned by units both depending on their class and on a personal basis, skills possess a wide variety of effects which serve to both augment and hinder a unit's performance and capabilities in battle, and are used by both playable units and the enemy army.

Highlighted: Fiona's skills list and capacity. She currently has two personal skills equipped—Savior and Imbue—and also possesses the class skill Canto.

While skills as a defined mechanic first appeared in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, skill-like features of certain classes have existed since Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light. In Three Houses, skills are instead known as abilities.

Overview

Classifications

Class and personal skills

From the introduction of the system in Genealogy of the Holy War to Radiant Dawn, skills are divided into two categories which dictate their availability: class skills (Japanese: 兵種スキル class skill) and personal skills (Japanese: 個人スキル personal skill), or "soldier" and "citizen" respectively in Path of Radiance. A class skill is a skill possessed by all units of a certain class, whereas a personal skill is a skill specifically inherent or taught to an individual unit and has no direct association with a class. Overlap in the two categories is possible, as a skill which is a class skill for some classes may be available as a personal skill for some units. Thracia 776 additionally has weapon skills (Japanese: 武器スキル weapon skill), which are gained while equipping specific weapons that grant them. These are present in other games, but are only shown on a unit's skill list in Thracia 776 and Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, and are only referred to as such in Thracia.

Example: Pavise is a class skill in Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776, associated with Generals, Barons and Emperors in the former, and Barons only in the latter. However, Xavier also possesses Pavise as a personal skill.

A sub-category of class skills is mastery skills in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, which are class skills available only to advanced classes (requiring the use of an Occult scroll in the former game) and are typically more potent than "normal" skills.

The next game with a skill system after Radiant Dawn, Awakening, removed distinct types of skills in favor of a simpler system where all skills are learned from classes, and can then be equipped whenever. Fates, while continuing to use this system and not using the term, introduces a new form of personal skills to the series. In it, every normal playable unit has a single completely unique skill which cannot be unequipped, and cannot be learned by other units by any means. These are often designed to reflect the unit's character in some way. Playable unit-unique skills would continue to be featured in later games in the series, and come to explicitly be named personal skills, effectively replacing the previous definition.

Three Houses and Engage, while retaining the equipped skills system, return to a more rigid definition of different types of skills. In addition to equipped skills and the now so named personal skills, the class skills system from the earlier games returns mostly unchanged, where all units of a certain class have an unremovable skill or set of skills. In Three Houses, most classes have class skills, but in Engage only advanced classes have skills, and units can only use them once they reach level 5 in the class.

Equippable skills

From Awakening onward, the original idea of personal skills is somewhat reworked with the introduction of a unit's personal skill pool, which their learned skills accumulate in and can be equipped from at the player's leisure. Awakening and Fates do not use the terms "personal skill" and "class skill", referring to everything as simply "skills". In these games, almost all skills are learned by leveling up in a certain class, which grants access to that class' skills to the unit at set levels. These skills are then retained in the skill pool across all further reclasses and class changes. However, a small few units do have access to skills which cannot be learned from any of the classes they have access to; in particular, every bonus unit in Awakening has at least one skill outside their default class, with some being otherwise unavailable to them due to gender.

In Three Houses, they are known as equipped abilities, and are learned from a variety of sources, most often by raising a unit's skill levels. Other sources include Class mastery, unlocking units' budding talents, and special events. In Engage, they are known as inherited skills and are acquired exclusively by spending SP to inherit them from Emblem Rings.

Offensive skills

Main article: Offensive skill

An offensive skill is any skill which has a percentage chance of activating derived from a specific stat possessed by the user or their target, usually their Skill stat. In common fandom parlance, however, the term is most commonly used to refer to directly offensive skills with this activation criteria, such as Sol and Luna.

Restrictions

Perne, after learning all eight of the game's manual-taught skills (plus his own base skills), demonstrating an absence of a hard skill maximum in Thracia 776.

In Thracia 776, there is no restriction on how many skills a unit can learn. Theoretically, a unit can be taught all eight of the skills learnable from the game's skill manuals with no restriction, though in practice the limited quantities of the skill manuals and the size of the playable cast discourage expending all of one's skill manuals on a single unit. Needless to say, a unit who already possesses a given skill cannot learn it a second time from a manual.

In Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, skill restriction is determined by the capacity stat. Every unit has a set number of capacity points depending on their class, which are consumed by the skills they have been taught; every skill has a set number of capacity points which it requires to be available if it is to be taught to a unit, with the required point threshold depending on the individual skill. Generally speaking, advanced classes have a higher capacity than basic classes, and laguz possess the highest capacity of any class. It is important to remember that mandatory class skills such as Shove and Canto (marked with the icon ) do consume capacity points and cannot be removed to free up capacity. There is also a physical limit in place in Radiant Dawn, where regardless of how much capacity they have left over, a unit cannot learn more than six skills, including any irremovable ones.

List of classes by capacity points available

Path of Radiance Radiant Dawn

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Games from Awakening forward (with the exception of Echoes) feature a system where units can only have a certain number of skills active on themselves at a time; any surplus skills are stored in a pool of skills available to the individual unit, and all units can freely swap around, apply or remove skills in the menu when outside of battle. Awakening and Fates allow five player-assigned skills active per unit at a time, with Fates additionally featuring a sixth, always equipped personal skill unique to each unit. Three Houses builds upon this further, allowing for one personal skill, five player-assigned skills, and up to three skills inherent to a unit's class. In Engage, player units may only have four non-Emblem skills active at a time; one personal skill, two player-assigned skills, and one class-specific skill unlocked by reaching a certain level. Equipping an Emblem Ring will grant them as many as six additional skills unique to that Emblem Ring.

List of skills by game

Technically speaking, class skills exist in almost every game in the series, in the sense of abilities dependent on specific classes, and indeed many abilities available to classes in non-skill-enabled games are considered skills in games with a formal skill system (in some cases, such as Canto and Shove, a skill already existed in an hidden and undefined state in earlier games with skill systems before finally being given a proper skill entry in a later game with a skill system). However, only ten titles in the main series actually possess a formal skill system.

Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776

Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776 are the originators of the formal skill system, with the original eighteen skills debuting in the former. Of these eighteen only two, Critical and Follow-Up, did not return in Thracia 776 as the game's mechanics were altered to render their respective functions part of standard gameplay as per the rest of the series.

In Genealogy of the Holy War, they are given categories in the skill menu: Standard (Japanese: いっぱん), Combat (Japanese: せんとう), and Special Sword (Japanese: とくしゅ剣). Special sword skills are a specific subcategory of offensive trigger skills which are available only for unmounted sword-wielding units (Myrmidon, Swordmaster, Forrest, Thief, Thief Fighter, Dancer) and cannot be learned by mounted or non-sword-wielding units under any circumstances, and cannot activate simultaneously if multiples are possessed by a single unit. These restrictions were lifted in Thracia 776 onward, allowing them to be freely learned and used by any class, as well as allowing multiple Special Swords to activate on the same attack.

Skills in Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776
Skill	Effect	Available in: Genealogy	Available in: Thracia	Category (Genealogy)
Accost	Engages the enemy in another round of combat, up to 20 more times*/once*.	✓	✓	Combat
Adept	It deals two consecutive hits against the enemy. Does activate when wielding a brave weapon*.	✓	✓	Combat
Astra	If activated, user's next strike becomes five consecutive strikes. It is possible for any and all of the strikes to be a critical hit.	✓	✓	Special Sword
Bargain	Reduces prices at the vendor, weapon repair shop and pawn shop* by 50%.	✓	✓	Standard
Charm	+10% hit rate and avoid to all allied units within a 3-tile radius of the user.	✓	✓	Standard
Critical	Allows the user to perform critical hits.	✓	✗	Combat
Dance	Refreshes all four*/one* adjacent allies, or all other allies in the home castle*, allowing them to move again if they have already moved.	✓	✓	Standard
Follow-Up	Enables the user to make follow-up attacks if user's attack speed exceeds foe's.	✓	✗	Combat
Luna	If activated, user's next strike ignores the enemy's Defense and Resistance*/Magic*. This attack also ignores the standard hit check.	✓	✓	Special Sword
Miracle	The user's avoid is increased by [(11 − HP) × 10] for one turn.*/ If activated, for the entire round of combat, the user will avoid any attack that would kill them.*	✓	✓	Standard
Nihil	It negates the enemy's special sword skills, critical hits and bonus damage.*/ It negates the enemy's combat-related skills.*	✓	✓	Combat
Paragon	It doubles the user's experience gain.	✓	✓	Standard
Pavise	If activated, negates an enemy attack against the user. Can't activate if foe is using Nosferatu, or Earth Sword at 2-range.	✓	✓	Combat
Renewal	It heals 5-10 HP to the user at the beginning of the user's phase.*/ It heals 10-20% of the user's HP at the beginning of the user's phase.*	✓	✓	Standard
Sol	If activated, user's next strike recovers HP equal to damage dealt to foe. This attack also ignores the standard hit check.	✓	✓	Special Sword
Steal	On a successful hit, user takes all of the enemy's gold. Also grants guaranteed critical hits if the foe has Wrath active.*/ The user can steal weapons and items from enemies, if (user's Speed > enemy's Speed) and (user's Con > weapon/item's Weight)*	✓	✓	Combat
Vantage	If Current HP < (Max HP/2) + 1, negate foe's Accost and user always strikes first in combat.*/ The user always strikes first, unless the foe also has Vantage.*	✓	✓	Combat
Wrath	The user always unleashes a critical hit when Current HP < (Max HP/2) + 1.*/ The user always unleashes a critical hit on their non-follow-up counterattacks when the enemy attacks first (affected by attack order changes from Vantage).*	✓	✓	Combat

The Sacred Stones

Gilliam activating Great Shield in The Sacred Stones.

The Sacred Stones reintroduced skills to the series following their absence in its two predecessors, albeit in a significantly watered-down form compared to skill systems in other games. Seven skills are present in the game, all class skills. The game interface allots no specific space to profile skills and their effects, and the skills are only acknowledged briefly by name in the class descriptions.

Skills in The Sacred Stones
Skill	Activation	Effect	Class
Great Shield	(Enemy's level)%	Nullifies damage dealt by the enemy, unless the attack can apply Poison.	General
Sure Strike	(User's level)%	Maximizes the user's accuracy for one strike.	Sniper
Silencer	50% if attack rolls a critical hit	Instantly kills the enemy in one strike, gaining extra EXP for the kill.	Assassin
Pick	Command	Allows the user to open doors and chests without keys or a Lockpick.	Rogue
Pierce	(User's level)%	Nullifies the enemy's Defense.	Wyvern Knight
Slayer	100%	Allows the user to deal bonus damage to monsters.	Bishop
Summon	Command	Summons a single Phantom onto the map as an ally.	Summoner, Necromancer

Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn

Regular skills

Skills in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn
Skill	Effect	Regular skill in: Path of Radiance	Regular skill in: Radiant Dawn
Nihil	Negates enemy skills in battle.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal and class)
Vantage	May grant the first strike.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Adept	Can deal a second consecutive hit.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Wrath	Boosts critical rate when HP is below a certain threshold.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Miracle	Can reduce fatal damage to half of user's current HP.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Resolve	Boosts Strength, Skill, and Speed when below half total HP.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Counter	May deal half damage dealt to unit back at enemy.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Guard (GCN)/Cancel (Wii)	May nullify further action from target.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Corrosion	May further reduce durability of target's weapon.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Parity	May negate all other skills and bonuses.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Gamble	May double critical rate at cost of half hit rate.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Smite	Can shove an ally two spaces instead of one.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Celerity	Increases movement by 2.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Tempest	Doubles biorhythm bonuses and penalties.	✓ (Personal)	✗
Serenity	Halves biorhythm bonuses and penalties.	✓ (Personal)	✗
Provoke	May attract enemies toward user.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Shade	May repel enemies from user.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Renewal	Restores 10% of maximum HP at start of user's turn phase.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Savior	Negates rescue penalties.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Paragon	Doubles experience gain.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Reinforce	Can summon three partner reinforcements.	✓ (Personal)	✗
Blossom	Slows experience gain, but increases growth rates.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Canto (GCN)/Galdrar (Wii)	Refreshes ally units. Radiant Dawn also allows biorhythm alteration, laguz transformation assistance, and healing of ally units.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Insight	Boots hit rate. Also boosts vision in Radiant Dawn.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Vigilance	Boosts avoid. Also boosts dodge in Radiant Dawn.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Daunt	Reduces enemy hit rate and critical rate.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Mantle	Negates all damage. In Radiant Dawn, ignored for non-blessed weapons, and additionally recovers user's HP at start of user's turn phase, and grants the effects of the Nihil and Fortune skills.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Discipline (Path of Radiance)	Decreases damage dealt by user.	✓ (Personal)	✗
Discipline (Radiant Dawn)	Doubles weapon experience gain.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Impregnable	No effect.	✗ (Unused)	✗
Lumina	Enables use of light magic.	✓ (Class)	✗ (Replaced by weapon level)
Knife	Enables use of knives.	✓ (Personal and class)	✗ (Replaced by weapon level)
Steal	May steal weapons and items from target's inventory.	✓ (Personal and class)	✓ (Class)
Shove	May push ally one space away.	✗ (Undefined)	✓ (Class)
Canto	May use leftover movement after attacking or performing other actions.	✗ (Undefined)	✓ (Class)
Critical +5	Boosts critical rate by 5%.	✗	✓ (Class)
Critical +10	Boosts critical rate by 10%.	✗	✓ (Class)
Critical +15	Boosts critical rate by 15%.	✗	✓ (Class)
Critical +20	Boosts critical rate by 20%.	✗	✓ (Class)
Critical +25	Boosts critical rate by 25%.	✗	✓ (Class)
Sacrifice	Drains user's HP to heal target, also heals status effects.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Guard (Wii)	May take a hit intended for an adjacent buddy support partner.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Fortune	Negates critical hits.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Howl	May stun indirect attackers.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Quickclaw	May damage indirect attackers.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Wildheart	Allows laguz to halfshift.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Shriek	May negate target's Luck when attacked indirectly.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Imbue	Restores HP to user based on Magic.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Pass	Allows user to pass through spaces occupied by foes.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Beastfoe	Allows user to deal bonus damage to beast laguz.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Birdfoe	Allows user to deal bonus damage against bird laguz.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Dragonfoe	Allows user to deal bonus damage against dragon laguz.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Flourish	Allows user to weaken their damage output.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Disarm	Unequips target's equipped weapon.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Mercy	User cannot kill target; otherwise-lethal blows leave target with 1 HP.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Nullify	Negates bonus damage done toward user.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Formshift	Allows a laguz user to remain fully transformed at all times.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Blessing	Restores HP to allies.	✗ (Instead a mastery skill)	✓ (Personal)
Boon	Heals status effects from allies.	✗ (Instead a mastery skill)	✓ (Personal)
Glare	May petrify target.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Pavise	May negate all damage.	✗ (Instead a mastery skill)	✓ (Personal)
Maelstrom	May damage indirect attackers.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Blood Tide	Boosts allies' Strength and Skill.	✗	✓ (Personal)
White Pool	Boosts allies' Magic and Speed	✗	✓ (Personal)
Night Tide	Boosts allies' Defense and Resistance	✗	✓ (Personal)
Stillness	May strongly repel enemies.	✗	✓ (Personal)
Aurora	Deals half damage taken back at enemy.	✗	✓ (Personal)

Mastery skills

Mastery skills (Japanese: 奥義スキル esoteric skills) are a classification of powerful skills in the Tellius duology and a sub-type of class/soldier skills. The majority of class families are associated with a mastery skill, which normally are trigger skills dealing exceedingly potent amounts of damage to enemies. All mastery skills consume a very high amount of capacity, hindering the ability to equip them alongside other skills. In other games, the mastery skill distinction does not exist and they are treated as normal, if uncommon, skills; additionally, a few Path of Radiance mastery skills were downgraded to become normal skills in Radiant Dawn. All three of the sword skills of the Jugdral duology also act as mastery skills in Tellius.

In Path of Radiance, mastery skills are learned by advanced-class beorc units and laguz units above level 15 by equipping them with an Occult scroll. In Radiant Dawn, beorc units automatically obtain their mastery skill upon promoting to their third-tier advanced class, while laguz units gain their mastery skills by using a Satori Sign item after reaching a minimum level of 30.

Mastery skills in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn
Skill	Effect	Mastery skill in: Path of Radiance	Mastery skill in: Radiant Dawn
Aether	Can launch consecutive attacks, using the power of Sol and Luna.	✓ Lord, Hero	✓ Vanguard
Sol	In certain conditions, restores as many HP as the damage dealt to an enemy.*/ Can inflict 3 times normal damage and restore HP equal to damage dealt.*	✓ Paladin, Valkyrie	✓ Gold Knight, Silver Knight, Valkyrie
Luna	In certain conditions, reduces enemy defense by half.*/ Can neutralize an enemy's defenses and multiply the unit's strength by 3.*	✓ General, Halberdier	✓ Marshall
Astra	In certain conditions, grants this unit 5 consecutive attacks at half damage.*/ Can launch 5 consecutive attacks.*	✓ Swordmaster	✓ Trueblade
Impale	Can multiply damage dealt by 4 times.	✗	✓ Sentinel
Colossus	In certain conditions, increases damage when unit's Cn exceeds enemy's.*/ Can multiply the unit's strength by 3.*	✓ Warrior, Berserker	✓ Reaver
Deadeye	Doubles chance to hit and, in certain instances, puts enemy to sleep.*/ Can multiply damage by 3 times and put the enemy to sleep.*	✓ Sniper	✓ Marksman
Stun	In certain instances, immobilizes an enemy unit for 1 turn after being hit.*/ Can inflict 3 times normal damage and paralyze enemy until their next turn.*	✓ Falcon Knight, Wyvern Lord, Princess Crimea	✓ Seraph Knight, Dragonlord, Queen
Lethality	Can kill with a single strike. Does not work on all opponents.	✓ Assassin	✓ Assassin
Bane	Can reduce an enemy's HP to 1 with a strike. Does not work on all opponents.	✗	✓ Whisper
Flare	In certain conditions, reduces enemy magic resistance by half.*/ Can nullify an opponent's resistance and restore HP equal to damage dealt.*	✓ Sage, Bishop	✓ Arch Sage, Summoner, Empress
Corona	Can nullify an opponent's resistance and halve their hit rate for one turn.	✗	✓ Saint, Chancellor, Light Priestess
Roar	Immobilizes enemies on the next turn. Does not work against certain units.*/ Can multiply the unit's strength by 3 and shocks enemy for a turn.*	✓ Lion, Tiger, Cat	✓ Lion, Tiger
Rend	Can multiply the unit's strength by 5 and shocks enemy for a turn.	✗	✓ Cat
Savage	Can multiply the unit's strength by 3 and halve enemy skill for a turn.	✗	✓ Wolf
Cancel	In certain conditions, nullifies enemy attacks.	✓ Hawk	✗ (Downgraded to normal skill)
Vortex	Attacks with the same effect as Wind.	✓ Raven	✗
Tear	Can multiply the unit's strength by 3 and halve enemy speed for a turn.	✗	✓ Hawk, Raven
Blessing	Restores HP to a unit in an adjacent space.	✓ Heron	✗ (Downgraded to normal skill)
Boon	Returns an adjacent unit to normal condition.	✓ Red Dragon, White Dragon	✗ (Downgraded to normal skill)
Ire	Can inflict triple the normal amount of damage dealt.	✗	✓ Red Dragon, White Dragon, Black Dragon
Eclipse	Can neutralize an enemy's defenses and multiply the unit's strength by 5.	✗	✓ Black Knight

Enemy- and NPC-exclusive skills

Enemy-exclusive skills in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn
Skill	Effect	Mastery skill in: Path of Radiance	Mastery skill in: Radiant Dawn
Daunt	Reduces enemy hit rate and critical rate.	✓ (Personal)	✓ (Personal)
Aurora	Deals half damage taken back at enemy.	✗	✓ (Personal)

Awakening

Main article: List of skills in Fire Emblem Awakening

Fates

Main article: List of skills in Fire Emblem Fates

Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is the first remake title in the series to include a defined skill system where its corresponding original game, Gaiden, did not. There are two primary types of skills in Shadows of Valentia, combat arts and passive skills. Most combat arts are learned as the result of earning enough skill points (SP) while equipped with a certain piece of equipment; combat arts usually involve losing a number of HP when used, and typically grant might and hit rate boosts in addition to a special effect. Passive skills associated with equipment take effect while the equipment remains equipped, while those not associated with equipment can mostly be subdivided into personal and class varieties, although there is some overlap.

Like The Sacred Stones but unlike other games with defined skill systems, each individual skill does not have a dedicated icon; in Shadows of Valentia's case, skills associated with equipment will bear an icon based on the type of equipment (sword, lance, bow, shield, ring), and icons also exist for personal, class skills, and defensive combat arts.

Combat arts

Main article: Combat art

Note that the below table does not include the SP cost, HP cost, Might boost, hit rate boost, or associated weapons or units; refer to the skill's article for that information.

Combat arts in Shadows of Valentia
Skill	Special effect
Curved Shot	No special effect
Wrath Strike	No special effect
Hit and Run	+30 to Avoid
Subdue	Otherwise-fatal hits leave target with 1 HP
Shove	Pushes adjacent ally forward 1 tile
Swap	Switches places with adjacent ally
Crosswise Cut	No special effect
Heavy Draw	No special effect
Duelist Sword	+30 to Avoid +20 to critical rate +4% to damage output
Sunder	+30 to critical rate
Hexblade	Converts attack to a magical strike, targeting foe's Resistance
Lunge	+10 to critical rate Switches places with target after combat
Penetrate	+10 to Avoid Moves forward 1 tile after combat
Leonine Poise	-30 to Avoid +50 to critical rate User strikes last
Foudroyant	-1 to Range +15 to Avoid Doubles Attack
Knightkneeler	Deals bonus damage to mounted targets
Armorcrush	Deals bonus damage to armored targets
Death Blow	Deals bonus damage to armored targets
Celestial Bow	Deals bonus damage to Terror targets
Grounder	Deals bonus damage to flying targets
Destreza	Fatal strikes always hit
Encloser	Halts target's movement for one turn after combat
Ward Arrow	Seals target's magic for one turn after combat
Plenitude	Heals user equal to damage dealt to target
Double Lion	+10 to Avoid Converts attack to a brave strike
Vendetta	Adds user's accumulated damage to the Might calculation
Dragonhaze	Adds user's Speed to the Might calculation
Tigerstance	Adds user's Skill to the Might calculation
Archballista	+2 to Range
Trance Shot	+3 to Range
Shadow Gambit	+10 to critical rate Ignores terrain effects on target
Astral Blade	Strike deals five consecutive blows with halved Might
Roundhouse	+20 each to Avoid and critical rate Ignores half of target's Defense and Resistance during strike
Solar Thrust	No special effect
Lunar Flash	+10 to critical rate
Defensive	-5 to damage taken against physical strikes
Coral Cover	Doubles terrain effects
Aegis	Halves damage dealt by ranged strikes
Speculum	Reflects magical damage back at attacker
Pavise	Halves damage dealt by physical strikes
Earth's Kiss	Halves damage dealt by magical strikes
Windsweep	+10 to critical rate Negates counterattacks
Thunderclap	+1 to Range, minimum 2
Earth's Boon	+5 each to Avoid and critical rate Grants provisions upon defeating target
Flamberge	Converts attack to a brave magical strike
Longearche	Fixes Range to 2
Tempest Lance	No special effect
Mistdancer	+10 to Avoid -10 to damage taken against magical strikes
Overrun	+10 to Avoid Pushes target forward 1 square after combat
Hunter's Volley	+10 to critical rate Converts attack to a brave strike
Scendscale	+2 to Range
Ragnarok Ω	+1 to Range
Triangle Attack	Must surround foe with three flying units with this skill to use; +40 critical rate when in use.

Passive skills

Passive skills in Shadows of Valentia
Skill	Effect
Lifetaker	Restores HP after defeating target
Soothing Light	Restores 5 HP to adjacent allies at start of user's phase
Recovery	Restores 5 HP to user at start of user's phase
Incarnation	Restores 5 HP to user at start of user's phase
Deicide	Grants user ability to defeat Duma
Hex	User may damage itself with its own strike instead of target
Antihex	Nullifies any Hex skill on user's weapon
Transmute	Marks user's weapon as a magic weapon
Reconstruct	Shuffles two of user's non-Resistance growth rates eight times
Evade Critical	User is immune to critical hits
Banish	+10 to damage dealt against Terror targets
Vengeful Cry	Allows user to counterattack regardless of range while using black magic
Wrath	Increases critical rate while below half HP
Magic +5	+5 to Might while using black magic
Discipline	+10 to hit rate while using black magic
Influence	+1 to Range while using black magic
Sophisticate	+2 to Range while using black magic
Bowrange +1	+1 to Range while using bows
Bowrange +2	+2 to Range while using bows
Resistance +5	+5 to Resistance
Wildfire	+10 each to hit rate and Avoid
Halve Swords	Halves damage dealt to user by a sword
Halve Lances	Halves damage dealt to user by a lance
Halve Axes	Halves damage dealt to user by an axe
Sanctuary	Halves damage dealt to user by a Terror adversary
Heavy Armor	Halves damage dealt to user by a bow
Apotrope	Halves damage dealt to user by black magic
Phantasm	Halves damage dealt to user by bows and black magic
Teleportation	Allows user to teleport next to target and perform another action
Divide	Splits user into two units
Miracle	May survive fatal strike with 1 HP
Eerie Screech	Seals target's magic after combat
Duma's Gift	Negate's target's strikes
Upheaval	Damages all units of opposing alignment on map
Dark Spikes	Damages all units of opposing alignment in range
Dragonskin	Halves damage taken by target's strikes
Anathema	-20 Avoid to all enemies within 3 tiles
Nullify Ailments	Nullifies status effects
Anti-Cavalry	Deals bonus damage to mounted targets
Anti-Armor	Deals bonus damage to armored targets
Anti-Fliers	Deals bonus damage to flying targets
Anti-Terrors	Deals bonus damage to Terror targets
Pact	Nullifies HP cost when casting spells
Absolve	Negates damage dealt to user by terrain

Three Houses

Main article: List of abilities in Fire Emblem: Three Houses

In Three Houses, skills have been renamed to "abilities" to avoid conflict with the skill level system. Abilities are split into three categories: personal abilities, which are unit-specific and cannot be unequipped; class abilities, which are granted so long as a unit is within a certain class; and equipped abilities, which are learned through various means, and can be freely equipped and unequipped at any time outside of battle. Up to nine abilities can be active on a unit at once: one personal ability, three class abilities, and five equipped abilities. Combat arts have additionally been made separate from the ability system.

The methods of obtaining abilities have been changed, with most becoming available by raising a unit's skill level, or by achieving class mastery, a new feature in Three Houses. Every time a unit enters a round of combat, uses white magic, or uses a gambit, they will gain one point of class Exp for their current class. When the unit has earned enough class Exp for a class, the unit will learn that class's mastery ability and/or combat art.

Engage

Main article: List of skills in Fire Emblem Engage

In Fire Emblem Engage, each playable character has a unique personal skill. In addition, each promoted Class at level 5, and each special Class at level 25 gains a unique class skill that is lost when reclassing to another class.

The bulk of the skill system is through the Emblem Ring mechanic. When synced with an Emblem, a unit will be granted several skills. At level 1, an emblem provides one sync skill, and will provide more, as well as improved versions of sync skills, as the bond level is raised. Starting with bond level 5, a unit can inherit the sync skills, as well as some other skills that only take effect when inherited and equipped, at the cost of SP. Only two inherited skills can be equipped at once. In addition, each emblem has one engage skill (with the exception of Emblem Alear, who cannot be synced with and only has engage skills), that is provided when Engaged with the unit, and an engage attack, which can be used once per engaged state. Engage skills and engage attacks can also gain additional effects based on the user's unit type. These are detailed on the skills' individual pages.

Like past games, some skills can only be used by enemy units, and are unobtainable by the player.

Heroes

Main article: List of skills in Fire Emblem Heroes

Skills in Fire Emblem Heroes form the core of the gameplay experience, and come mainly in four types: weapon, assist, special, and passive. Weapon skills are subdivided into red, green, blue, and colorless categories, and those categories are further subdivided into three categories of their own. Passive skills can be subdivided into types A, B, C, as well as Sacred Seal and attuned skills.

Warriors

Main article: Crests (Warriors) § Skills

Skills are one of four types of crests in Fire Emblem Warriors, with the most varied variety of effects of all types of crests. Each character has one skill associated primarily with them that can be learned with more common materials; other characters can also make use of a character's personal skill, but doing so requires an essence and another rarer material.

Warriors: Three Hopes

Main article: List of abilities in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes took the skill system that was present in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and tweaked it in order to accommodate the new gameplay. Personal abilities are now split into three groups while the others groups were left untouched. Black magic, white magic and dark magic are now put into the same category as combat arts. Additionally, personal abilities, combat arts and magic spells can now level up to level 3, increasing their effects.

There are several other types of abilities that units can utilize in battle:

• Class abilities are granted to units of certain classes and will be removed if the user changes their class.
• Class mastery abilities are abilities that are learned by units upon gaining a certain amount of class experience in a given class. Unlike most other Fire Emblem games, each class can bestow different abilities depending on the unit.
• Innate abilities are identical to class mastery abilities, but the game does not tell the player that these abilities can be learned by units.
• Battalion abilities are abilities granted to units while they have a battalion deployed.

In addition, certain weapons and accessories grant abilities to the user while equipped. Some of these abilities are unique while others can be learned from other sources. Shez can also give the Merc Whistle to an ally with an A-rank support to receive a special accessory that changes Shez's Unique Action Ability to that of their ally's.

Etymology and other languages

Names, etymology, and in other regions
Language	Name	Definition, etymology, and notes
English	• Skills • Abilities	• Used in all titles except Three Houses. • Used only in Three Houses. This is likely to distinguish from the skill level mechanic in Three Houses. The skill stat was similarly renamed to "dexterity".
Japanese	• スキル • 特殊能力	• Skill • Special ability; used on the Thracia 776 and Awakening websites as a gloss for スキル.
Spanish	Habilidad	Ability
French	• Techniques • Compétences	• Skills. Used in other titles. • Used in Radiant Dawn.
German	Fähigkeit	Skill
Italian	Abilità	Ability
Korean	스킬	Skill
Simplified Chinese	特技	Special skill
Traditional Chinese	特技	Special skill

See also

• Offensive skills
• Skill items