Fire Emblem Shadows (Japanese:ファイアーエムブレム シャドウズFire Emblem Shadows) is a mobile game in theFire Emblem series announced and released September 24, 2025 for iOS and Android devices.

Plot

Book I ofShadows follows the crown prince of the kingdom ofAst,Kurt. After Ast is conquered by its neighbouring empire, and the royal guard as well as Kurt's parents are slain even after surrender, Kurt manages to flee the capital city alongside his three retainers,Gotthold,Alberta, andCarina. The four journey to the allied kingdom ofHoltz. In the forest, Kurt's group has a run-in with a disciple ofFenris namedSkoll. He tries to entice Kurt to give himself to Fenris in order to gain the power to rebuild his kingdom, which Kurt refuses. That same night, Kurt is plagued by nightmares of his allies betraying him, as well as his own death at Skoll's hands.

Further along their journey, Kurt meets and recruits the mercenaryZasha, whose family was killed by the empire, as well asRose, the princess of Ast and Kurt's betrothed. The group fend of bandits and eventually make it to a cave system separating Ast and Holtz, though they are wary that a traitor may be among them, due to imperial forces hunting the group far closer than they should be able to. Inside the caves, they are once again confronted by imperial forces, this time alongside another retainer to Fenris,Hati. There, it is revealed that the traitor is actually Gotthold, who gave himself to shadow in order to resurrect Kurt, as Kurt truly had been killed by Skoll in the forest. However, Gotthold had also been approached by disciples of Naga, the siblingsSai andShea, who also offered Gotthold a pact with Naga. With this power, Gotthold manages to break through Hati's command, buying Kurt time to finally escape to Holtz at the cost of his own life.

Book II instead followsJoachim, an orphan living in a remote village in the kingdom of Tournu. Hati and Skoll have set their sights on him after failing to tempt Kurt, as Joachim is a descendant of Fenris, though his family swore off serving her long ago. In order to make him beg for Fenris' power, Hati and Skoll task the imperial soldierBartolomeus, whom Kurt had fought off before, with attacking Joachim's home. Even when Bartolomeus burns down the orphanage Joachim lived in, killing all except his friendEstel and the orphanage's caretakerMicaela, he still refuses and attempts to fight Bartolomeus on his own.

Gameplay

Matches inShadows occur on a 5×5 tile grid in a real-time combat format.

Rounds

A match inShadows is separated into three rounds: first, Round 1, also referred to as Sun Room, then voting, then Round 2, also referred to as Moon Room. Only the final result of the Moon Room round decides the actual victor of the match.

In the case that either the Sun or Moon Room phases proceed for ten minutes without either side's defeat, the match is stopped and it is treated as the Shadow's victory.^[2]

Sun Room

During the Sun Room phase, all three players are tasked with defeating several generic enemies. It is the Light players' goal to correctly determine the traitor in this time based on the behavior of other players, while it is the Shadow player's goal to defeat both Light players using their Shadow exclusive skills without arousing suspicion.

Whether the generic enemies are defeated is ultimately irrelevant. If all three players are defeated, all enemies are automatically vanquished.

Traitor Vote

The Traitor Vote serves as an in-between of the two main rounds. Players have one phase's worth of time to decide on which of the three players is the traitor. The traitor also has a fake vote they can use in a last attempt to trick other players.

At the end of the Traitor Vote, the traitor is revealed and transforms into their Shadow form. Light players who have correctly identified the traitor receive two extra lives for Round 2, whereas those who have chosen incorrectly only receive one.

If a Light player died in the Sun Room, one of their extra lives is consumed to revive them at the start of the Moon Room.

Moon Room

In the Moon Room phase, the two remaining Light players fight the transformed Shadow player, who now boasts 3.25× the HP and more Shadow exclusive skills. Additionally, the Shadow player is accompanied by two generic enemies, all of which need to be defeated for the Light's victory.

Whoever successfully defeats the opposing side's players including all summoned enemies wins the entire match. If a Light player is defeated while having an extra life left, they are revived at the end of the current phase, avoiding all attacks. All extra lives need to be depleted in order for the player to count as defeated.

Movement

The movement of disciples is decided by their movement type, separated into the four categories of Infantry, Armored, Cavalry, and Flying. Units move toward the nearest target during their own phase, taking the range of their weapon and ability to cross terrain into account. Movement cannot be influenced by player input, excluding the usage of movement skills. Once a disciple is close enough to an enemy to attack, they ready an attack using their equipped weapon, which is executed at the end of the current phase. Once a disciple's movement has ended and a target has been selected, they will not change targeted tiles even if the target escapes using a movement skill.

Gameplay during Round 1 and Round 2 is separated into Light and Shadow phases. One phase lasts around six seconds. In Round 1, the traitor moves during the Light phase, but moves during the Shadow phase after they are exposed in Round 2.

Strengthening Disciples

Outside of combat, disciples can be strengthened throughleveling up, which uses upCrystals as well as character-specificMedals. Disciples can also equip weapons that boost their Attack and HP, which can be infused withWeapon Skills that boost the levels of certain magic skills.

All disciples come with fourmagic skills, which grow in level according to the disciple they are associated with. Magic skills, excluding EX skills, can be equipped by any disciple, including multiple at once.

Rating

When completing a match, regardless of victory or defeat, the player is awarded Rating Points. At one-hundred Rating Points, a particular disciple's Rating increases by one rank. Rank affects the maximum level inside a match, as well as matchmaking. If a disciple's level exceeds the maximum set by the current rank, their level is decreased during matches.

Rating ranks are split both by disciple and by side, meaning every disciple has two unique rankings for both Light and Shadow. However, there is a cumulative rank per player for Light and Shadow as well, which totals the Ranking Points received in either category across all disciples.

Characters

Main article:List of characters inFire Emblem Shadows

Playable characters inShadows are called "disciples". Currently, 23 disciples are available in the game; while most of them are original characters debuting inShadows, several originate from past entries in theFire Emblem series.

Chapters

Main article:List of chapters inFire Emblem Shadows

Fire Emblem Shadows lacks chapters in the traditional sense of theFire Emblem series; the vast majority of the battles the player can engage in are online matches against other random players that have no story content or relevance; these matches are namedBattles.

Playing in the multiplayer matches unlocks story fragments that are used in the game'sStory mode. The player's story level will advance for every 20 story fragments earned; increasing the story level provides story rewards which vary depending on the level, such as resources and new cutscenes that advance the story, referred to in the game asChapters.

Similarly toFire Emblem Heroes,Shadows's storyline is separated into several story arcs namedBooks; additionally, inShadows, each Book is divided between Light-side and Shadow-side campaigns, which occur concurrently and have separate story levels and rewards. Story fragments for the Light-side campaign can only be obtained by battling as a light-side member, and vice-versa.

Reaching some story levels unlocksSolo Battles, which are more similar to traditional chapters in that they are battles against an AI opponent that have story relevance. Clearing a Solo Battle provides exclusive rewards.

Development

Fire Emblem Shadows was shadowdropped on September 25, 2025.^[a] The game's release was announced via a launch trailer onYouTube^[3] and the creation ofa new account dedicated to the game on social media platformX, respectively.

Book 2 of the game's storyline was released on October 8, 2025.

Etymology and other languages

Gallery

• 
  Title screen
• 
  Key art (square)
• 
  Key art (wide)

Notes

References

External links

• Fire Emblem Shadows official website
• Official Twitter account
• Official Facebook account
• iOS App Store page
• Google Play Store page