(Image: Intelligent Systems via HGG)
Dominic loves to completely immerse himself in RPGs, then break them apart by modding and speedrunning them.
Reviewed by Benjamin Barr
The weapon upgrade system in Fire Emblem Engage is key to creating some of the most powerful tools to give to your army. After completing Chapter 5, you’ll unlock access to the Blacksmith, allowing you to refine, upgrade, and engrave Emblems into your weapons, giving them major stat boosts or even turning them into new weapons. To do so, you’ll have to spend Gold and various metals collected from post-battle exploration.
If you aren’t spending your time handling dogs and grinding skirmishes, you may find that these resources come in scarce supply, so it’s important to know where best to spend them beforehand. Keep in mind, you aren’t forced to refine a weapon to its maximum level, and I’d actually recommend against doing so if you aren’t grinding resources due to the minimal benefit for the cost. With that in mind, these are the best weapons to refine and engrave in Fire Emblem Engage, based on their usefulness throughout the game.
Best Weapons to Refine, Ranked Best to Worst
You can’t go wrong refining the weapons below!
1/10
Armorslayer/Hammer
While Mages can easily deal with Knights and their low Resistance, one may not always be nearby. At that point, it’s up to one of these two effective weapons to pierce through their armor. It’s worth noting that all weapons that state that they are effective against a certain unit type have tripled Might when used against that unit type, so refining them provides additional value.
You can find your first Armorslayer in the chests during Chapter 5, your first Hammer from an enemy in Chapter 6, and more of both can be bought from the Armory starting from Chapter 9. They can also be acquired by upgrading an Iron Sword/Axe at the Blacksmith (weapons don’t need to be refined before upgrading).
Out of all weapons that are effective against certain units, the Armorslayer and Hammer are the best weapons to have refined, as armored units are both common and have high defenses that can protect against even the tripled might of a base effective weapon. On the other hand, even the hardiest of Generals struggle to last more than a single round of combat against a refined version of these weapons.
Knights aren’t the type to dodge attacks often, so engravings for these weapons should focus solely on increasing their Might for even more value from effectiveness. Engravings such as Binding or Radiance are recommended, as they provide high Might bonuses, while the increased Weight is unlikely to hinder your own units’ ability to attack twice against an armored unit.
2/10
Ridersbane/Poleaxe
Cavalry units are fairly tough to lock down with their high mobility, with enemy Wolf Riders being especially troublesome on higher difficulties. While cavalry doesn’t have the same bulk as armored units, refining Ridersbanes or Poleaxes is still a worthy investment for the additional Hit it provides, making it more likely that your units will land a powerful strike against the enemy. The extra Might can also enable your units to defeat cavalry in a single attack, denying them any opportunity to counter.
The Poleaxe can be acquired in the Paralogue: Budding Talent, while a Ridersbane can be acquired from an enemy in Chapter 5. Both can be purchased starting from Chapter 9, and they can be acquired by upgrading a Steel Axe/Lance.
Compared to the weapons effective against armor, engravings for these weapons should focus more on providing additional Hit, especially for the Poleaxe and its base 60% hit rate. Against faster mounted units such as Wolf Riders, you may find yourself struggling to land a blow without these boosts. The Emblems of Genealogy, Academy, or Blazing are worth using for their hit rate bonuses, even despite the latter’s harsh Might penalty.
3/10
Hand Axe/Javelin
Starting from Chapter 4, you’ll be able to purchase both Hand Axes and Javelins. While they have weaker stats than most other weapons of their type, they allow your units to attack from both close range and a distance. This allows them to remain useful throughout the game as a reliable method for your melee units to counterattack against enemy Archers and Mages, as well as being able to attack other melee units from a safe distance.
Refining these weapons allows them to more easily secure kills with their increased Hit and Might, raising their stats to be on par with similar Iron or Steel weapons. They can even be upgraded into the much stronger Tomahawks and Spears when you have more resources available to you, or kept as is for a more lightweight throwing weapon.
4/10
Tomahawk/Spear
The upgraded big brothers to the Hand Axe and Javelin, these two weapons become powerhouses when refined due to their staggering base Might that approaches Silver weapons and retained ability to attack from both melee and a distance.
You can find your first Tomahawk from an enemy in Chapter 11, and your first Spear from an enemy in Chapter 12. More of both can be bought starting from Chapter 15, and they can also be acquired by upgrading Hand Axes/Javelins.
The outstanding power of these weapons is balanced by their high cost to refine. They have the same forging cost as Brave weapons, ultimately costing you 26 Silver and 10000 Gold to bring them to +5. Keep in mind that they also have a much higher Weight compared to a Hand Axe or Javelin, which may prevent your units from attacking twice.
Tomahawks and Spears benefit less from Might increasing engravings, since their base Might is already quite high. They would instead prefer ones that reduce their high Weight, such as Echoes or Awakening, or ones that increase their shaky Hit rate, such as Academy or Sacred.
5/10
Silver Dagger
Daggers are some of the strongest weapons in Engage, being a consistent 1-2 range weapon that can poison foes after combat for additional damage. Another unique quirk is that compared to all other weapons, daggers scale much faster through refining. While most other weapons gain 5 or 6 extra Might at +5 refinement, all daggers gain 2 extra Might per refinement level, capping out at 9 extra Might at +5 refinement. This allows dagger users to punch well above their weight class, likely only being stopped by armored Knights with high Defense.
The Silver Dagger can be purchased starting from Chapter 15, but one can be acquired much earlier by upgrading a Steel Dagger. Unlike other weapons, there isn’t much Weight gained from upgrading all the way to Silver, ensuring the greatly increased damage doesn’t come at the cost of your Speed.
Since the two main dagger wielding classes, Thief and Wolf Knight, tend to have high Speed, daggers often pair well with engravings that give additional Avoid, such as the Dawn or Awakening engravings, to allow them to become effective dodge tanks. The minor Might decrease these engravings provide is counteracted by the high bonuses that refinement gives.
6/10
Killing Edge
Killer weapons are useful to have on one or two units, as stacking bonuses from refining, engraving, and skills can cause units to have near guaranteed critical hits in combat. Refinements for Killer weapons are some of the few that add additional Crit to an already high base of 30. Add in a unit’s innate critical chance and you’ll easily start seeing critical hits every other attack. This can be boosted even further with engravings such as Fates or Sacred, giving 20 to 30 additional Crit on top of everything so far.
All Killer weapons can either be bought starting from Chapter 12 or upgraded from Iron weapons.
While all Killer weapons make good candidates for refining, the Killing Edge stands above the rest. The reason for this is that sword-wielding classes, such as the Swordmaster, make the best units for crit builds. They tend to have higher Dex than others, so despite lacking an innate critical bonus from previous games, they are typically still the best units to give a refined Killing Edge to. The Swordmaster’s critical animation certainly helps their appeal.
7/10
Libération
The Libération is acquired from the very beginning of the game and serves as the Divine Dragon’s personal weapon for the majority of a playthrough. It’s fairly cheap to refine and gains a lot from being brought to +2. Beyond that, it starts eating into precious Silver for each upgrade. If you’re willing to spend the resources, however, a +5 Libération has stats on par with a base Silver Sword for a much cheaper price. Either way, refining it early will allow it to serve as a reliable main weapon until the Divine Dragon can wield weapons such as forged Steel and Silver Swords more effectively.
Since the Libération already has a reliable 90% base Hit rate and a low 4 Weight, an engraving that would increase its low Might, such as the Emblem of Beginnings or Genealogy, is recommended. Alternatively, you can give the weapon the Dawn engraving and dedicate the Divine Dragon as a dodge tank, although their damage output will be quite low.
8/10
Steel Bow
One unit type you can expect to see a lot of is enemy Pegasus Knights. These highly mobile units can be a thorn in your side, ignoring terrain to flank your army’s rear. Fortunately, they have a weakness to arrows, so you’ll want to carry at least one refined bow around.
The Steel Bow is the best candidate, being easy to acquire, cheap to refine, but still strong enough to take out enemy fliers quickly. Even a +1 or +2 refinement can be enough to allow your archers to one shot enemy Pegasus Knights throughout the majority of the game, while also boosting its killing potential against other units. Once you have the resources, this can be replaced by a Silver Bow for more reliability.
The Steel Bow is a well-balanced weapon in its stats, so its recommended engraving really depends on what aspect of it you feel needs patching up in practice. Genealogy and Beginnings are equally well-balanced engravings that pair nicely with any situation, however.
9/10
Longbow
The Longbow is another bow that’s a good candidate for refining, as its extended 2-3 range means your Archers can fire on enemies from greater distances and avoid counter attacks from nearly all foes.
You’ll come across your first Longbow in Chapter 6 from an enemy drop, and more can be bought from Chapter 9 onward. They can also be acquired by upgrading a Steel Bow.
Refining this weapon patches up its shaky 70% base hit rate and boosts its kill potential against all enemies, especially against fliers who may be out of reach otherwise. While it may be expensive to upgrade fully to +5, even one or two refinements does a lot for this long-range attacker.
10/10
Brave Weapons
Brave weapons can be bought starting from Chapter 21, but can be acquired earlier by upgrading Silver weapons. As they are intended as late game weapons, both acquisition and refinement will cost a hefty amount of resources. It’s well worth the additional cost, though, since refining weapons such as the Brave Sword or Brave Lance gives much more value than what’s displayed on the surface.
Brave weapons automatically strike twice in a row if the wielder is the one that initiates combat, meaning every refinement is getting twice the value. If a unit is fast enough to where they would naturally strike twice, using a Brave weapon means they get to strike four times in a single combat. With a refined Brave weapon at hand, there are few foes that could withstand the might of four attacks.
Their major downside is their Weight, higher than that of Silver weapons. While your units have likely increased their Build stat a few times by the time you acquire Brave weapons, their sheer weight may still be enough to slow down your units past the point of naturally double attacking enemies. Engravings on Brave weapons should focus on either keeping weight down, such as through the Holy or Awakening Emblems, or raising Might, like with the Beginnings Emblem.
Join the High Ground
We hope you enjoyed our list of the best weapons to refine in Fire Emblem Engage. Are we missing something on this list? If so, be sure to drop us a comment below.
Happy gaming!
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