Aboss (Japanese:ボスboss) orcommander is a type of enemyunit who functions as the leader of an enemy army. Typically, there will be one boss unit per chapter, but there can be multiple. Bosses are often minor characters in the story, but major antagonists also take roles as bosses.

Gameplay

Bosses tend to be more powerful than the rest of the enemy army accompanying them, and will wield superior weapons. They also situate themselves on advantageousterrain types like forts, gates and thrones, have a portrait and actual dialogue, and are distinguished by specific boss battle music. Bosses generally remain stationary, but there are some bosses that move, with one random example beingBone fromFire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.

Defeating the boss is a commonobjective for chapters, and by default is also part of therout objective. SinceThe Blazing Blade, a chapter's boss has been denoted by an icon in the corner of their sprite; the icon's contents vary from game to game, but it is often a shield.

With the exception ofGaiden andGenealogy of the Holy War, bosses award moreexperience than other enemies do when they are defeated. This experience bonus is typically a flat added bonus varying from 10 to 40 depending on the game. InThree Houses, the experience bonus is instead a multiplier that doubles the final experience value.

InGenealogy of the Holy War, the sheer scope of its chapters result in each chapter having multiple bosses, upwards of four, fought in turn as the player's army travels betweencastles. The majority of the chapters commonly feature multiple bosses comprised of a lead boss and a number of mini-bosses, less powerful and important bosses typically encountered at a chapter's midpoint.

InGenealogy of the Holy War,Thracia 776 andRadiant Dawn, bosses will also often have someauthority points to aid their army—usually between 1 to 5 points, but sometimes as high as 10. WhilePath of Radiance does not have an authority stat, all bosses in that game will provide +5hit rate and +5avoid to all of their allies—i.e. enemy units—within 3 spaces. While for the most part bosses remain enemies for their entire presence in a game, there are rare examples of bosses who can berecruited by the player, likeTiki,Hannibal,Perne, andOliver; inTrial Maps and similar modes, it is also common to allow the player to use plot-critical bosses in their army as a reward for game completion.

Starting inThe Blazing Blade with the introduction ofLethality, bosses have usually possessed a resistance to it, and sometimes have had innate resistances to certain other powerful effects or mechanics that favor the player. InThe Blazing Blade andThe Sacred Stones, bosses possess a 50% resistance to Silencer, while inPath of Radiance,Radiant Dawn,Three Houses (through theGeneral andCommander abilities) andEngage, bosses were completely immune to instant-KO effects; inRadiant Dawn andEngage, they are also immune toBane's ability to drop the boss' HP down to 1. InThree Houses, bosses possess a resistance to damage-dealingGambits; 50% on bosses with General, and 75% on bosses with Commander; Commanders are also immune to all status effects, including therattled status caused by offensive gambits. InEngage, depending on the difficulty and chapter, bosses may possess resistances or immunity toeffective damage andbreak through skills such asUnbreakable,Stalwart andVeteran(+).

InShadow Dragon and the Blade of Light andGaiden, every boss is "class grown"; they are statistically identical to generic units of their level and are usually only distinguished by their location or equipment; they are stronger than the units around them simply by virtue of being higher-leveled. A majority of bosses inGenealogy of the Holy War also operate on this principle, though some are internally coded as exceptions, which is required to setHoly Blood, a non-zeroluck stat, or personalskills. Most returning bosses inShadows of Valentia also are class grown, though all the newcomers (except Act 4Berkut) and recruitable bosses, as well asDuma andThe Creation, have personal stats. Notably,Rudolf andJedah are strictly class-grown on Normal Mode, but on Hard, they are given personal stats instead. In all later titles, bosses instead have personal, (usually) fixed stats. However, inThe Binding Blade,Roberts,Maggie andRose are uniquely set to be treated as a class-grown generic enemy with personal base stats on top; this is responsible for Maggie and Rose's stat variance on Normal mode. InThe Blazing Blade and the Japanese version ofThe Sacred Stones, some bosses are also set to be grown as with generic enemies, although this isan oversight.

Boss quotes

Across the series typically more important bosses get customized conversations with certain characters, typically the characters that have these conversations are acquainted with each other. Boss quotes can vary in length, with dialogue ranging from quick insults to lengthy conversations.

On much rarer occasions bosses will have varying death quotes depending on who defeats them.Saizo killingKotaro inFire Emblem Fates is one example.

Non-personal quotes are in every game, although the Famicom installments reserve them for important bosses. Boss death quotes are even rarer in these games.Mystery of the Emblem standardized every boss having a battle and death quote. Personal battle quotes were introduced inGenealogy of the Holy War.

Boss abuse

"Boss abuse" is the act of exploiting a boss for the purposes ofexperience gain. By taking advantage of the consistent stream of boss healing per turn from their occupied terrain, players can waste a boss's weapon until it breaks and is left helpless, then have a lower-level slowly chip away at the defenseless boss as a way to gain easy, if time-consuming, experience. Alternatively, the boss can be attacked at ranges from which it cannot counterattack, such as attacking abow-using boss at one range.

Some games have measures to prevent this; for instance, inAwakening'sLunatic Mode, attacking a boss repeatedly in this manner produces diminishing returns of experience until it is no longer gained at all.

Trivia

• Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones was the first game to give all bosses anaffinity.Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade andFire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, the two previous games with affinities, did not give all bosses the attribute.

Etymology and other languages

Gallery

• 
  Bauker, an example of a boss inFire Emblem: The Blazing Blade.
• 
  Garrick, an example of a boss inAwakening.
• 
  Boss icon used inThe Blazing Blade andThe Sacred Stones.
• 
  Boss icon used inRadiant Dawn.
• 
  Boss icon used inAwakening.
• 
  Boss icon used inFates.
• 
  Boss icon used inEchoes: Shadows of Valentia.
• 
  Boss icon used inThree Houses.

See also

• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem Gaiden
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem Awakening
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem Fates
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
• Category:Enemies in Fire Emblem: Three Houses