| Site News |
|---|
| Warning: This wiki containsspoilers. Read at your own risk! Social media: If you would like, please joinour Discord server, and/or follow us onX (Twitter),Bluesky, orTumblr! |
Ballista
- This article is about ballistae as a weapon type. For the specific weapon, seeBallista (weapon). For the class, seeBallista (class).
Theballista (Japanese:シューターshooter; plural:ballistae) is a recurring physicalweapon type related tobows. It is comprised ofsiege engines, mostly those of the titularballista variety. Ballistae are defined by their immenserange, with the almost unique benefit of being able to strike at enemyunits at up to ten tiles away from the user.
11 different ballistae have existed in the entireFire Emblem series. In the majority of appearances, ballistae are usually classed as bows which can only be used by specific bow-wielding classes, while the Archanea games make them their own weapon type unusable by conventional bow users. Ballistae are not present at all inAwakening,Fire Emblem Gaiden, or its remake,Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
Overview
FromMystery of the Emblem onward, all ballistae have a range of 3-10 (except theIron Ballista, whose range is even greater). This gives them a fearsome presence, but they are governed by several rules which are unique to them andlong-range tomes to counterbalance this.
Units who are attacked by a ballista are not able to counterattack even if they are also equipping a ballista or a long-range tome, which partially protects the ballista's operator from harm. On the other hand ballista users are highly vulnerable to attack if an enemy slips through their range and gets close enough to attack them, as ballistae cannot counterattack under any circumstances and the user is locked into their ballista with no ability to switch to a different bow (except inThe Binding Blade,Path of Radiance, andRadiant Dawn).
The offensive potential of ballistae is undercut by their slow and cumbersome nature, which greatly affects their ability tofollow-up attack. Ballistae are entirely incapable of follow-up attacking in all games fromPath of Radiance onward, and prior to that, their extremely highweight cripples their users' attack speed and makes double attacks very unlikely. Their very limiteddurability combined with their scarce availability also prevents depending on them extensively. Outside of the Archanea games, all ballistae available to the player only have adurability of 5, and while their durability is better in the Archanea games, very few are ever received there.
In Archanea and Jugdral
InShadow Dragon & the Blade of Light,Mystery of the Emblem,Genealogy of the Holy War,Thracia 776,Shadow Dragon, andNew Mystery, ballistae work as regular weapons and are carried in their wielder'sinventories. Ballistae can only be used byBallisticians in the Archanea games, while in the Jugdral games, every ballista weapon has a matching, enemy-only Ballistician-like class whose members can only use their matching ballistae. Ballistae are available only to enemies in all of these games except the twoShadow Dragons.
When they first debuted inShadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, ballistae were not long-ranged weapons and all only had a range of 2. This was changed fromMystery of the Emblem onward. Ballistae are allowed to move inShadow Dragon & the Blade of Light andShadow Dragon, albeit with high terrain penalties and low movement stats, but they are completely stationary in the other games. The ballista classes all tend to have very highdefense to help with their extreme vulnerability.
All four ballista types in the Jugdral games areeffective against flying units, like ordinary bows. This is not the case in Archanea, where ballistae have diverse effects instead. One Archanean ballista, theArrowspate, is still effective against fliers.
In Elibe, Tellius, Magvel, Fódlan, and Elyos
InThe Binding Blade,The Blazing Blade,The Sacred Stones,Path of Radiance,Radiant Dawn,Three Houses, andEngage, ballistae come in the form of objects present on certain maps. These objects can be ridden byArchers,Snipers andMarksmen to access and attack with the ballista. InThree Houses andEngage, ballistae instead require aBow Skill of at least D, while onagers can be used by any non-magic infantry class. In most maps where ballistae are available, they start the map in enemy territory and manned by enemy Archers who will use up some of the ballista'sshots before the player's army can reach it.
Ballistae have wheels inThe Blazing Blade andThe Sacred Stones, which allow their riders to move their ballista around to adjust their range. However, ballistae have lowmovement and can only be moved on plainterrain, greatly restricting how far a ballista can be moved. Ballistae cannot move at all inThe Binding Blade,Path of Radiance,Radiant Dawn,Three Houses, orEngage.Path of Radiance andRadiant Dawn also adds a penalty to the range of ballistae: in all other games, a ballista's range extends all around it, but in these two games, ballistae can only be used to attack enemies within that range in front of the ballista.
Every ballista except theOnager iseffective against flying units in all of these games, like ordinary bows. InPath of Radiance andRadiant Dawn, ballistae do not take the user'sstrength stat into account when attacking, meaning that their damage output comes almost entirely just from the ballista'smight, similar to thecrossbows.
InFates
This section has been marked as astub. Please help improve the page by adding information.
InFire Emblem Fates, ballistae take the form ofturrets (Japanese:砲台turret) which, like the GBA and Tellius-era ballistae, are objects which are available on certain maps. They can also be constructed in the player'sMy Castle for use in the castle defense battles.
Each turret type is matched with a weapon type and can be used by members of any class which wields that weapon type. Unlike past ballistae (aside from the Onager), the turret payloads inflict spread damage across multiple tiles and affect both allies and enemies of the turret user, but in exchange they are unable to kill units and will always leave them with at least 1 HP remaining.[1]
There are three turret types:
- Ballista:Bow-type turret. In addition to the map objects, allBallisticians have an innate Ballista turret.
- Fire Orb:Tome-type turret.
- Launcher:Shuriken-type turret.
In-universe role
In Archanea at least, ballistae need to be lubricated using the oil from a special type of fruit in order to move. This fruit was driven to extinction during theWar of Shadows, so while ballistae continued to be used after the war, they became completely unable to move and could only be used from stationary positions.[2]
Ballistae in theFire Emblem series by type
Archanean ballistae
These five ballistae appear solely in the fourArchaneaFire Emblem games:Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light,Mystery of the Emblem,Shadow Dragon andNew Mystery of the Emblem. In these games, the usage of ballistae is exclusive to theBallistician class. The Archanean ballistae are unique in their diversity of function, each being portrayed and described as firing different forms of ammunition for different roles.
| Weapon | Available in: | Notes | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FE01 | FE02 | FE03 | FE04 | FE05 | FE06 | FE07 | FE08 | FE09 | FE10 | FE11 | FE12 | FE13 | FE14 | FE15 | FE16 | FE17 | ||
| Stonehoist | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | -- |
| Hoistflamme | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | -- |
| Thunderbolt | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Magic-based weapon; dealsbonus damage toBallisticians. |
| Arrowspate | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Dealsbonus damage to flying units. |
| Pachyderm | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | -- |
| A✓ means that the weapon is available in that game, while a✗ indicates the contrary. | ||||||||||||||||||
Other ballistae
These six ballistae appear in all other ballista appearances in the series. With the exception of theOnager, all of these are variations on the standard "giant arrow" ballista.
| Weapon | Available in: | Notes | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FE01 | FE02 | FE03 | FE04 | FE05 | FE06 | FE07 | FE08 | FE09 | FE10 | FE11 | FE12 | FE13 | FE14 | FE15 | FE16 | FE17 | ||
| Ballista | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | -- |
| Iron Ballista | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | -- |
| Killer Ballista | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Unused inThracia 776. |
| Great Ballista | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Unused. |
| Poison Ballista | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | -- |
| Onager | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | -- |
| Fire Orb | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | Magic-based weapon. |
| Launcher | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | -- |
| Viskam | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | Magic-based weapon. |
| A✓ means that the weapon is available in that game, while a✗ indicates the contrary. | ||||||||||||||||||
Classes capable of using ballistae
There are 10 different classes which, at some point in the series, have been able to wield ballistae.
| Class | Wields ballistae in: | Notes | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FE01 | FE02 | FE03 | FE04 | FE05 | FE06 | FE07 | FE08 | FE09 | FE10 | FE11 | FE12 | FE13 | FE14 | FE15 | FE16 | FE17 | ||
| Ballistician | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | -- |
| Ballista | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Only capable of wielding theBallista. |
| Iron Ballista | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Only capable of wielding theIron Ballista. |
| Killer Ballista | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Unused and only capable of wielding theKiller Ballista inThracia 776. |
| Great Ballista | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Unused. |
| Poison Ballista | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Only capable of wielding thePoison Ballista. |
| Archer | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | -- |
| Sniper | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | -- |
| Fleet | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | -- |
| Marksman | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | -- |
| A✓ means that the class wields ballistae in that game, while a✗ indicates the contrary. | ||||||||||||||||||
Etymology and other languages
| Names, etymology, and in other regions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Language | Name | Definition, etymology, and notes |
| English | Ballista | A classical siege engine of ancient Greek origin, designed to fire arrow-like projectiles. |
| Japanese | シューター | Shooter |
| Spanish | Ballesta | Ballista |
| French | Baliste | Ballista |
| German | Ballista | As above. |
| Italian | Balista | Ballista |
Gallery
Artwork of a Ballista from theEncyclopedia.
References
- ↑"Units proficient in tomes can move next to Fire Orbs and select the Fire Orb option to... fire on all enemies (and allies) in an area. (Hit units will always retain at least 1 HP.) Note that different proficiencies are required to use Launchers, Ballistae, and Fire Orbs." — Slide Guide 27: "Turrets",Fire Emblem Fates
- ↑"Kris: You used to be a ballistician, correct?
Beck: Yeah, I was originally a member of an army. Even after the war was over, I travelled the world with my ballista, but it eventually stopped movin'...
Kris: An accident?
Beck: No, actually... In order to move a ballista, we need the oil from a special fruit. However that fruit disappeared after the last war, see. So you can attack with a ballista, but not move it and therefore, you can't travel with it either. Gettin' it to places would be just too hard, see.
Kris: Ah, so that's why... Indeed, none of the enemy ballisticians we've faced in this war moved at all." —Kris andBeck,Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem
See also
| Weapon types | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| Ballistae | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
