Attribute redirects here. For the attributes applied to weapons inFire Emblem Warriors, seeWeapon attribute.

Affinities (Japanese:属性attribute), known asattributes inPath of Radiance, are a game mechanic which were introduced inFire Emblem: The Binding Blade. It is an attribute innate to every playableunit which gives them one of several elemental affiliations which influence the effects ofsupports on a unit. Every affinity awards a different set of bonuses which improve a unit's performance when they have a support relationship with another unit, and when two units support each other their bonuses are added together, giving different combinations of units different support bonuses. InRadiant Dawn, affinity awards other bonuses in addition to this.

Affinities are present in only five games in theFire Emblem series, and were removed in all games fromFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon onward.

Overview

In every game that features affinities, all playable units are given one affinity. Depending on the game, enemy and NPC forces may or may not have affinities as well. The primary use of affinities is to determine what stats characters gain boosts in when they support with other units. This, however, renders affinities on non-playable characters and bosses useless, with some exceptions; inFire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, for instance, the bossesPaul andJasmine have an A support with each other, thus allowing for the two to increase their stats if they stand near each other.

In terms of supports, boosts in stats given by the affinity of two characters stack, and their initial effects are doubled and then tripled for B and A level supports; effects that have a decimal in their total sum, however, are rounded down.

For example: InThe Blazing Blade,Nino andCanas achieve a C-rank support. Canas's anima affinity gives +0.5 attack, +0.5 defense, +2.5 avoid, and +2.5 dodge, while Nino's fire affinity gives +0.5 attack, +2.5 hit rate, +2.5 avoid, and +2.5 crit. These are added and rounded down to the nearest integer to give both of them +1 attack, +2 hit rate, +5 avoid, +2 crit, and +2 dodge when they are positioned within 3 spaces of each other.

When Nino and Canas reach their B-rank support, their C-rank bonuses (before rounding down) are doubled to give them +2 attack, +5 hit rate, +10 avoid, +5 crit, +5 dodge, and +1 defense.

When they reach their A-rank support, their C-rank bonuses (before rounding down) are tripled to give them +3 attack, +7 hit rate, +15 avoid, +7 crit, +7 dodge, and +1 defense.

In-universe role

InThe Binding Blade,Dayan andYoder discuss the role of affinities in the religious cultures ofElibe in their support conversations. Both the traditional mythology ofSacae and the teachings of SaintElimine state that all people are connected with and protected by one elemental affinity which is bestowed upon them by a divine power (the sky and earth in Sacaen lore, and the creatorgods in Eliminean lore); Dayan says that he is aware that his affinity isanima, suggesting that he learned this through the Sacaen culture.^[1] According to both mythologies, affinities are powerless on their own, but forming bonds and "linking hearts" with others reveals their true power, although neither Dayan nor Yoder is sure what this true power is.^[2]

Game Boy Advance games

In the three Game Boy Advance titles—Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade,The Blazing Blade, andThe Sacred Stones—there are seven affinities.

Only one enemy inThe Binding Blade,Galle, has an affinity. InThe Blazing Blade, only seven enemies have affinities, all of them bosses:Paul,Jasmine,Lloyd,Linus,Brendan,Kishuna, and thedragon. InThe Sacred Stones, all bosses have affinities; additionally, allmonster units have the dark affinity.

The seven affinities award bonuses as follows:

Affinity	Atk	Def	Hit	Avo	Crit	Ddg
Fire	+0.5	+0.0	+2.5	+2.5	+2.5	+0.0
Thunder	+0.0	+0.5	+0.0	+2.5	+2.5	+2.5
Wind	+0.5	+0.0	+2.5	+0.0	+2.5	+2.5
Ice	+0.0	+0.5	+2.5	+2.5	+0.0	+2.5
Dark	+0.0	+0.0	+2.5	+2.5	+2.5	+2.5
Light	+0.5	+0.5	+2.5	+0.0	+2.5	+0.0
Anima	+0.5	+0.5	+0.0	+2.5	+0.0	+2.5

Tactician's bonus inThe Blazing Blade

Main article:Mark#Tactician's bonus

Uniquely inFire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, the game's customizable tactician characterMark gives the player's units a "tactician's bonus" based on affinity. Units who share the same affinity which the player assigned to Mark at the beginning of the game gain small statistical boosts to theirhit rate andavoid, which grow stronger as Mark's ranking increases throughout the game. Additionally, every unit also receives a boost tododge regardless of affinity. For every star displayed in Mark's Rank menu inpreparations, units receive +1 to each calculation they qualify, for a maximum +10 boost per calculation.

The Japanese versions of the game also feature the ability to choose Mark's blood type, which further altered their affinity. As blood types hold a considerably lesser significance in Western culture, this option wasremoved in localization.

Affinities are assigned to Mark based on birth month as follows:

NTSC-U/PALNTSC-J

Month	Affinity
January	Light
February	Ice
March	Wind
April	Thunder
May	Wind
June	Anima
July	Fire
August	Dark
September	Fire
October	Anima
November	Ice
December	Thunder

Month	Blood type A	Blood type B	Blood type O	Blood type AB
January	Ice	Wind	Fire	Ice
February	Wind	Fire	Thunder	Anima
March	Ice	Wind	Anima	Thunder
April	Anima	Fire	Thunder	Ice
May	Light	Thunder	Fire	Wind
June	Thunder	Anima	Wind	Fire
July	Anima	Wind	Ice	Thunder
August	Wind	Dark	Fire	Anima
September	Fire	Ice	Anima	Thunder
October	Ice	Anima	Wind	Fire
November	Anima	Thunder	Ice	Ice
December	Thunder	Fire	Wind	Light

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Path of Radiance andRadiant Dawn

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance andRadiant Dawn feature eight affinities. Unlike in the Game Boy Advance games, affinities no longer award bonuses tocrit ordodge. Additionally, inRadiant Dawn, affinity only influences the effects of buddy supports, while all bond supports provide the same crit bonus regardless of affinity

InPath of Radiance, all bosses exceptTomenami have an affinity, while generic enemies and NPCs still do not. InRadiant Dawn, all units of all affiliations are assigned affinities, with generic enemies being assigned affinities at random.

Radiant Dawn also assigns an affinity to each chapter, which is displayed in the corner of theterrain window. If a unit of any affiliation has an affinity matching the map's affinity, they are awarded a bonus of +5hit rate and +5avoid to units with an affinity matching the map. Most bosses share their affinity with the chapter in which they are fought. Affinity bonuses are nullified entirely inHard Mode.

The bonuses awarded by the affinities differ slightly between the two games. They are as follows:

Path of RadianceRadiant Dawn

Affinity	Atk	Def	Hit	Avo
Fire	+0.5	+0.0	+2.5	+0.0
Thunder	+0.0	+0.5	+0.0	+2.5
Wind	+0.0	+0.0	+2.5	+2.5
Water	+0.5	+0.5	+0.0	+0.0
Dark	+0.5	+0.0	+0.0	+2.5
Light	+0.0	+0.5	+2.5	+0.0
Heaven	+0.0	+0.0	+5.0	+0.0
Earth	+0.0	+0.0	+0.0	+5.0

Affinity	Atk	Def	Hit	Avo
Fire	+0.5	+0.0	+2.5	+0.0
Thunder	+0.0	+0.5	+0.0	+2.5
Wind	+0.0	+0.0	+2.5	+2.5
Water	+0.5	+0.5	+0.0	+0.0
Dark	+0.5	+0.0	+0.0	+2.5
Light	+0.0	+0.5	+2.5	+0.0
Heaven	+0.0	+0.0	+9.0	+0.0
Earth	+0.0	+0.0	+0.0	+7.5

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Flavor text

Trivia

• Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade's support viewer calls affinities by the abbreviation "ATL" (presumably intended to be short for "attribute") in the Japanese and North American versions of the game; this seems to have been a mix-up of R and L, which occurs occasionally in Japanese materials (for example,Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem abbreviatescritical rate as "CLT" in battle). The PAL versions ofThe Blazing Blade and all versions ofThe Sacred Stones use the abbreviation "AFFIN".
  • The same term, Affin (属性attribute in the Japanese versions), is used to refer to the types of weapons in some menus ofGenealogy of the Holy War throughThe Sacred Stones.

Etymology and other languages

Gallery

References

Affinities
The Binding Blade,The Blazing Blade, andThe Sacred Stones Anima •Dark •Fire •Ice •Light •Thunder •Wind Path of Radiance andRadiant Dawn Dark •Earth •Fire •Heaven •Light •Thunder •Water •Wind