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Battles in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave are fought on a square grid, with each side moving all of its units before the other side acts. Nintendo's own rundown of the system covers party setup, movement and attack range, the roles the six attack types fill, and the way position on the map decides whether an attack draws a counterattack. Layered on top of that base are three optional systems that cost something to use: Combat Arts spend weapon durability, Blaze Arts spend a Hero's HP, and Magic has a limited number of casts.
Setting Up a Match
Before each match you choose which party members to bring and where each one starts on the field. Once the battle begins you take turns moving and fighting across the map. Victory conditions vary; Nintendo names defeating the opposing leader as one of them and states there are others.
Each unit's movement range is drawn in blue and its attack range in red. Once all of your units have finished acting, the opponent's turn begins.
Weapon Roles
There are five weapon types, plus magic as a separate system that spellcasting classes use in place of an equipped weapon. Which types a unit can carry depends on its current class, so the roster of roles available to you shifts as units certify into new Classes.
Type | Attack Range | Role in Battle |
|---|---|---|
Sword | 1 | Straightforward and easy to wield. Hands-on reports describe swords dealing 1.2 times damage on a follow-up attack. |
Spear | 1 | Deals heavy damage to cavalry units. |
Axe | 1 | Low accuracy but high attack power. Hands-on reports describe a damage floor that guarantees at least 5 damage on any hit that lands. |
Bow | 2 | Strikes from a distance and can deal fatal blows to flying units. Range 2 covers two squares orthogonally or one square diagonally. |
Gauntlets | 1 | Make it easier to evade attacks. Some gauntlets are built as firearms, including the Zerberus. |
Magic | 1 to 2 | Effective against foes in heavy armour. Also heals and supports allies. |
There are unique weapons outside those baselines, including swords that call down lightning and the firearm-shaped gauntlets. The full stat schema, including the game's new Curse value, sits on the Weapons page.
No Weapon Triangle
The rock-paper-scissors weapon triangle familiar from most of the series does not exist in this game. Swords, spears and axes are separated by the per-type properties in the table above rather than by a circular advantage chart. Nintendo's own weapon rundown describes only role-based matchups and never mentions a triangle, and hands-on coverage states the absence outright. Those same hands-on accounts put the rough raw-power order at axe above spear above sword.
Positioning and Terrain
Where you stand matters as much as what you swing. Striking a foe from inside that foe's attack range may draw a counterattack, so the game's own advice is to hit close-range enemies from a distance and to close the gap on long-range enemies. Terrain modifies the exchange, and standing next to an ally can grant buffs.
Pre-launch footage has shown the following terrain values, which are read from the battle interface rather than published in a manual.
Terrain | Effect |
|---|---|
Thicket | Avoid +30 |
Deep Thicket | Avoid +40 |
Forest | Avoid +30 |
Wasteland | Avoid -20 |
Desert | Costs 2 movement, Avoid -20 |
Swamp | Costs 2 movement |
Low obstacle | Impassable to infantry, crossable by mounted units |
Adjacency also drives the support system. When two characters who have grown close stand beside each other, the interface shows the partner's portrait with a heart icon and a numeric level, and the bonus appears as a banner. Support conversations themselves take place at inns during Between-Match Preparation. See Supports for more.
Special Attacks
Four systems sit on top of the basic attack, each with its own cost.
System | Cost | Summary |
|---|---|---|
Weapon durability | Attacks with greater power, longer range or another advantageous effect, meant for decisive moments. Ordinary attacks cost no durability. Every published cost for this game is a durability figure; none of them is priced in HP. | |
The user's HP | The new signature system. Each Hero has arts tied to a legendary artifact, and using them fills a gauge that first buffs the unit and then penalises it. | |
A limited number of casts | Spellcasting classes attack with magic instead of a weapon. Magic is effective against heavy armour and covers healing and support. | |
Nothing on Normal difficulty | Rewinds the battle to any earlier point, so a lost unit or a bad move can be taken back. |
Gambits also appear in this game, but every sighting so far attaches them to Theodora and the Battalions she recruits on the world map, rather than to units generally. One has been shown in full: Theodora's Disturbing Strike, selected from a command bound to the A button, limited by uses (a released battle shot catches the counter stepping down from 2 to 1), targeting a three-tile box that covered three enemy soldiers at once, with a forecast of 94 hit and 0 critical for 7 damage. That is the only Gambit named so far, and no list of them has been published. Three battalions have been named: Novice Hunters, Twin Jewel Fans and Holy Apprentices. All three are infantry and all three are listed as available to the player. Nothing else has been published for any of them, so there is no endurance figure, no stat bonus, no authority requirement and no attached gambit to record.
Other Battle Features
The combat forecast previews an exchange before you commit to it, listing predicted damage, hit rate, critical chance, which unit strikes first or last, and whether the target can counterattack at all. Critical hits are reported to deal triple damage. Backing out of the forecast returns the unit to where it stood before you selected it.
Skills in the Forecast
The forecast also lists the skills and effects live on both sides of the exchange, and the number of slots it shows is not fixed. One unit has appeared with six, another with four in one match, two in the next after switching off gauntlets, and one at a lower level. Weapon type and level both seem to feed into what gets listed. Only a handful of the names on those readouts have a documented effect; the wider list is on Skills.
Skill or Effect | What It Does |
|---|---|
Underworld Boon | Halves incoming damage unless the attack is effective against the bearer |
Cleansing Blade | Negates the opponent's Underworld Boon so damage lands in full. The effect triggers at the start of combat |
Magic Basics | Magic +1 and Resistance +1 |
Sword Prowess | Name read off a forecast, effect not published |
Brawling Prowess | Name read off a forecast, effect not published |
Cleansing Blade exists to answer Underworld Boon, and the two cancel out when they meet. Cleansing Blade was read as Purifying Sword in an earlier pass over the same footage; Cleansing Blade is the text on screen and the name used here. Several other icons on those readouts have not been identified with any confidence and are left out until they are.
The unit information screen carries a proficiency bonus line alongside the class description, naming the proficiencies the current class strengthens. The Rogue's line reads Sword, Bow and Infantry, and the same panel credits the class with picking locks and moving easily through forest tiles. Which proficiencies a class strengthens is therefore visible before a certification is committed rather than after.
Fog-of-war maps have been shown in pre-launch footage, and dismounting is reported to return, appearing as an innate class skill on the Bardinger rather than a menu-only action. Both rest on limited sourcing ahead of launch.
The game offers two difficulties and two modes, chosen at the start and changeable afterwards from the title screen. Nintendo has not published what the two modes are, and previews name only Normal and Hard among the difficulties.
Related Pages
Two costed attack systems sit on top of an ordinary swing: Combat Arts, which spends weapon durability, and Blaze Arts, which spends the user's health. For the rewind that takes back a bad exchange, see Fortuna's Blessing, and for the full stat schema behind each weapon type, see Weapons.