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Bonus Damage
October 24, 2026 at 07:54 AM
Clarified Might multipliers, current target examples and protection from effectiveness
Bonus damage in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is the mechanism that replaces the weapon triangle. There is no circular advantage between swords, spears and axes. Instead each weapon line carries its own effectiveness, and a weapon effective against a group hits every unit in that group harder, whatever that unit happens to be holding. Combat System covers the rest of a battle, and Weapons carries the stat schema.
There are two tiers, and both are flat multipliers on Might rather than sliding bonuses. The forecast flags which one is about to apply before the attack is confirmed.
Tier | Icon | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
Effective | Orange | Deals twice the weapon's Might |
Effective+ | Red | Deals three times the Might of the weapon or the gambit behind it |
Because the multiplier lands on Might rather than on final damage, a low Might weapon with the right effectiveness can still finish behind a heavy weapon without it. Effectiveness is a reason to carry a second weapon, not a reason to drop the first.
Effectiveness targets Cavalry, Armored, Flying, Dragon, Beast or Undead. A unit's class can change which categories apply to it, and individual weapons or arts can add more than one effective target. The examples below are not complete class rosters.
Group | Classes in It | What Answers It |
|---|---|---|
Cavalry | Ornius Rider, Armored Ornius Rider, Charioteer, Light Cavalry, Bardinger, Cataphract, Elephant Rider | Ridersbane, Horsekiller Bow, Zanbato, and spears as a type |
Armored | Soldier, Armored Knight, Cataphract, Dreadnought | Flyssa, Hammer, Greatsword, Ji and magic matchups; check individual weapon data |
Flying | Wing Soldier, Dragoon | Wind, Cutting Gale, Glass Wheel, Longbow, the Grounder combat art, the Disturbing Volley gambit, and bows as a type |
Dragon | Dragon targets | Bloodletting, Bloodletting+ and Leave No Dust |
Beast | Yarc, Striped Wolf | Hunter's Bow |
Undead | Seraphim, Starlight and eligible Blaze or Combat Arts |
Cavalry and Armored matchups matter throughout the Heroic Games. Undead enemies become prominent in Balor's army. Dragon and Beast also have specific answers: Bloodletting and Leave No Dust cover dragons, while Hunter's Bow and Leave No Dust cover beasts.
The weapon type supplies some defaults, and individual weapons, spells, Combat Arts and Gambits can add their own. Ridersbane has Effective+ against Cavalry, so its Might is tripled; Hammer has Effective+ against Armor. A spear does not gain an extra advantage merely because the enemy holds a sword. Combat Arts and Gambits list their separate effective targets.
There is a published counter to all of it. Underworld Boon halves incoming damage unless the attack is effective against its bearer, which makes an effective weapon the standard answer to an enemy carrying it. The Cleansing Blade cancels the boon outright so that ordinary damage lands in full. Effectiveness can be blunted from the other side too: the Shield of Zephyrus, a reward from Jurah's trial in Part III, is described as neutralising effectiveness against flying units, and the Zanbato in the table above is a sword described as effective against cavalry.
The orange single-arrow icon marks Effective and the red double-arrow icon marks Effective+. These multiply Might by 2 or 3, rather than multiplying the final damage after defenses. Bows normally have Flying+, spears have Cavalry effectiveness, and wind spells have Flying effectiveness.
Shield of Zephyrus removes Flying effectiveness against its wearer. An individual weapon or Art can have a different target category or multiplier, so use its full row and the forecast. Halberd is effective against Cavalry.
Weapons, Magic, Combat Arts, Gambits, Accessories
Weapons carries the full roster and which entries hit which group. Classes lists every class and the unit type it belongs to, which is what puts a unit in a group in the first place, and Hero’s Relics covers the legendary weapons that sit outside the ordinary roster.