Fire Emblem Engage is one of the most accommodating games in the franchise for players looking to max out their characters’ potential. The game achieves something unusual among JRPGs in how it makes level grinding fun, provided you know where to look. But whatever your goals are, be they to survive the campaign on high-difficulty settings, or just do some classic power gaming, you’ll want to know good ways to level up fast in Fire Emblem Engage.
What Are Recommendations for Fast Leveling in FE Engage?
Fire Emblem veterans and newcomers alike will be able to enjoy the turn-based battles that made this franchise great. While it’s not as hard to level up units as it was in the old days, there are plenty of techniques, some using the gameplay, and some even exploiting oversights in the game’s design. Here is a selection of some classics and even some new ideas on how to level up fast in Fire Emblem Engage:
8. Weaken Strong Units, Feed to Characters to Level Up Fast in Fire Emblem Engage
This should go without saying, but if you see potential in otherwise weak characters, save the kills for them. This holds especially true in the early chapters of Engage, with Vander being a great way to loosen up the metaphorical EXP pickle jar. He goes in, tanks the attacks, dishes out the hurt and reaps minimal EXP for not finishing the fight. Weaker characters, even your protagonist Alear, will benefit from this early on, without you necessarily having to resort to Frederick Emblem Awakening extremes.
7. Arena
The Arena is a handy feature on the Somniel world map that is a free XP guarantee between every battle. It’s wise to add this to your rotation between completing chapters and skirmishes in Fire Emblem Engage to level up quickly. However, since you’re introduced to it only having 3 uses, it’s fairly limited, but a good source of EXP, even if sometimes the characters wind up hilariously mismatched (Framme vs. Louis) and losing.
6. Save the Boss for Last
When playing story battles and you have the victory condition of beating a boss, try and pick off any enemy reinforcements. In these chapters, when you beat the boss, the chapter ends, and the EXP opportunity dries up, along with any tangible rewards.
5. Boss Abuse
Boss abuse, as known by some players in the community, is to chip away at the boss with weaker units when possible. Keep them healthy through the encounter and, if you have characters you want to specially invest in, set them up for the killing blow to reap solid rewards and cap off your battle. This is a classic Fire Emblem method present in pretty much any game in the series, but you’ll want to have a healer nearby.
4. Always Be Healing
Anytime any ally is even mildly injured if you have characters like Framme or Jean, or others you encounter or change classes, use them to heal. This goes hand in hand with the Boss Abuse tip, and in general, it’s an amazing pool of consistent EXP, made even better when they get attacked by an enemy in a subsequent turn if they can defend themselves. Other staves, even Obstruct early on, are great sources of EXP when healing isn’t an option, but there’s a particular early healing method you can milk for massive EXP gains.
3. With Great Sacrifice Comes Great Rewards
Micaiah’s Engage Attack is the support skill Great Sacrifice, bringing her bonded unit’s HP to 1 while restoring HP fully to all allies. You absolutely should use this in any battle when given the chance, as it’s a great defensive skill to have in your pocket, and the user will benefit immensely along with their team.
2. Skirmishes Are Essential
Skirmishes should be part of your rotation between story chapters, every time, with no exception if you want the best EXP gains. This also lets you level up the characters you want the most to be strong, but make sure the ones you bring along can keep up with your strongest units, as the challenges do scale up eventually. But typically these Skirmishes appear in limited numbers, and there is still yet one method to max out this EXP pool.
1. Play Dirty and Exploit Skirmish Respawns with This Handy Trick
Skirmishes turn out to respawn on a timer when you go out to the World Map. This means if you’ve beaten one or more Skirmish, you can do the following:
- Save and close your game
- From the Switch Home Menu, go to ‘System Settings’
- Scroll down and select ‘System’
- Select ‘Date and Time’
- Toggle off the ‘Synchronize Clock via Internet’ option
- Change the Date and Time, even just setting it a day ahead will work
Reopen and load your game to see the World Map refresh, adding different Skirmishes to the map. Bon Appétit!
Fire Emblem Engage released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch on January 20, 2023.
