Berwick Saga Character Guide - B Tier

This post will cover characters who are decent. They have something going for them that would make you want to use them. However, their negatives are a little more pronounced. Once again, I should stress that virtually everyone in this game is usable. If you want to use these characters, go for it. The first character that will begin this list is...

Leon

Leon's worth primarily comes from Deathmatch. If you recall, one of your top tier units named Volo also has Deathmatch. It's a skill that lets its user initiate 5 rounds of combat with an enemy. It's a command skill too, so you can activate it whenever you want. Deathmatch is easily one of the best skills in the game, and Leon is the only other character besides Volo who has it. This skill alone makes his combat really good.

Leon also has Robust, which means that he's immune to getting crippled. He's a mounted unit, which is helpful from getting from Point A to Point B. Leon is in the first squad of characters that you get during the game, which means that you get the benefit of using him all game long. Leon also joins you for free. You don't have to pay him to hire him. 

One skill that he has is called Supporter. It boosts his hitrates whenever a character named Adel is within 3 spaces of him. This sounds like a positive, but Adel is a mediocre unit. So unless you're constantly using Adel, Leon won't be able to take advantage of this skill. This will hurt his hitrates. His base stats are average, so he runs the risk of not standing out.

Conclusion: Leon's a decent unit. He has some neat perks, like Deathmatch. He runs the risk of not standing out, but there are benefits to using him, if you're willing to commit.

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Axel

Axel is a strange unit whose worth primarily comes from his utility and not his combat. Axel is the only character in the game with access to the skill Swimmer. This lets him walk on water (lol), which comes in handy an awful lot. There are several maps where items are hidden on water tiles, and he'll be the only one who can get them. There are also several maps where a bridge will be raised, and the only way to lower that bridge will be from a tile on the opposite side of a river. In that scenario, Axel will be the guy you'll want to bring for those missions. 

Axel also has Search, a skill that lets him find hidden items on a map. The only other characters with that skill are your thieves. Unlike your thieves, Axel will be able to defeat whoever guards the treasure, which is helpful. Axel also has Hide, the same skill that Sylvis has. Axel also has Robbery, a skill that lets him randomly steal items from defeated enemies. Axel also has Pulverize, a skill that lets him double the amount of damage he can do to enemies. This skill lets him one-shot a good number of mooks, which is nice. Axel's hiring fee is really low, so he's dirt cheap to use. His recruitment is also very easy, which is helpful.

Axel does have a few flaws. His accuracy is garbage so while it's cool that he can one-shot enemies, it only matters if he actually hits them. Axel's defense growth is literally 0 %, and his base defense isn't that good either. The final flaw is that his utility gets less useful as time goes on. Swimmer is super helpful in the early and mid sections of the game, but there are basically no bodies of water in the end chapters. So I wouldn't recommend bringing him along in the endgame.

Conclusion: Axel's a fun utility unit. You should bring him in maps where his utility is useful, and then bench him once you approach the endgame. That being said, when his utility is needed, he's really helpful.

Your Mages: Perceval, Aegina & Enid

Yep. There's a character in this game who's also called Perceval. I believe this game came out after Binding Blade, which means that Kaga did not think of this first.

So I'm going to bring up the two main mages of this game next because they're interesting units to talk about. For those of you who read my review of this game, you'll recall that bulky enemies don't take damage from regular weapons. You either have to have weapons like a hammer, or you have to use magic in order to bypass their defense and target their non-existent resistance. This is where these characters come in. Their main niche is dealing with powerful armored enemies. It's really useful in this game, and they'll make your life easier. Bulky enemies are more frequent toward the mid to latter parts of the game, so you do get a lot of mileage from them. More importantly, this is something that other units just can't replicate, which makes these three all the more important.

Unfortunately, these three have two massive drawbacks. Their durability is non-existent, and they all have accuracy issues. Enid doesn't start out as a mage, and has to promote into a magic wielding class. Just one problem: Her promotion requires either luck or RNG rigging to pull it off, so you might not even get to use her as a mage for a little bit. 

Now here comes the part where I talk about their main differences. Perceval has the best skill set of the three. He's the third character in your army that has Arrowbane. This is the same skill that Elbert and Kramer have that lets him reset enemy and ballista accuracy whenever they target him. It's an awesome skill, but if it doesn't activate, he could potentially die which makes it risky to use for him. Perceval also differentiates himself from Aegina and Enid in the sense that he's the only mage you have to hire as a mercenary. Aegina and Enid join you for free. 

Perceval also has Adept, which gives him opportunities to double attack in a game where that's rarer. Perceval focuses most on thunder magic, which means that he'll probably be your only Dire Thunder user (yep, this game has Dire Thunder too. It does the same thing here as it did in Thracia 776). Last, but not least, he has Mercy. This skill helps cripple enemies, which is useful for capturing them.

Aegina has Focus Chant, which improves her hit rates. This skill is really nice to have, but it only activates every few turns or so. She also has Miracle, which keeps her alive in case an enemy's about to kill her. Enid gets Paragon, which doubles her experience gains up until level 10. She also has charm, which boosts the hitrates of nearby allies by 3. Not a huge boost, but it's still nice to have. After promotion, Enid will get Focus Chant, just like Aegina. 

Both Aegina and Enid get exclusive access to a prf rank orb. Aegina gets the Pallas Riana, which gives lets her attack 4 times in a row. Unfortunately, the hit rates of that orb are so low that it's rare for all 4 hits to land. Enid gets the Pallas Leia, which is a stupidly powerful orb. That orb has 32 might and can attack from range. That's bonkers! 

Conclusion: The mages of this game can be frustrating. Can't live with them. Can't live without them. They serve an important purpose, so you should use them. Just keep in mind that using them comes with its own set of risks. I recommend picking at least two of them. Having two mages lets you tear through armored enemies, which is important as bulky enemies only become more common as the game goes on.

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This is only half of the characters in the "B tier" so once again, I'm splitting this part up into two posts. 

Berwick Saga A Tier Characters Part 2

Friendly Reminder: We're still in the A tier folks. That just goes to show how many awesome units there are in Berwick Saga.

Faramir

Kicking off this half of the list is Faramir. As you'd expect of a unit named after a Lord of the Rings character, Faramir is fantastic! The easiest way to describe Faramir as a unit is that he's a myrmidon with higher movement and access to bows. Faramir has an interesting skill set that makes him a unique unit. The first skill that I'd like to talk about it is:

• Celerity: Yep. This game came out around the same time as Path of Radiance and had Celerity. In this game, Celerity gives Faramir + 1 Movement. This gives him 5 movement in a game where infantry only have 4. That may not sound like a big deal, but it does separate him from the rest of your units. Keep in mind that if your mounted units dismount (which happens far more often than you think) they only get 4 movement. 

This means that there will be plenty of maps where Faramir will actually have the highest movement. Faramir will have the highest movement in indoor maps and in maps where there's terrain that inhibits movement. Some ltc vets who've played this game also report that Faramir's movement can help him keep up the pace with your mounted units.

• Iaido: Faramir's next two skills are pretty interesting. Iaido is the same skill that Volo and Faye have. Iaido is a skill that activates whenever Faramir dodges an enemy attack. After dodging, the user of Iaido (Faramir, Volo, and Faye) get a % chance to counterattack, only their counterattack gets a + 33 to their accuracy, and a + 3 Crit bonus. It's pretty useful for dealing damage to enemies, and your three Iaido users use it a lot.

• Parry: Parry is a skill where Faramir can sacrifice some weapon durability in exchange for dodging an enemy hit from a physical weapon. It comes in handy for keeping Faramir alive as it will let him dodge more hits than usual.

• Fortune: This lets Faramir negate critical hits. This skill comes in handy later in the game where enemy assassins have very high crit rates. In addition to negating critical hits, his higher hit rates make him perfect for eliminating enemy assassins.

• Access to awesome weapons: While this isn't a skill, it is worth noting that Faramir joins with a powerful prf rank sword called the Cutlass +. This is a brave sword with a solid crit rate. This sword alone lets him kill a lot of generic enemies in a single round of combat. Add the fact that he can use bows and blades (which both have high damage potential) and you've got a character who can efficiently kill whoever you need him to.

       Another important note on this topic is that Faramir's high starting level means that he can use the best swords and bows in the game at base. This dramatically enhances his combat ability.

• Faramir Rescues Faye: FE Wiki brings up another important quality of Faramir's:

 "If the player is using Faye, then Faramir is even more useful. If Faye's HP is reduced to 0, then Faramir will rescue her and take her off the map, though she cannot be deployed for the rest of the chapter. He will do this as long as he is alive, even if he is not deployed or recruited. The sole exception to this is during the main mission of Chapter 3; if Faye dies on the map, Faramir will be completely unavailable."

 (Source: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Faramir#Overview) 

Flaws

• Faramir's recruitment requirement is similar to Clifford's. In order to permanently recruit him, you first have to permanently recruit Faye. Faye takes a while to permanently recruit which means that it'll take a while before Faramir permanently joins your side too. To add insult to injury, Faramir cannot be hired until you first hire Faye. This makes it expensive to hire to him.

• If you've paid attention, you'll notice that Faramir's skill set is primarily defensive in nature. This is both a blessing and a curse. On the on one hand, it helps keep him alive in tough situations. On the other hand, there will be times where you'll wish that he had a skill like Adept or Deathmatch.

Conclusion: Faramir lives up to his namesake by being a valuable unit. His movement is excellent and his skillset is useful. He can use pretty much any powerful sword and bow in the game, and he's a good answer to many problems the game throws at the player. Just be prepared to pay a pretty penny for him. I think Sam's quote in The Two Towers sums this Faramir up: "Captain Faramir, you have shown your quality, sir - the very highest."

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Fun fact: There are three characters named Arthur in the Fire Emblem series in addition to an Artur in Sacred Stones. There's Arthur from Holy War:

Arthur from Fates

There's Artur from Sacred Stones

And then there's finally the Arthur from Berwick Saga, who this spot is supposed to talk about:

Arthur (Berwick Saga)

Arthur is a character whose skill set isn’t flashy, but he does have several useful abilities in addition to great stats. FE Wiki points out that, 

          “He ties with Axel for highest strength growth in the game and all his stats are tightly bracketed, making him a very consistent unit. He is also one of the more durable units on the team, boasting impressive HP and defense bases, further enhanced by his high S Shield skill and access to M Shields. Though his base M Shield skill is quite low, his growth is very high and shield skill stats increase at an even faster rate while below 10, and his immediate access allows him to make better use of them than his fellow future Paladins Elbert and Ruby, who can only start building up their skill after promotion.” 

(Source: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Arthur_(Berwick_Saga)#Overview)

Arthur shares a skill with Dean in common: Desperation. This is the skill that boosts hit rates and provides additional attacks in exchange for enemies being able to hit you at 100 % accuracy, and reducing your defense to 0. Unlike Dean, Arthur can use shields so he actually can have some defense present when using Desperation. 

Arthur also has Armsthrift. That’s right, this game invented Armsthrift before Awakening came along. #KagaDidItFirst. Armsthrift in this game works the same way as it does in other Fire Emblem titles where it prevents weapon uses from being depleted based on a % chance. This is extra helpful in a game where weapons break based off a percent chance.

Arthur also has a skill called Hurry. This lets him move an extra space in exchange for his turn ending immediately afterwards. Keep in mind that he's a mounted unit, so his movement can get up to 8. Hurry is extra useful in escape maps, as well as situations where you need to get to certain spot on the map quickly. Another point in Arthur's favor is that he promotes quickly and is easy to permanently recruit. This makes him a low maintenance unit, which is helpful when you're trying to recruit multiple members to your team.

The most consistent criticism of Arthur is that his skills become less useful as time goes on, and eventually there will be plenty of other units who can do what he does. Even still, he's a solid unit from start to finish.

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Sylvis

Sylvis is this game's sniper, and she can be fun to use. Her base stats are solid and she has a good skillset. What skills does she have?

1) Aim: Aim is a skill that increases accuracy by 33 in exchange for movement. It's extremely useful in the earlygame where hit rates are low. This skill will ensure that Sylvis will hit whatever enemy you need her to.

2) Overwatch: This skill makes it so that in exchange for movement, Sylvis can snipe an enemy that moves in her range and prevent them from attacking. This is a skill that Sherlock learns at level 7, and she joins with it. 

3) Maim: This doubles an enemy's chances of being crippled during a map. It's a cool skill, but it rarely activates and can only be used 5 times per map. 

4) Hide: This is a skill that essentially makes its user invisible to enemies on certain terrain. This can prevent Sylvis from being attacked at close range if she's wielding a bow. 

5) Deadeye: This lets Sylvis attack from one extra space away at the cost of 15 hit. Considering how valuable hit rates are in this game, it's unlikely that you'll hit anything with this skill, so the extra range isn't worth it. And yes this game also has Deadeye, just like Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.

Speaking of close range, Sylvis has access to crossbows so she can actually counterattack at close range. Sylvis also has expert, which lets her use higher ranked bows and crossbows at a lower level. She also joins early on in the game, which means that you'll be able to use her for most of the game.

The main drawback to Sylvis is that she's expensive to recruit. If you are going to use her you'll have to pay a pretty penny to do so. I think she's worth it, but it's still good to know.

Conclusion: Sylvis is a useful bow user. Her lack of enemy phase isn't an issue since virtually nobody gets to counterattack in this game. Her base stats are great, and her skill set is even better. Feel free to try using her, and see what you think.

Kramer

This might be a controversial move putting Kramer this high, but I find him to be an underrated unit when looking at the tier lists for Berwick Saga, so I'm gonna him a shout out here.

Kramer's a fun unit to use whose investment pays off at the end of the game due to his useful skill set. The first skill in his arsenal is Arrowbane. If you recall in my previous post, Elbert has that skill too. Arrowbane is the skill that resets the accuracy for bow wielding enemies and ballista. Considering how insanely powerful those are (and accurate too), having this skill makes him an awesome unit already. It lets him bait out those powerful arrow using enemies, which is really important during the mid to latter portions of the game.

Kramer also has hiker, a skill that lets him climb up cliffs without his avoid dropping to 0. There are a lot of maps in this game that have cliffs, so this skill gets a lot of mileage. Kramer becomes a must have unit on any maps that have cliffs.

His last skill is Knock Away, the skill that knocks shields out of enemy hands. This is helpful for dealing with powerful armored enemies. It can also combo with one of your thief's skills, Steal, which lets them steal those powerful shields.

Another major benefit to using Kramer is his prf rank sword, the Balmung. This is a weapon with very high might, gives a boost in critical hit rates, and provides Kramer with Parry, the same skill that Faramir has which lets him dodge hits in exchange for wearing his weapon down a little. In short, it's one of the best weapons in the game.

Kramer's combat dramatically improves once he obtains the Balmung. I should also point out that you don't get the Balmung until you complete Kramer's character specific gaiden chapter, which is how you recruit him. He's also a simple character to promote too due to the fact that his sword skill grows regularly.

Kramer's main flaws are that his bulk is merely okay, and his starting combat could be better. He can take a hit if he doesn't activate Arrowbane, but he doesn't take a hit as well as Elbert. His starting combat is fine, but it takes him a little bit to get going.

Conclusion: Kramer's a solid unit, whose skillset only gets more useful as the game progresses. He will not disappoint if you choose to invest in him. I was grateful that I trained him, and there's a good chance that you will too.

Berwick Saga Character Guide Part 2-1: The A Tier Units

 The next portion of this list consists of characters who are very good. Before I begin, I'd like to repeat something that I said in my previous post:

 I haven’t used every character in this game. If I haven’t used a particular character, I will go look up what everyone else is saying about that character. 

There are a couple of characters here that I haven't used. I have managed to do research on what has been said about them. With that out of the way, let's continue:

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Reese

 

Kicking off this tier of units is Reese, the lord of this game. Reese is a reliable unit who gets some pretty sweet stuff reserved exclusively for him all throughout the game. He also has a solid combination of skills that make him useful. First, let's talk about...

• The Sweet Prf Rank Swords, a Prf Rank Shield, and a Prf Rank Circlet: Reese gets 2 powerful prf rank swords throughout the game: Gram and Nothung. Gram is described by FE Wiki as "pretty much a Brave Sword with +18 Crit and the same effect as an Amulet." Amulets in this game break when a character is about to die. So basically, Gram will break if it's equipped and Reese is about to die. Like other lords in Fire Emblem, Reese's death will cause a game-over, so this is a neat ability. I also ended up relying on this sword in Chapter 9 when those terrifying Black Riders nearly killed him. Gram also has very high might in this game. It's easily one of the strongest swords in the game. 

As if that wasn't enough, he also gets Nothung near the end of the game. Nothung has the second highest might of all the swords in Berwick Saga and it deals magic based damage. This makes it incredibly useful for tearing armored enemies to shreds. Heck, I've seen Reese straight up one-shot non-armored enemies with Nothung.

During the last chapter of the game there's a character named Lanette who joins your group. She has a skill that gives Reese a 100 % critical hit rate whenever he stands next to her. It's hilarious watching Reese tear enemies to shreds with Nothung while he's standing next to her. I advise you to take as much advantage of this as you can. He can one-shot the uber tanky Gigas Knights with Lanette and the Nothung. During my playthrough, Reese gained between 3 - 4 levels during the final chapter alone because of this strategy.

According to FE Wiki this is an unused beta portrait of Reese 

Reese begins the game with a prf rank shield called Perseid. It's a shield that gives him up to + 7 defense, is super light weight (so it doesn't heavily affect his attack speed and chances to proc Adept), and is one of the most durable shields in the game. 

The final prf rank item that Reese gets is a circlet that negates critical hits. This helpful in the final chapters where enemy assassins get super high crit rates.

Finally we're on to his skill set! He gets Commander, which boosts ally hit rates by 10 if they're within 3 spaces of him. This skill is a Godsend in the earlygame where hit rates are awful. It's still useful in the mid - latter portions of the game where the RNG can still screw you over, even if you have high hit rates. 

An unused portrait of Reese with blue hair. This isn't in the game fyi,

Reese also gets Adept, which gives him the chance to attack consecutively. Reese typically activates this quite a bit. He also has access to Robust, the skill that Sherpa has that makes its user immune to crippling. This is really helpful, since it means that you'll never have to worry about Reese being able to randomly not attack, heal, or do anything. It increases his reliability as a unit.

Reese also gets access to a nifty skill called Expert. Here's an explanation for the skill Expert: Essentially lets Reese have a seven weapon level lead, say Reese is at level 1 and the rapier is at level 8, he can use the rapier freely without any weapon penalty or a chance to fail.

(Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/hqc330/berwick_saga_tier_list/) 

As a further explanation, if a character in this game uses a weapon whose rank is higher than that character's level, there's a % chance that the character won't be able to deal damage with that. Their attack will fail. What Expert does is let Reese use higher rank weapons from a lower level. This helps his combat performance, since weaponry plays an even higher role in your success in combat than usual.

Last but not least, Reese also gets access to a horse, which means that he gets higher movement. This is helpful for the chapters with a time limit. It's also nice for when he has to seize.

So what are his weaknesses? Reese's main flaw is that he does not participate in gaiden chapters. Depending on your playstyle, that could be anywhere between half of the game to three-quarters of it. His combat during the early section of the game before he gets Gram is lackluster. It gets better, and it's worth it to train him when he's there. 

Conclusion: Reese is a solid unit who's reliable from start to finish. This game hands him everything he could ever want on a silver platter. For a guy who's absent for half the game he's pretty dang useful.

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Ward

Ward is this game's Jagen, and a well designed one that future designers could learn from. He's a solid unit without being able to break the game in half. His base stats are so good that he'll be viable even during the final chapter of the game. And you get this guy during the first level of the game! He doesn't even have to gain a single point during a level-up either and he'll still be great! 

Ward will be one of your more tanky units, and his strength is high enough to let him either kill enemies or deal solid damage to them. Ward's weapon ranks are so high that he can use pretty much any sword, spear, or shield that he wants to.

Ward has two skills: Guard and Robust. Guard lets him redirect enemy attacks to one adjacent ally in exchange for his ability to attack. As has been mentioned before with Reese and Sherpa, Robust prevents crippling which means that he's a fairly reliable unit to use.

As the picture shows, Ward is a mounted unit. This is great for time-sensitive levels. Ward's flaw is the same as Reese's main flaw: He can't be used during gaiden chapters. This means that you won't be able to use him for roughly half to three-quarters of the game. 

There are two extra notes about Ward that you should be aware of: First, Ward is mandatory during the main story chapters, just like Reese. Second, if Ward dies then it's game over.

Conclusion: Ward is the gold standard for how a Jagen should be designed. He's not flashy. He can't break the game in half by himself. But he is reliable, and he'll always find a way to be useful in every part of the game.

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Owen

Owen is a weird character that probably wouldn't be very useful in any other game outside of Berwick Saga. But since he exists in Berwick Saga he ends up being a very useful and unique unit. What makes Owen so strange and useful?

Escape and Return: Owen gets exclusive access to an orb called Escape. This orb lets an allied unit permanently leave the current map that they're on. For most of the game Owen will have a skill called return where he can permanently leave a map. Now you might be wondering "why are these abilities considered a positive for the character?" 

The reason why they're both listed as positives is that there are a lot of escape maps in the middle sections of the game. It's actually really helpful to have a character who can get one of your units to permanently leave a map. The fact that Owen can yeet himself off a map is extra helpful in an Escape map. Another important factor about escape maps is that if a character fails to escape a map they get captured by the enemy. It is possible to pay money for their release, but it's a bit of a nuisance and not desirable at all. 

These two factors alone make Owen a must have character during escape maps, which gives him a niche that can't be replicated by other units.

In case that wasn't enough, here's what FE Wiki says about him: "Olwen is, upon join, instantly your best healer. He can use every single healing Orb in the game, and joins with a lot of rare ones that can't be taken off of him.


He is also the only healer in the game that can use offensive magic outside of the incredibly rare Holy magic weapons. This is not, however, that useful since he has 1 base weapon skill in all of these magic types and a 10% growth in each, and, although you can raise his accuracy with bands and authority bonuses, he won't typically be fighting much. His role is as a healer, and he does this job better than anyone else."

 (Source: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Olwen_(Berwick_Saga)#Overview) 

Owen also gets access to two helpful orbs: Pacify and Detoxify. Pacify cures the Berserk status. Detoxify cures poison. Both of these orbs are in Owen's inventory and cannot be traded, which means that he gets exclusive access to two really useful orbs. To be fair, you can buy other Pacify and Detoxify orbs, but your other healers won't be able to use them for a while. You could also buy items that cure those statuses, but they're one use only and it's not like the temple in the game has them in infinite stock. So basically, he can save you time and money curing two nasty status effects. Owen also will be your first Physic user too, since he comes with that. As if that weren't enough, Owen is cheap to hire and is easy to permanently recruitment. 

As you'd expect of a quirky character like Owen, there is a catch that's unique only to him: If Owen's still around on a map by turn 20 he turns into a bad guy. He also can't be recruited back, so if he hits that point he's gone for good. Thankfully, this can be countered by return, as mentioned earlier. Later on in the game, he'll be able to turn into a Dark Mage without becoming a bad guy. Before you get too excited I should warn you that he can't use dark magic very well, and it doesn't happen until the game's almost over.

Conclusion: "Overall, so long as you're relatively quick, you won't have trouble with Olwen's gimmick, and his pros as a staffbot and utility unit definitely outweigh his only real con."

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Elbert

Elbert's a solid character who has just enough going for him to really see use. Why is Elbert an A tier unit?

1) Arrowbane: Arrowbane is one of those skills that's so incredibly useful, that it makes it's user good. Here's what Arrowbane does: "When an enemy would hit with a bow, crossbow, or ballista, rerolls the hit with an accuracy cap of 33%" (Source: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Bowbreaker#TearRing_Saga:_Berwick_Saga) 

Allow me to remind you of something I said during my review: "The ballista in this game make the ballista of other Fire Emblem games look like a joke. They kill your most fragile units in one hit. Everyone else dies in 2 hits. Their accuracy is pretty good too. They also have skills that improve their accuracy too. I've never been so scared of ballista when playing a strategy game."

 (Source: https://thecrusadergrant.blogspot.com/2021/07/berwick-saga-review-part-2.html) 

I would also like to point out that there are numerous powerful enemies with crossbows in this game who can also do tons of damage. Arrowbane is your best response to powerful ballista and crossbow wielding enemies. One important fact about Arrowbane is that it can still activate even if ballista and bow wielding enemies have 100 % accuracy on your character.

 There are three characters in the game who have Arrowbane. Of those characters, Elbert is your best Arrowbane user. The thing here is that Arrowbane activates on a % chance, so if it doesn't activate the Arrowbane user will get hit. Elbert is so durable and tanky, that he can take a hit from a ballista or crossbow enemy and not die.

Elbert has another useful skill called Provoke. This lets him force enemies to fight him, instead of your weaker allies. This is useful for both messing with enemy AI and for saving weaker allies. Remember that he has high defense, good HP, can use shields (and activate them on a decent basis) so he can take the hits. Speaking of shields, Elbert gets Shieldfaire once he hits level 11. This increases his shield activation rates, which will let him block even more hits. 

Oh, and did I mention that he joins you for free? You don't have to pay Elbert money in order to hire him. You also don't have to worry about recruitment requirements because he has none. Elbert joins you in the first chapter of the game too, so you get to use him during the entire game. And he gets a horse too, so he gets all the benefits of higher movement.

The main drawback to using Elbert is that his accuracy with spears is pretty low. This is coupled with the fact that he needs a spear rank of 20 before he can promote. Elbert's got a reputation for being a pain in the butt to promote. Thankfully, promotions aren't as important in Berwick Saga as they are in other Fire Emblem games.

Conclusion: Elbert is a solid unit from start to finish. Arrowbane gives him a really useful niche, and he's one of your more durable units too. To top it all off, you get a great unit FOR FREE! Elbert costs nothing and gives so much back in return. That's what I call a great unit.

P.S. Arrowbane eventually became Bowbreaker in Awakening, and in the later Fire Emblem games. As I'm sure you'll see in other posts, Berwick Saga invented skills that would eventually see use in future Fire Emblem titles. #KagaDidItFirst

ONE MORE THING!

As long as this post is, I only got through half of the A tier units. That's why this post is titled "2-1". There's a second part, because there are quite a few powerful A tier units in this game.

Berwick Saga Character Guide Part 1: The Best Units in the Game

 So I decided to create a character guide to give people important information that would hopefully be useful whenever they played Berwick Saga. I hope whoever reads this finds this guide useful and informative.

Based on the information I’ve seen online, there doesn’t seem to be a consensus about who the best character is. There does, however, seem to be a consensus about the best 5 - 6 characters who make up the top tier. So I’ll start by writing about them (in no particular order btw) and I’ll work my way down.

 I haven’t used every character in this game. If I haven’t used a particular character, I will go look up what everyone else is saying about that character. That being said, I have used all the best characters in this game. So without further ado, let’s begin with…

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Dean

Dean has arguably the best offense in the game for a variety of reasons. He has two great skills that boost his offense: Adept and Desperation. Adept works in Berwick Saga the same way that it works in other Fire Emblem games: It provides an additional consecutive attack. What separates Berwick Saga from other Fire Emblem games is that double attacking isn't as common so any chance to double attack is a welcome bonus. I'm going to copy / paste what I said about Desperation during my review of this game:

• Desperation: One skill that's unique to this game is a skill called Desperation. Here's how it works: It's a command skill where the user of the skill gains an additional 22 % accuracy. If the user has higher attack speed than their enemy, they get to double attack that enemy. 

Desperation comes with a few drawbacks

 (1) Enemies get to counterattack, even if they've already taken damage.

 (2) Enemy accuracy is automatically set to 100 % so they will be able to hit you.

 

(3) The user's defense becomes 0 meaning that the enemy's attack is gonna hurt.

(4) This skill can only be used against enemies who can counterattack.

Desperation won't solve everything, but it solves a lot of problems throughout the game. Being able to boost hitrates in the earlygame is also valuable.

 

Dean also has a skill called "Vengeance" which gives him a % chance to counterattack an enemy that's dealt him damage. Since nobody in Berwick Saga has a traditional enemy phase except for one unit being able to counterattack is also really good. Vengeance also boosts his damage output when he activates it, so his counterattack is going to be really powerful. 

Dean's your best axe user which means that he gets the cream of the crop when it comes to axes. The axe that stands out is the hammer. The hammer gives Dean the ability to ignore the defense of armored enemies and ignore shields. This is really useful near the end of the game when armored enemies get really powerful. He also gets a neat prf rank axe called the Bhuj (hmmm....I wonder what other prf rank axe that sounds like) that gives him the ability to attack multiple times after he promotes.

After Dean promotes he gets Fortune, which negates critical hits. This is helpful when dealing with assassins at the end of the game whose critical hit rates are around 80 %. He also gets Mercy, which leaves enemy HP at 1 but is helpful in getting more enemies captured.

Two important positives about Dean is his easy recruitment requirement and his easy promotion requirement. In order to permanently recruit Dean, you just need to have him kill 60 enemies. With combat as great as his, this comes rather easily. In order to promote him, his axe rank needs to go up to 30. Dean's base axe rank is 17 and his axe skill rank growth is 80 %. He'll easily get promoted, letting him get even stronger. He's also cheap to recruit when you pay his mercenary fee. The only real downside to Dean is that his defense is below average. Thankfully, this is somewhat offset by his enormous HP.

Conclusion: Dean has amazing offense combined with powerful weapons, and an awesome skillset that lets him wreck just about any enemy foolish enough to fight him. It's not hard to see why he's a top tier unit.

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Volo

The next member of the top tier of Berwick Saga units is our resident edgy swordmaster himself, Volo. The easiest way to describe Volo is that he is "the best single-target deletion character in the entire game". When FE Wiki is referring to you as a "single-target deletion character" you know you've done something right.

The most powerful skill in Volo's arsenal is Deathmatch. This is a command skill (meaning that it doesn't require the RNG to activate) that lets Volo initiate 5 rounds of combat against an enemy. Enemies get to counterattack even if they take damage, as does Volo. This skill alone lets Volo kill just about any enemy in the game. The downside is that as enemies get stronger and more accurate, it becomes more risky. There are strategies that can get around this, such as giving Volo a Miracle Charm or getting him the Raze Etoile. The point here is that Deathmatch is a powerful skill that turns Volo into a killing machine.

Like Dean, Volo also has Adept. As you'd expect of a Swordmaster, Volo procs Adept a lot so he gets numerous opportunities to get additional consecutive attacks. He also has a cool skill called Iaido. Iaido is a skill that lets Volo counterattack enemies who attack him and miss. Iaido also increases Volo's hitrate by 33 % and his critical hit rate by 3 %. Adept and Iaido can both be used when he's using Deathmatch. These three skills allow Volo to keep hitting any enemy that he fights until that enemy dies. 

As you'd expect of a swordmaster, Volo's accuracy is great even in the early game where the hit rates are low. His base stats are excellent, and he has another skill called Despoil which gives him  a chance to earn the player gold whenever he kills the enemy (which happens a lot). Volo also joins pretty early on in the game too so you get to use him for about 99 % of the game. 

Before I forget, there are three ways to recruit Volo. The easiest way to recruit him is to raise his Happiness to 12 by bringing him to nearly every mission, having him kill enemies, and feeding him dishes in the Kingfisher Pavilion.

Volo has two weaknesses: He has durability issues and he's the second most expensive character to hire in the game. Personally, I think he's worth every bit of gold that you have to pay for him.

Conclusion: Volo has god-tier offense in this game due to the incredible combination of Deathmatch, Adept, and Iaido. His base stats are excellent, and he's available all game long. It's true that he's expensive, but he's definitely worth the cost. Volo is an amazing unit and a must use during any playthrough of Berwick Saga.

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Sherlock

I'm going with Sherlock next, because he's among the first characters that the player gets to control in the game. Sherlock is a character that may not look like much, but he can pull off some impressive things that make him a top tier unit. 

The main reason why Sherlock's a top tier unit comes from his skill(s) Double-Shot, and later Triple-Shot. Double Shot lets Sherlock attack twice in a row. After he promotes, this skill upgrades to Triple-Shot where he can attack one enemy three times consecutively. Triple-Shot is stupidly good, and he's the only character in your army that has it. 

Sherlock also has another skill called One-Two. This gives him an extra consecutive attack after he's already attacked an enemy. When this skill combines with Triple-Shot, it gives Sherlock the ability to attack one enemy up to 4 times a row. That's insane! You can demolish a LOT of enemies with that skill combination.

Once he reaches Level 7, he gets a skill called Overwatch, which allows him to give up his turn in exchange for being able to fire at the first enemy that moves in his direction. If he lands a hit, he effectively ends that enemy's turn.

 Sherlock is also your only mounted bow user, which means that he gets Canto. Sherlock is the best canto user in the game. In Berwick Saga mounted units don't get access to canto if they take even one point of damage from enemies. Most mounted units will be attacking enemies at melee range, and have to risk getting counterattacked. Sherlock consistently attacks from range, which means that he usually doesn't have to worry about taking damage from enemy counterattacks. This lets him pull off fun hit-and-run tactics all throughout the game.

Sherlock is also the only top tier unit who joins the player for free. You don't have to pay any money to bring him with you on various chapters. You also don't need to worry about jumping through any hoops to recruit him either, since he already permanently joins you for free.

Sherlock also joins during the first chapter of the game and it's pretty easy to promote him. All Sherlock needs to do is raise his bow rank to 30, which is pretty easy for a guy who has a 70 % growth in that stat.

Sherlock's main weakness is that he starts out pretty weak. His accuracy is questionable at best, and his damage is limited due to the fact that arrows in the beginning of the game aren't anything special. Just keep using him, and I promise that when he gets better you'll be glad you stuck with him.

Conclusion: Sherlock's a low maintenance character with a powerful combination of skills. His firepower is strong enough to let him destroy enemies as long as you're willing to take the time to train him. He's definitely worth it, and you should try giving him a shot (pun intended).

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Clifford

The next top tier unit on this list is Clifford the big red dog.   Clifford is a mounted wall of destruction. His base stats are so powerful that he's basically invincible during the early game, and even if he never gains a single point in any of his stats, he's strong enough to contend with enemies during the final chapter. 

One of Clifford's skills is "Shieldfaire", which is a skill that increases his chance of blocking hits with an equipped shield. Thanks to this skill, Clifford will block a lot of hits which makes his already impressive bulk even better. Clifford is easily one of the most durable units in the game. 

Clifford also has a high spear rank, which means that he's super accurate whenever he attacks with a spear. He also has the ability to use lances. (Yes, those are actually two different weapon types in this game) I've actually spoken about how powerful lances are before during my Berwick Saga review:

 "All of them wield lances, which in this game gain additional damage for each space that they move. Let's take a look at the Greatlance for example.

The Greatlance deals 1 + 5H (5H means that it deals 5 damage for every hex you travel in). The maximum movement that a rider can move is 7 spaces. So 1 + 5(7) = 36. If your rider moves the full distance while a Greatlance is equipped, they deal an additional 36 damage in additional to their strength stat. THAT'S INSANE! I've been able to one-shot an armored unit at full health with that kind of damage. Wait, didn't you just get done saying that armored enemies are super tough? Yes I did." (Source: 

https://thecrusadergrant.blogspot.com/2021/07/berwick-saga-review-part-2.html) 

Spoiler Alert: The character that I used to kill that armored enemy at full health with the Greatlance was Clifford. His damage output with lances is really high. The only other characters in the game who can equip lances are Adel and Leon. The problem with them is that Adel and Leon have to promote in order to use lances. They have to promote in order to do what Clifford does immediately. Not only that, but it will take a while for both Adel and Leon to promote, so while they take their sweet time doing so, Clifford will effectively be your only lance user.

 He also has a skill called "Provoke" which is useful in case you need to keep weaker units alive, or you want to use him to chip away at enemies so that you can feed other units kills.

Clifford also has a special horse with super high HP, meaning that he can stay mounted and take lots of hits without the player needing to worry about buying a new, expensive horse. His weapon ranks at base are so high that he can use pretty much any sword, shield, or spear / lance that you want him to use.

Clifford has two weaknesses

 (1) He's the most expensive character in the game to hire. Clifford typically costs a little under 3,000 gold to hire. That adds up fast. 

(2) In order to permanently recruit him, you first have to permanently recruit a character named Ruby. Ruby is this game's underleved unit with low bases and high growths. Just one problem: She's a massive hassle to use, and to promote. It'll take a while before she promote which means that you have to be careful about how often you want to use Clifford.

And here's Ruby. I love her character design, but I can't get over just how annoying she was to use during my last playthrough.

Conclusion: If this were a normal Fire Emblem game, Clifford would probably be the best unit. His base stats are awesome, his damage output is great, he's durable, and has high movement. Clifford will do whatever you need him to do. Just keep in mind that he's very expensive to hire, and his recruitment requirement is legitimately difficult. If you decide that he's worth the cost, he will serve you well.

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Sherpa

The second-to-last character in this tier is the legend himself: Sherpa. One of the biggest reasons why Sherpa is a top tier legend is that he's the only character in the game that gets to have a stereotypical Fire Emblem enemy phase! This is because he gets exclusive access to a skill called Counter, which lets him do that. 

He also has an amazing prf rank sword called the Brymranger. This weapon lets him attack enemies two extra times, which means that it's common for him to attack enemies up to 3 times in a normal round of combat.  This weapon is also super durable, so it's unlikely that it'll break which means that you get to use it a lot!

Sherpa also has access to a skill called "Guard" which lets him redirect attacks aimed at adjacent allies towards himself. This is incredibly useful for protecting weaker allies, and it combos well with his skill Counter, which means that he gets to fight more enemies than usual.

 Sherpa also has a skill called "Robust", which prevents him from getting crippled. Cripple is a status unique to Berwick Saga that prevents its victim from being able to move very far, they can't attack, heal, or use any items at all. It genuinely sucks, because if your character gets crippled, they can't do anything. Robust makes Sherpa immune to crippling, which means that this will never happen to him. 

He also has "Windsweep" which lets him attack enemies while negating any possible chance of a counterattack. In addition to everything I've said, his base stats are incredible. It should be noted that his accuracy is great, meaning that you won't have to worry about him missing his target. 

He's also extremely easy to recruit. All you have to do is use him during a side quest, and then bring him to Chapter 8. Have him talk to a character in Chapter 8 named Kay. A cutscene happens, and then he'll have permanently joined your army during the next level. That's an extremely easy requirement for such a powerful character.

The only downside to using Sherpa is that his defense is questionable. He's like Dean in the sense that his HP is really high, but his Defense leaves room to be desired. Oh, and his prf rank sword nerfs his avoid by 50.

Conclusion: Sherpa's amazing! His stats are great. His skills are great. His prf rank sword is great! He's a low maintenance unit that can kick all kinds of ass without requiring any real effort on the player's part. What more can you ask for?

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Larentia

The last top tier character is Larentia. She's the only flier that you get. I realize that having a top tier flier here might cause you to expect her to be like Camilla, Miledy, Haar, or Jill. If that's the case, then allow me to clear up that misconception: Larentia's worth lies in her utility, not her combat.

That's right, a flier is considered useful not from their combat, but from their utility. Berwick Saga tweaked flying in ways that benefit Larentia. Enemies with melee range weapons cannot target her for attacks. Fliers also get to move past enemies as if they had the skill Pass. Fliers can't occupy the same tiles as non flying units, which is both a positive and a negative. It's a positive, because it lets her block off certain tiles. It's a negative because she can't land on houses, which can be a nuisance at times. One feature of Berwick Saga's map design is that there are a lot of different terrain types that tend to mess with your units movement. Since Larentia's a flier, she gets to ignore all of that, which is helpful on time sensitive missions.

Larentia has a unique skill called Watch. This lets her detect invisible thieves, assassins, and crossbow wielding enemies. This may not sound like much, but in the mid to later parts of the game those types of enemies become more frequent. You won't be able to deal with them unless you have a character with Watch nearby. Larentia clearly fits that role, and will make a painful part of the game less painful. FE Wiki also has this interesting tidbit to share about her:

"Larentia also has a lot of utility with capturing, being one of the few units with Mercy, and arguably the best user due to her high mobility and access to accurate and damaging weapons. Because of this, she can be an important part for capturing strategies, making her very handy for gathering all the collector's items and full payouts for bounties." (Source: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Larentia#Overview)

Larentia also has access to a prf rank weapon called Euthyphro. It's a spear that deals magical damage to enemies. This is handy when dealing with bulky enemies. Larentia also has the added benefits of being super easy to recruit. She joins your army when Reese promotes, and Reese promotes automatically between Chapters 7 - 10. Her hiring fee is pretty cheap too, so you can use her a lot without worrying about running out of money.

Larentia does have a drawback: Her combat is mediocre. Her bulk leaves much to be desired, and the only skill she has that improves her combat is Adept. To be fair Adept is a great skill, but she won't activate it anywhere near as often as Dean or Volo. This is because her speed stat isn't anything to write home about, and she gets weighed down whenever she uses spears. Her accuracy is shaky, meaning that she might not even hit her target. She also has Windsweep, just like Sherpa. It's helpful for giving her risk free ways to attack, but Windsweep comes at the cost of movement, which is a big deal for Larentia, since she's a flier. 

Conclusion: I think FE Wiki summarized her contributions accurately when it said: "While Larentia is no combat juggernaut, she is an incredible asset to the player and is useful in any playthrough." (Source: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Larentia#Overview)