Pairing up your units in a Fire Emblem game isn’t exactly a new concept. These games have had second generation units taking part ever since the Super Nintendo days. We’d argue that Fire Emblem: Awakening does take it to another level however, given that the sheer amount of options on offer each come their own set of support conversations, never mind the fact that you can actually pair people up in battle. It makes for an addictive system that often has you paying more attention to the relationships you’re forging than the battle you’re waging.
Not all pairings are created equally however, so whilst we’re all fond of hooking up two unusual units, we’re here today to talk real power. We’re interested in making the most powerful second generation of units that we can, and whilst there are still a multitude of ways to achieve this goal, the following pairings are the five that we’ve found most useful.
Frederick & Nowi
Now there’s two names you didn’t expect to read together in this list, right? Well bear with us here. Yes we’re pairing up the super stoic man with the strange Manekete, and we’re doing it with one purpose in mind: Making the best tank we possibly can.
In reality Nah, the daughter of Nowi, can turn her hand to pretty much anything, but if you choose a heavily defensive unit you can turn her into a super tank, capable of holding choke points indefinitely. You can pass down Luna, Lifetaker, all sorts of tanky skills with this pairing, but either way the defensive statistics will take Nah very far. Kellam is another option for this, but we rather enjoy the… Novel conversations these two have with each other.
Pairing Info
- Child Unit: Nah
- Unit Rating: Super Hector Tank
- Conversation Rating: Awkward
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Vaike & Panne
The Taguel, the race of creature belonging to Panne, are deceptively powerful in Fire Emblem: Awakening. Their stats are very high, they’re fast and they can do some significant damage. Unfortunately they have a significant disadvantage, since certain weapons deal extra damage to ‘beast’ types, mainly Lances.
Our recommendation comes with a caveat then, which is to make Panne a Griffon Rider and get her to level 15. This will unlock the Lancebreaker skill, which completely nullifies her weakness to those ‘beast’ damaging weapons. This can then be passed on to Yarne, her child, along with any melee friendly skills you can grab with Vaike. All of this results in a super strong fighter that can turn their hand to any physical class you want.
Pairing Info
- Child Unit: Yarne
- Unit Rating: Street Fighter VII Turbo Alpha Champion
- Conversation Rating: ..Strange
Lissa & Henry
You probably weren’t expecting this one, but our intention is probably pretty clear here: We’re building the ultimate magic unit. By pairing Lissa up with Henry we’re doubling down on that magical power.
We chose to make Lissa into a Sage to pass down things like Tomefaire, though regardless you end up with a magical powerhouse. We end up pushing Owain into the Sorcerer role, where he completely demolishes whole swathes of enemies on his own, mainly due to his Vantage skill usage.
As an aside, we’d recommend really playing around with Henry and his supports whenever you can. Some of his interactions with the female cast members are very funny. There’s even quite an unusually touching version of him that hooks up with Olivia – if only she weren’t already being used for the next pairing..
Pairing Info
- Child Unit: Owain
- Unit Rating: Ultimate Sage
- Conversation Rating: Hilarious
Chrom & Olivia
This is an unusual one, we’ll admit. Well, it’s not unusual within the community of hardcore Fire Emblem fans to pick this pairing, but it does seem unusual at least in terms of Awakening itself, which seems to throw a certain female character directly at Chrom from the start…
Of course Chrom is one of the Awakening characters that will have two children, in this case being both Lucina and Inigo. This rather unique pairing (those conversations, jeez), will grant you children that can both use the broken Galeforce skill, whilst also distributing Chrom’s fantastic skills such as Rightful King & Aether. All of this makes for two of the most powerful second generation units available.
Pairing Info
- Child Unit: Lucina & Inigo
- Unit(s) Rating: World Beaters
- Conversation Rating: Timid
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Robin & Sumia
Yes we’re flying in the face of the perceived canon here by pulling the aforementioned flying unit and pairing her up with the Avatar unit. Of course, marrying a second generation character with Robin will give you even better stat modifiers, but when the children are this good it really doesn’t matter.
Any Avatar child is going to be powerful, and we just so happened to have a flying unit left over, so we thought another Galeforce unit would be nice in Cynthia, which can be a little more awkward with a male Robin. Morgan is just a powerhouse no matter what you do, but we find that Sumia’s statistics work well when being passed down, despite not being as high as a second gen marriage.
Pairing Info
- Child Unit: Morgan & Cynthia
- Unit Rating: World Beaters Mk. II
- Conversation Rating: …Interesting
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Categories: Fire Emblem: Awakening, Top 5