Image: Nintendo via HGG / Dominic Allain
Dominic loves to completely immerse himself in RPGs, then break them apart by modding and speedrunning them.
Reviewed by Benjamin Barr
Part of Fire Emblem Engage’s sandbox is the ability to reclass your units and make new builds for them. With the number of options available, you’re likely wondering what each character’s best class is. Since resources to reclass are limited until late game, it can be difficult to experiment freely until then. To help ease that burden, here’s a guide to reclassing, as well as the best class for each character in Fire Emblem Engage.
Class Changing and Proficiencies
To change a class for a character in Fire Emblem: Engage, you’ll need Master or Second Seals. These are acquired during battle or bought from the item shop.
Master Seals allow level 10 or higher units to promote into advanced classes. Second Seals let units change to any class within their tier, so it’s recommended that units promote to advanced classes before using Second Seals.
When reclassing, stats change based on the difference between the base stats of the current and new classes. Each class also has their own growth rates that are added to a unit’s personal growths to determine the chances of a stat increasing upon leveling up.
Finally, when changing class, units need weapon proficiencies matching those used by the new class. Proficiencies are acquired by raising a unit’s bond with Emblem Rings, with each Emblem providing different proficiencies. If a unit’s proficiency displays as blue, compatible classes will have that weapon rank raised by one level.
Best Class for Each Character in FE: Engage
There are a lot of playable characters. With that in mind, we’ll be going over each character in order of recruitment. If you want to avoid spoilers, don’t look too far down the list or the table of contents.
Alear: Divine Dragon
Divine Dragon places Alear in a strong support role with its unique Dragon type. It’s one of two classes with this type, giving powerful bonuses to Engage skills. This alone, when paired with the right ring, is enough reason to keep Alear in their unique class.
Vander: Great Knight
Vander’s role in the early game is to be a strong unit that can take hits and weaken foes. Most of his growth rates are low, causing him to fall off later on, but he has above average Defense. Reclassing him to Great Knight lets him capitalize on this high bulk and remain relevant for longer.
Clanne: Mage Knight
Clanne has unusual growths for a Mage, with high Strength and low Magic. Most of his Magic growth actually comes from the Mage class itself. While reclassing him into a physical unit is certainly viable, Second Seals can’t be bought until Chapter 9. By then, Clanne’s likely gained several points of Magic, which would end up wasted. Instead, he should promote into the hybrid Mage Knight class, which lets him take advantage of both stats.
Framme: High Priest
While Chain Guard is a useful tool in the early game, it slowly becomes less important as unit survivability increases, and other defensive options appear. Without Chain Guard, Martial Master is rather lacking as a class. Instead, make her a High Priest. It lets Framme retain her staff utility while giving her better offensive contributions with tome usage and higher Magic.
Alfred: Great Knight
Alfred’s unique class, Avenir, doesn’t actually help him much. It won’t patch his low Speed or shaky Dexterity. The mediocre Dexterity also makes the Avenir class skill inconsistent. Instead, he should focus on his high Strength and Defense, where the Great Knight excels.
Etie: Warrior
Warrior is often considered one of the best classes entirely, with its high stats and versatile weapons. If nothing else, it provides 3 range chain attacks with Longbows. For Etie, it emphasizes her only strength, which is, fittingly, Strength. Her innate bow proficiency will also boost Warrior’s bow rank to B, letting her use Silver Bows. She may need to inherit skills that improve her hit rate, however.
Boucheron: Warrior
Boucheron has respectable bulk and an outstanding Build growth, but his personal Strength growth is strangely low for an axe unit. Warrior fixes this with a high class growth. This, plus the high Might of axes, will ensure Boucheron can still deal damage later in the game. His Build lets him use axes without being greatly slowed, too, so he’s more likely to avoid being doubled.
Céline: Vidame
While reclassing Celine into a Sage nets her better Magic, she doesn’t lose much by remaining as a Vidame. In return, she becomes the only Mystical class that can use swords. Physical Engage Attacks tend to have special effects when used by Mystical units, and Celine can boost their power with forged swords. For more general use, she makes an amazing Levin Sword user and is good at flushing out enemies in forests.
Chloé: Griffin Knight
Griffin Knight amps up Chloe’s naturally high Speed and Magic, making it her best class choice. The extra Magic makes Chloe one of the strongest Levin Sword users, as well as a good healer. Having higher Speed over Wyvern Knight helps Chloe dodge more attacks and double more often.
Louis: Great Knight
Louis is good at absorbing damage and returning fire with a single big hit. Both of his natural promotions, General and Great Knight, also excel at this. By trading out his break immunity, Great Knight gives Louis access to a second weapon type and more mobility without sacrificing much Defense, making it his best class.
Jean: Mage Knight
Jean is highly sensitive to class changing due to how his personal skill works, which is awkward when you don’t get Second Seals for several chapters after he joins. It’s much easier to focus on what Martial Monk’s growths will naturally push you toward, which is Mage Knight. It ensures his Magic and Speed will be greatly boosted to turn Jean into a highly mobile magical nuke.
Yunaka: Thief
Yunaka already starts as her best class in Thief. Her high Speed combined with Thief growths make her into an amazing dodge tank, especially on maps with Avoid-boosting terrain. Forged daggers also let her act as an early game carry for your army with their insane scaling. Reclassing Yunaka is a heavy investment anyway, as Thieves can only transition into advanced classes at level 21 or higher.
Anna: Mage Knight
Anna has an incredible 50% personal Magic growth that is wasted in her starting Axe Fighter class. After she promotes, she wants to Second Seal into the Mage Knight class. It lets her finally use that high Magic stat with tomes or Levin Swords. Mage Knight also helps Anna improve her Speed faster, as while her growth in it isn’t bad, her base Speed is very low.
Alcryst: Tireur d’élite
Alcryst’s unique Tireur d’elite promotion is his best class, even better than generically good promotions like Warrior. The reason is the class’s huge boost to Dexterity. This makes Alcryst more likely to land critical hits and activate his Luna skill to pierce enemy defenses. Also, unlike Warrior, Tireur d’elite is able to use Brave Bows, giving him more chances to crit or activate Luna.
Citrinne: Sage
Citrinne is a lot like a magical Etie, sacrificing all other stats for an incredible Magic and Resistance stat. Since there’s no fixing her Speed without mass grinding, Sage has the most to offer Citrinne. It gives her the highest boost to her Magic growth as well as giving her utility through staves.
Lapis: Hero
With Lapis’ blistering Speed and mediocre Strength, you’d think reclassing her into Warrior is the ideal route. Axes will greatly slow her down, however, due to her low Build. Hero plays to her strengths much better. The class’s higher Speed plus Lapis’ personal skill will make her into a formidable dodge tank. She’ll even provide additional chain attacks with the Hero’s Brave Assist skill.
Diamant: Successeur
When looking at Diamant’s stats in other classes, you’ll notice that a significant amount of his power actually comes from his unique Successeur class. Thankfully, Successeur itself is a strong class, being an above average jack of all trades. Using it boosts Diamant’s stats across the board while also giving him versatility with swords and axes.
Amber: Halberdier
Amber has immense Strength but is held back by his low Speed. He’ll likely never double enemies by himself, but the Halberdier class can fix him. The Pincer Attack skill from Halberdier gives Amber’s strength much more value, as it guarantees follow-ups when an ally is on the other side of an enemy. While this conflicts with Amber’s personal skill, he shouldn’t struggle too much to hit enemies without it.
Jade: Great Knight
Jade’s growths are more balanced than Louis’s, making her more flexible, but she still leans towards high Defense over anything. She wants to stay as an armored unit because of this. Much like Louis, Jade prefers the mobility and weapon variety of Great Knights over the Defense and break immunity of Generals.
Ivy: Lindwurm
Ivy’s Lindwurm class is one of only two flying tome users in the game, so that alone makes it worth using. If that’s not enough, she can heal or provide utility with staves while flying as well. Even better, Lindwurm naturally gives a large boost to Ivy’s Magic growth, easily making it her best class.
Kagetsu: Wyvern Knight
Kagetsu’s incredible base stats mean that he can excel in any physical class you put him in. Wyvern Knight perfectly matches Kagetsu’s versatility, giving him access to multiple weapon types, high mobility, and good Strength. Axe proficiency is obtainable much earlier than lance proficiency when Kagetsu joins, so he can reclass into a sword/axe Wyvern sooner than lance options.
Zelkov: Wyvern Knight
Zelkov has several features that make him flexible when reclassing. His good Speed growth and personal skill can make him a good dodge tank. In addition, his high Build lets him use heavy weapons without being slowed. This combination makes Wyvern Knight Zelkov’s best class. He needs 4 extra levels before he can reclass into it, but there’s several chapters before axe proficiency becomes obtainable anyway.
Fogado: Warrior
Fogado’s unique Cupido class suffers from low Strength and a counterintuitive class skill. Its higher Magic improves usage of the Radiant Bow, but it has such high Might anyway that it barely matters. Warrior greatly improves Fogado by patching up his Strength and giving him better mixed bulk. It also makes him a backup unit, giving him chain attack support to the rest of the army.
Pandreo: Sage
Pandreo’s starting High Priest class comes with a lot of pointless fluff. He won’t be utilizing arts often due to how they calculate damage, and S rank staves are practically irrelevant. Sage, on the other hand, gives him much better offensive potential. It gives Pandreo access to high rank tomes like Bolganone, a higher Magic stat, and synergy between his class and personal skills.
Bunet: Hero
Bunet’s stats across the board are fairly mediocre, aside from Defense and Luck. If you want him to succeed as a combat unit, Hero may be his best option. It gives enough Speed to avoid being doubled, retains axes for damage, and allows Bunet to provide chain attack support.
Timerra: Picket
Timerra has an odd set of stats, focusing on Dexterity and Defense at the expense of Strength. Picket is the only class that takes advantage of this with its Sandstorm skill. Sandstorm makes Timerra’s next attack calculate damage based on Defense over Strength, and Picket’s high Dexterity allows it to trigger more often.
Panette: Warrior
Panette is an incredibly strong unit held back by her starting Berserker class. Berserker’s main issue is its lackluster class skill and low Dexterity cap, which works against axes’ low accuracy. Warrior both fixes this problem for little Strength loss, and gives Panette bows, making it her best class.
Merrin: Warrior
Merrin, like Kagetsu, has such good overall stats that she can perform well in any class. Warrior is Merrin’s best class, though. It increases her Build enough to use axes effectively and increases her Strength to deal devastating damage with them. Since her Magic is high for a physical unit, Warrior Merrin is also an amazing user of the Radiant Bow.
Hortensia: Sleipnir Rider
Hortensia’s unique class shoves her into a supporting role, but it makes her one of the best support units in the game. It greatly boosts her Speed and Magic, letting her heal more damage while being more likely to dodge attacks. The class skill also gives her a chance to conserve staff uses, great for fragile staves like Warp.
Seadall: Dancer
Dancers are typically your best units in Fire Emblem due to their ability to give additional turns to other units. Seadall is the only Dancer you will get in Engage, so you want to keep him as one.
Rosado: Wyvern Knight
Rosado is in an awkward situation where both his Strength and Build are mediocre. Warrior would improve his Strength, but he doesn’t have the Build for axes. Wyvern Knight already does a lot to patch up Rosado’s low bases and improve on his high growths. It’s recommended that you swap him to a sword/lance Wyvern Knight though.
Goldmary: Halberdier
Goldmary has a comically high Defense stat at the cost of her offenses, particularly Speed. While there is value keeping her in Hero for Brave Assist, Halberdier makes her a better combat unit. Her Defense is further improved while Pincer Attack makes her low Speed irrelevant for doubling.
Lindon: Griffon Knight
Lindon is a flexible magic unit that can fit into whatever role needs filling. Sword Griffon Knight gives him high Speed to double with Levin Swords plus staff utility. Sage or Mage Knight gives him the ability to chip at 3 range at the cost of either Speed or staves. Griffon Knight’s flight just barely brings it to the top as Lindon’s best class, though.
Saphir: Warrior
Warrior is already one of the best physical classes in Engage, so Saphir doesn’t have much to gain by reclassing. The class gives her good weapon types, solid offensive stats, and chain attack utility.
Mauvier: Griffin Knight
Mauvier fits into any class well, with his balanced base stats and growths. Bow Knight is a strong offensive pick when paired with magic weapons, but he won’t be doubling often. If you want him to fulfill the same role as his initial Royal Knight class, Griffin Knight is strictly better. The two classes share similar staff ranks, while Griffin Knight gets better Speed, variable weapons, and a flying mount.
Veyle: Fell Child
Fell Child is tailor-made for Veyle and thus nothing competes for her best class. It’s the only available class that can wield both of her personal weapons, plus it boosts their power with its high Magic. It’s also one of only two classes that give the Dragon type, which gives strong boosts to Emblem skills.
Join the High Ground
There’s always plenty of viable class options for each character, especially with the many ways Fire Emblem: Engage lets you strengthen your army. Let us know what other classes you’ve found worked well down in the comments! Also be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more Fire Emblem Engage guides and other gaming content.
Happy gaming!
I found that Chloe as a martial master works pretty good