Experience points are a game mechanic in many Role-Playing Games, and by extension, Fire Emblem.
Mechanics[]
Experience points are required for a character to Level Up. A unit levels up each time they gain 100 experience points until they reach the level cap. Experience is earned most commonly by participating in battle, with the amount gained depending on factors such as the character's class. Lower-tier classes such as Trainee classes will gain more experience per battle than a higher-tier class like Paladin. In most games in the series, if a character reaches the level cap of their current class, they cannot earn more experience until they either promote or reclass into a new class. Three Houses is an exception to this, as a character's level does not reset on changing classes, and all characters have a level cap of 99.
The amount of experience gained also depends on the outcome of the individual battle encounter. Inflicting no damage results in very little, dealing damage will reward the unit with more, and killing the enemy will yield the most experience. Relative Class Power is also an essential factor in some games. Certain enemies, such as a boss or a thief, grant an increased amount of experience that does not adhere to some of the aforementioned conditions. For example, if Marcus kills a boss in the early-game, he will obtain the same amount of experience the lower-tiered units would have had they done the same.
In the Tellius Series, Bonus Experience points are awarded to the player post-battle, with the amount granted depending on factors specific to the chapter in question. Bonus experience is saved in a pool and can be distributed to any of the player's units from the Base screen, save for characters that have reached the level cap of their highest-tier class.
In the first two Fire Emblem games, Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Gaiden, experience is not given for using a staff or White Magic, limiting the ways in which units devoted to healing such as Clerics can earn experience points. Mystery of the Emblem was the first game in the series to allow units to earn experience through using staves, granting a fixed amount that varies based on the type of staff used. The amount of experience granted by staves is halved upon promotion to a higher-tier class. However, in Radiant Dawn, experience gain through staff use is not halved on promotion. In Shadow Dragon, New Mystery of the Emblem, Awakening, and Fates, the amount of experience gained per staff use is reduced based on character level.
Experience Stealing[]
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Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.
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Experience Stealing is a fan term for the poor distribution of Experience between units in the army. Since units with very high levels relative to their opponents gain much less EXP than units with more comparable levels to that opponent, some players have argued that this results in a large drop in overall army performance, though this has generally been disregarded by more experienced players, who argue that pre-promoted units are the most powerful in their respective armies due to their ability to "snowball" easily.
Overview[]
While not a debilitating problem, it is worth considering Experience distribution when it comes to training units to maximize army strength.
Overleveled Experience Stealing[]
Overleveled Experience Stealing occurs when a character of a level far higher than the enemy it is fighting kills the enemy. Due to the way experience in the majority of Fire Emblem games works, a character of a much higher level will receive a lot less experience from killing the enemy than a character of a comparable or lower level than the enemy. This is not necessarily a bad thing however, as a lot of the time the lower leveled character is worse than the one who "stole" their experience, and killing bosses will award a large amount of experience to any unit.
For example, from the opening chapter of Eliwood's Route on Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade:
- Killing the brigand closest to the start of the chapter with level 2 Cavalier Lowen gives Lowen 30 experience points.
- Killing the brigand closest to the start of the chapter with level 20/1 Paladin Marcus gives Marcus 3 experience points.
Unique to The Blazing Blade, it is possible for the reverse situation to occur, where a character who is higher level gains more experience compared to a character who is at a slightly lower level. This situation only occurs in the Normal modes of Eliwood and Hector's tales.
For example, take a Level 9 Archer from Chapter 23 of Hector's tale:
- Killing the Archer with a Level 9 Hector nets Hector 44 experience points.
- Killing the Archer with a Level 8 Eliwood nets Eliwood 33 experience points.
Here, 11 experience points have effectively been lost. This phenomenon occurs whenever a character's Level is close to (or slightly higher than) the enemy's level and has a greater effect for higher Level enemies. It can perhaps be thought of as rewarding players for keeping characters close to the average enemy Level.
Another kind of Overlevel Experience Stealing occurs when a character who cannot gain experience makes the kill. Because either they're at max level, or not allowed to promote for story purposes, no experience is gained at all from the action, attack, or kill. Similarly, the experience is often stolen by allied units, and units marked as 'Other', who generally cannot gain experience even if they are recruitable.
Wasteful Experience Stealing[]
Wasteful Experience Stealing refers to supposedly diminishing returns of giving Experience to a less optimal unit or a unit not likely to be used in the long run. This often occurs during recruitment chapters where the player is forced to field or use a specific character and, either by player's choice or the sub-optimal engagement patterns of the enemy, experience goes to an otherwise unintended target.
In several games, starting with the original Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, the player has only so many chapters to build and train their armies, thus every battle may count in the grand scheme of the overall gameplay. In these cases, even if intending on recruiting all characters, players may opt to immediately sideline or otherwise put characters on the field that they do not intend on using in the long run out of enemy ranges to prevent unnecessary battles and thus less chance for valuable EXP to be given to a unit that is not going to be used.
Wasteful Experience Steal impact has diminished overtime, especially since Fire Emblem Awakening, where periodic in-game, time generated, optional battles and occasionally player-generated battles exist to allow players to train any and all units before entering story chapters at their discretion.