Equipping yourself with the best arsenal is critical in any Fire Emblem title, and Shadow Dragon is no different. It’s no use applying your brain to make the most tactical and ingenious plans, only to reach your opponent and be swinging the wrong weapon. Such things are a recipe for disaster in any Fire Emblem, but Shadow Dragon, especially on it’s higher difficulty levels, will laugh you off the map for such a mistake. Do yourself a favour then, and pick up some of the following options – they’re sure to make your life easier.
Rapier
In an example that would be followed by the franchise, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon dumps you with a Lord in the form of Marth that must be cared for, protected, and worried about throughout the game. After all, one wrong position or uneven battle taken and it’s game over. Luckily, our hero of the day has a remarkably useful tool in the form of the Rapier, capable of dealing highly effective damage to armoured and cavalry units. Well, by ‘highly effective’ we mean ‘as effective as your good units’. If anything, it’s responsible for making your lord even remotely useful in the early game and as such, just about keeps him relevant throughout… Ish.
Weapon Benefits
- In the early game, the Rapier keeps Marth relevant.
- Very useful when taking on enemy Cavaliers especially.
- Thanks to the inclusion of the Weapon Triangle, the Rapier now confers an advantage over Axes, which are frequent in the early game.
- Detracting from it’s benefits is the fact that you’ll need your Lord to stand next to an opponent, which is increasingly risky as the difficulty levels rise.
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Killer Weapons
From one relevance imbuing weapon we come to another, or rather a set of others: The killer series of weapons, which come equipped with a side helping of critical chance. They are very similar to the ‘Steel’ weapons of each family, but with a slightly lower weight and the aforementioned crit chance added. In essence then, you have a weapon that it’s easier to get double attacks with, each of which will have a good chance to get a critical strike.. What we’re trying to say is, they’re better Steel weapons.
The reason they make the list is again due to the characters and classes that they manage to bring into relevance. In the hands of a Mercenary, Myrmidon or perhaps even your Lord, they can transform a unit from a piece of low defence rated cannon fodder into a unit capable of removing an enemy in a single round, something these units tend to struggle with, especially prior to promotion.
Weapon Benefits
- These highly critical weapons are powerful in the hands of any class.
- Lighter than Steel weapons but just as powerful.
- Very little down sides to using these, apart from them featuring less uses.
- Probably the only thing that can rescue the pitiful Myrmidon class.
Silver Lance
And so we take a complete 180, to a weapon made by the character it inhabits. Yes it’s the Silver Lance, but the one we’re looking to reference here is wielded by the legend, the bringer of the archetype: Jagen. Yes, the man himself, the old man that spawned a legend and formed a template for the early portion of every Fire Emblem game since. Seth, Marcus, Frederick – they all owe their lineage to Jagen. The essential nature of the Silver Lance comes from the early game of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, in which both Jagen and his weapon are, on very high difficulty levels, the only way to make it through the levels. No other weapon in this list can claim to be so essential. Whether it’s those hordes of pirates or completely impassable brick-wall-bosses, the only leveller is that Silver Lance, and the man that wields it.
Go on, try to complete Hard 5 without it, we’ll wait.
Weapon Benefits
- Powerful Lances are essential throughout Shadow Dragon.
- The early game features a Silver Lance on Jagen, and is essential for completing the highest difficulty levels.
- Outside of this, it’s still a very powerful Lance.
- Boosted by the Lance type featuring on some of the best classes in Shadow Dragon.
Wing Spear
And so we come to a weapon perfectly designed for the unit it belongs to. It’s owned by Ceada, or Shiida, depending on which description you read and in which version. This suits her perfectly by being quite powerful straight out of the gate – 8 might is high for the early game – and by being very light, enabling Ceada to double attack enemies easily.
The true power of this weapon comes from it’s triple effectiveness versus key enemies, it’s ability to be forged into an absolute boss killing monster and that it belongs to a unit that is capable of moving wherever it wants, whenever it wants. Once Caeda gets a few levels and the ability to forge this thing is available, no unit can stand up to it. Interestingly enough, this seems to happen around the time when Jagen starts to drop off in effectiveness. It’s almost like they did a great job balancing the game..
Weapon Benefits
- Has the power equivalent to a Steel Lance, but usable at ‘E’ skill level.
- Often overtakes the Silver Lance as a boss killing weapon, once Caeda levels enough.
- Despite her often poor statistics, this ensures Caeda retains relevance.
- Has additional critical chance, positioning it between a Steel and Killer weapon, but with added effectiveness versus Cavaliers and Armour Knights!
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Javelin
No, it’s not the Wo Dao. It’s not the Mercurius, Falchion or even the Hauteclere. We’re going back to basics and making an admittance to ourselves, so join us in celebrating the weapon that, when we stop and think about it, is by far the most useful in Shadow Dragon. Perhaps you have a woefully under levelled unit? Not a problem, grab a Javelin. Maybe you’re struggling for space in a claustrophobic castle corridor, looking for a way to squeeze out a little extra experience and damage? Grab that Javelin. Do you maybe want to make use of that shiny Wing Spear but you’re afraid that your frail flying girl can’t afford to take a counter attack? You get the point.
Sure, the early maps are filled with axe toting pirates, but the remainder of the game is chocked full of lance and sword users, and besides, it’s not like you have to take a counter attack now is it?
The humble Javelin everyone. We salute you.
Weapon Benefits
- In an error soon corrected in the series, the Shadow Dragon Javelin is too powerful and too accurate.
- 70 accuracy and 7 might may not look like a lot, but skill stats account for the latter easily.
- The best classes in the game can now attack from 2 units away.
- Means you never have to approach the Archer class, which is a blessing.
- Countless Flyers owe their experience levels to this weapon.
- Seriously, just buy loads of them at the start, you’ll thank us later.
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Categories: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Top 5