OPTIMAL Skill and Class Leveling in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave (Spoiler Free Guide)

Summary

This spoiler-free guide explains how weapon, magic, and movement ranks work in Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, then presents two ways to grind rank experience repeatedly.

How Rank Experience Works

• Rank experience is awarded once per round of combat, not once per hit. Doubling or landing multiple attacks does not increase the amount.
• A unit must deal damage to earn rank experience. Being attacked without successfully retaliating does not count.
• Each unit has an affinity for particular rank types:
  • Neutral: no adjustment.
  • Negative: subtracts one point.
  • Positive: adds one point.
• Classes also provide bonuses to certain weapon and movement ranks. The class bonus, affinity adjustment, and point for using the weapon or movement type determine the total earned per round.
• Mounted units in dungeons or while unmounted gain infantry movement experience rather than riding or flying experience.
• Blessings of Salvation provide an additional flat boost.
• Going from E to S+ takes 2,560 points. Divide that total by the points earned per combat round to estimate the number of rounds required. The same total applies to weapons, magic, and movement ranks.

Repeatable Dungeon-Grinding Method

Dungeon combat turns count as combat rounds, and units retain rank gains if they retreat before the fight ends. The enemy then recovers, allowing the encounter to be repeated.

This method is for infantry and armored movement ranks. It does not train riding or flying, and it is not well suited to magic.

A recommended location is Fort Hayne near Mons, which costs four Renown to unlock with most lords. It is unavailable to Kai.

The goal is to deal only one damage per round while taking no damage:

• Aim for 31 physical attack and 24 defense.
• If defense is lower, a healer such as Altand can restore health, and a Silver Shield from Mons can add defense.
• Reclassing into Armored Knight raises a unit’s strength to at least 11. Pairing that with the Fissa weapon—which is effective against armored enemies—can reach the suggested attack threshold.

If reaching the thresholds is difficult, a wooden axe is a fallback. It deals at least five damage, though its accuracy is lower.

Retreat while the enemy still has at least 3 HP to avoid accidentally killing it with a critical hit. If the enemy dies, the game autosaves and the loop is lost until the next chapter.

This method does not grant character experience, so units can gain ranks without leveling in the wrong class. Bow and gauntlet users can also use the approach if they meet the attack and defense conditions.

Healing-Tile Method

On certain story maps, both the unit and an enemy can stand on healing tiles and repeatedly fight while recovering health. This works for the available classes and weapons, but units also gain character experience in their current class.

Suggested examples are Chapter 10 of Theodore’s route and Chapter 6 of Kai’s route.

The guide cautions that rank grinding can take hours, so it may be best reserved for favorite units or especially useful ranks.

Featured Gamers and Sources

• Rola — credited with finding the Fort Hayne dungeon-grinding setup.
• LinkKing7 — guide creator and source of the strategies described.