Alevel (Japanese:レベルlevel), often abbreviatedLv,LV,Lv., orLvl, is a measure of aunit's growth and current relative strength. Levels are directly tied to unitexperience, and every time a unit gains a certain amount—typically 100—theylevel up (Japanese:レベルアップlevel up) andgain increased stats.

Overview

All units start at a pre-set level, which tend to get progressively higher when units are recruited later and later in the game. Having units gain experience and increase their level is central to their growth and continued use, as every time a unit levels up, they gain stat increases depending on their personalgrowth rates. Units who are not given opportunities to gain experience and levels will quickly fall behind and be less useful as the game wears on and begins to set the player against progressively stronger enemies.

Just as levels require experience gain, experience gain is also affected by a unit's level. The lower a unit's level, the more experience they will obtain from performing the same action as a higher-leveled unit. The main effect of this is to encourage using weaker units to fight weaker enemies, as they will benefit much more from the experience than their stronger allies. For most units, defeating aboss with a higher level than themselves will usually be enough to gain a full 100 experience and guarantee a level increase.

In most games in the series, reaching Level 10 allows units inbase classes tochange class, or promote, intoadvanced classes by using certain items. When a unit promotes, their current level is reset to Level 1, and they are able to continue gaining even more levels and growing even stronger.

Maximum level

Across most of the series, the highest possible level a unit can reach is 20. As soon as a unit reaches Level 20, experience gain completely ceases. For base units, it is possible to continue to gain experience after this point by promoting, effectively giving units forty levels of potential growth. Once an advanced or special unit reaches their maximum level, though, there is usually no way to grow any further.

There are several games in the series which have applied a different approach, either game-wide or specific to certain class types. In later games in particular, it is common for certain types of classes to have a higher maximum level than ordinaryhuman classes, often as compensation for that class's inability to promote.

• InGenealogy of the Holy War, the maximum level for all units is 30. Levels also do not reset upon class changing.
• InThe Sacred Stones, the initialJourneyman,Recruit, andPupil classes have a maximum level of 10.
• InRadiant Dawn,laguz units have a maximum level of 40.
• InShadow Dragon,New Mystery of the Emblem, andAwakening, units inspecial classes have a maximum level of 30.
• InFates, units inspecial classes have a maximum level of 40. Units inadvanced or special classes can increase their maximum level withEternal Seals, by 5 per use and up to 99;Felicia andJakob have the effect of 4 uses (i.e. +20 maximum) andGunter of 2 (i.e. +10 maximum).
• InThree Houses, all units have a maximum level of 99. Levels do not reset upon class changing.
• InEngage, units inspecial classes have a maximum level of 40.

Fire Emblem Heroes has a maximum level of 40 for all units. Unlike other games in the series, the experience threshold required for a level up increases each time a unit's level increases. In addition to earning experience in battle, a unit's level can also be increased by spendingShards and Crystals on the Level Up menu equivalent to the amount of experience required. A unit's level is reset to 1 when theirrarity is increased by unlocking their potential.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE has a maximum level of 99 for all playable characters. The highest leveled character, usuallyItsuki, determines the type ofSavage Mirage battle encountered in the field at 5 level intervals.

Fire Emblem Warriors had a maximum level of 99 for all units on launch, with this later being increased to 110, 130, and finally 150 as of version 1.5.0. In addition to earning experience in battle, a unit's level can be increased by spendinggold in theTraining Grounds. Levels gained by this method, however, cannot exceed that of the currently highest-leveled unit.

InFire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, the system remains the same as inFire Emblem Warriors, but each unit now has a maximum level of 120. However, enemy units are not bound by this limitation, as onMaddening, enemies can reach levels up to 200.

InFire Emblem Shadows, characters can be leveled up usingCrystals as well as character-specificMedals, which increase in amount per level. Leveling up a character also increases the level of their associated magic. A maximum level is set by the player's current rank with the character on either the Light or Shadow side. If a character's level exceeds the level set by the current rank, their level, and the level of all their equippedMagic Skills, is decreased to the maximum during matches.

Internal levels

As thereclassing mechanism ofFire Emblem Awakening,Fire Emblem Fates, andFire Emblem Engage theoretically allows for infiniteexperience and level gains, the game also implements a special checking mechanism to discourage excessive grinding by slowing experience gain after a certain point. This is accomplished through what are known asinternal levels, a hidden value maintained for each character which keeps track of how many levels they have gained and penalizes their further experience gain accordingly. Internal level is defined using the formula below.^[1]

Items affecting level

Items affecting level
	Item	Effect	Games
	Juna Fruit	Permanently reduces unit's level by 1–5, without affecting stats.	The Sacred Stones
	Eternal Seal	Increases the unit's maximum level by 5.	Fates

Flavor text

Etymology and other languages

Gallery

• 
  A level up inShadow Dragon.
• 
  A level up inHeroes.

References