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!

Should gaming history have taught us anything, it’s that healers are one the most essential of RPG class types, after all if you’re going to lose health you’ll need to get it back somehow, and items are just so boring aren’t they?

For such a precious unit type Fire Emblem always gives you a selection of healers to choose from throughout their titles, five even in this case, yet as interesting as it might be to challenge yourself one day we’re going to assume you’re not going to take all five with you now are you?

If only there were a kind and incredibly handsome article writer out there willing to help you determine who should you choose? Perhaps in doing so they could answer exactly who the best Cleric, or Curate, is in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon?

5. Boah

Why are they always old lads or pretty girls?

Anyway, Boah here joins your team in Chapter 12, assuming you decide that it’s worth breaking the group of backup units out of their cell. If we’re honest, most of our runs see them all slaughtered at the hands of a single enemy archer, of which only some of them are down to our ineptitude.

What you get with Boah is well… A redundant unit. By the time you reach his chapter you’ll have a whole host of healing options at your disposal, one or two of which you’re very likely to have committed to already. Sure, they’re unlikely to have promoted yet, but regardless of this they’ll still outdo him from a purely statistical perspective.

You could perhaps argue that his single extra movement range is worth something, and joining with a ‘C’ rank in Staves means he can immediately use the Warp staff, but this would be clutching at straws really. Yes he has a ‘B’ rank in Tomes, but you probably already have a Sage recruited earlier in the game that’s categorically better in every way.

His growth rates are terrible too. To the bench with you!

VERDICT: Bottom of the healing barrel. Avoid.

4. Elice

Why are the story line enforced healers always terrible? Perhaps Elice exists in this case to display just how much she needed protecting over the course of the game, instilling pity within the player.

She joins your group in Chapter 24. Yes that’s right, those are her statistics right before the end of the game. She does join you at level 10, meaning she can immediately promote with a spare Master Seal, but those promotion bonuses hardly make things much better.

Elice is a very poor unit, seemingly designed to be an absolute last resort for ailing teams just before the hardest chapter in the game. In this case she’s made just about bearable by her ‘A’ in Staves, meaning she’ll be able to grab any spare healing items you have and make a bit of an impact, but when directly compared to the healers you should have at your disposal she’s orders of magnitude below them.

VERDICT: Exists only for a niche use in the late game. If any early joiners have survived they’ll massively outperform her.

3. Maria

Third place is technically a podium finish you know. We’re not exactly sure we’re too happy with that in the case of Maria. She will join you in chapter 10, assuming you decide to navigate the prison to liberate her, though we will admit that we’d enjoy any map on which Minerva joins.

You will note upon recruitment of Maria that she’s woefully inadequate when directly compared to your current healers, each of which is likely to sport a higher weapon rank, better statistics and a higher level. This means that they’re already capable of using better spells, they’ll be closer to promotion and they might even be able to stand up to a mage or two in direct combat. Maria is none of these things.

To her credit she does have a lot of headroom to grow into, plus she joins less than half way through the game meaning you’ll have plenty of time to get her going, but as you traverse your way up the difficulty levels the likelihood of this happening falls off immensely. She’s not a bad choice, especially if you’ve lost a healer already, but ultimately there are better options out there.

VERDICT: A good backup choice, but it’ll take some commitment to get her up to speed.

2. Wrys

Wrys is the first healer to join your team, recruited by visiting his village in chapter 1, immediately becoming essential, especially on higher difficulty levels. His Heal staff will save many a life and you’ll be immensely thankful for his help. Were things to end there, Wrys would occupy said essential role throughout Shadow Dragon and most likely be considered one of the most useful units on the roster.

The problems begin when you recruit a better healer in chapter 3, causing you to immediately question his place in the active team. Still, you can bring two healers right? Less room for attacking units but with more sustain – that doesn’t sound too bad does it?

Then Shadow Dragon goes and gives you a much better healer in chapter 6 in the form of a Sage – a unit that can also attack and move further every turn. So you’re left to consider the following options; bring three units that can heal, two of which cannot attack until promotion, or bench one of them and focus your attention on the others.

Poor Wrys. Statistically speaking he’s not too bad and he could certainly do a job for your team into the late game, but he’s immediately eclipsed early on and he’ll very quickly get left behind.

We’ll always remember those two chapters you made happen old boy.

VERDICT: A good healer and a great backup unit, but not quite good enough to make the first team.

1. Lena

Was it really going to be any other? Lena joins your team in chapter 3, immediately ousting an old lad and taking up the reigns of healing your team.

Eagle eyed readers will note her statistical superiority to the early game competition, especially her weapon rank, though we will admit that this really doesn’t matter at first – you’ll just be happy to have a healer and they shouldn’t see combat at all. Still, having a healer that’s able to warp at such an early level will prove very useful, and such a high weapon rank gives her even more flexibility as the game progresses.

Additionally, this being Shadow Dragon, all of your units will eventually be called into some form of combat action, purposeful or otherwise, and it’s here that Lena will really start to shine. Given enough levels her Resistance stat will grow to very high levels, something that will prove essential in maps with a certain big bad guy present – ours almost solo’d the Falchion chapter.

It’s not just that Resistance stat either, her luck and speed will grow well and by the late game you’ll end up with a Bishop* that can take on any magic user, do some good damage of their own and still throw out huge heals. Her Luck stat is insane too.

Turn her into a Sage late game, trust us it’s better*

VERDICT: A fantastic unit and the best Cleric/Curate in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.