Welcome to our character guide, focusing on Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon characters. We’ll be breaking down each of the characters and their classes, and providing our verdicts on which of them deserve to be in your team!

Yes we’re back with our favourite Fire Emblem once again. This time we’re taking a look at another high risk class, the Fighter & Warrior. We do quite enjoy this class; it’s capable of doing some good damage, it always has a long range option and with enough support growth they can do well on the front lines, especially with their naturally high health.

Any good Fire Emblem player will know however, that not all fighters are created equal. So let’s see who stands out in Shadow Dragon, worst to best.

4. Ymir

Knowing exactly how Ymir joins, we always feels slightly bad for the lad, after all he was just looking after his villagers.

Anyway, Ymir joins you in Chapter 20x, assuming you speak to him with Marth and proceed to clear the map. Yes that’s right, another Gaiden chapter and yet another one that requires you to have less than 15 units in your army in order to unlock it. Again, what you’re getting here in a backup unit, designed to pad out an ailing army.

It’s not a given that you’re going to be in a terrible state by Chapter 20, in fact you’re probably doing just fine in order to get there, so we have to judge him in a vacuum, and in that regard Ymir is… Pretty bad. His stats will be lower than any of the other Fighter units, most of which are likely to be Warriors by now. Of course he can serve a purpose, he’s another body after all, but in terms of performance he’ll be entirely worse than any of the other options.

If we’re honest it was a close call between Bord and Ymir for the worst Fighter & Warrior, but ultimately we’ve given the prize to the late joining, awkward recruitment choice.

VERDICT: Statistically poor, late joining backup unit. Not good enough.

3. Bord

Oh Bord, it all started so well. You can see from his initial character sheet that he has a respectable Strength, somewhat average Speed and a good weapon rank of ‘C’ in axes, meaning he can immediately use some of the more advanced types. So far so good right?

He joins your group alongside his Fighter friends Cord and Barst in Chapter 2 and despite the initial good impressions, he’s by far the worst of the three.

All of his problems stem from a complete lack of speed. We can deal with a low Defence rating, that’s kind of expected with a Fighter type, and we’re super happy with his Strength rating, which is very likely to finish close to 30 – one of the highest in the game. The Speed rating however, is unlikely to get much further than 10, meaning he absolutely cannot deal with a counter attack. So he can hit incredibly hard, once, then be counter attacked twice with a low Defence rating. Ouch.

Yes, you can use him as a ranged option if you want, but there are much faster options out there in other class types that will hit twice, and there even better options that hit very hard once whilst being able to handle a counter attack.

We’re yet to really discover a good alternative class either, which honestly makes Bord once of the worst characters Shadow Dragon has to offer. That Strength had real potential too, shame.

VERDICT: Too much risk for too little reward. Bench fodder.

2. Cord

Eagle eyed readers may have noted Cord in a previous article of ours, specifically focusing on the Hunter & Horseman class types, so we’ll keep it short here.

Cord really suffers as a Fighter due to his very low Skill statistic and it’s interaction with the axe weaponry, especially the Hand Axe. This, combined with his low weapon rank of ‘E’, means that you’ll often see him miss the target, which is less than ideal for a mainly melee based character with little to no Defence.

By making him a Hunter not only are you switching to more accurate ranged weapons, but you’re also getting him out of the danger zone and as a bonus, he can use his wonderful Speed rating to attack more than once.

VERDICT: Class change him to a Hunter for the best results.

1. Barst

Even more eagle eyed readers will remember that Barst made his way into our Top 5 Characters article and as such, he is by far the best Fighter & Warrior that Shadow Dragon has to offer. We could wax lyrical about this lad for an age, truly we could.

He occupies the ideal middle ground of the three Fighter lads that all join you in Chapter 2, resulting in a very strong, fast and skilful unit capable of taking on almost anything Shadow Dragon can throw at you. He is technically lower in Strength than Bord, yet he will likely hit the target twice. He is slower than Cord, but he won’t whiff all of his attacks.

When you combine this with his ability to support with Ogma – our choice of Mercenary & Hero – what you’ll get is a great front line fighter capable of standing up to the most ardent of challenges throughout the game. His promotion to Warrior and it’s resultant Bow inclusion will most likely see him hit the hardest of all Bow users too.

VERDICT: The best Fighter & Warrior in Shadow Dragon, and one of the best units the game has to offer.