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Recruitment
| “ | Another thing...During your travels, you are certain to meet many who despiseDolhr. Some may be hiding in villages; other may have been captured or forced to fight against their will or better judgment. It falls upon you to find these individuals and win them over your cause. | ” | — Mostyn toMarth |
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Recruitment (Japanese:仲間入りjoining) is the term used to describe the act of gaining a new controllableunit in the player's army in theFire Emblem series. As games progress, the player can gain more units to expand on their army, introducing more diversity into their forces. Recruitment is accomplished by a wide variety of means, usually based on directly talking to other units out in the field.
Methods of recruitment
Event/automatic
In many cases, a unit will automatically join the player's army at the beginning, end or during a chapter, or even while preparing. There are some such units who may require additional criteria to be met for them to appear. InPath of Radiance andRadiant Dawn, this also extends toconversations which occur at the player'sbase, which are possible to miss through not viewing the conversation in question. Similarly, this is the only recruitment method inFire Emblem Gaiden, with recruitment conversations optionally occurring by visiting villages, forts or castles after clearing them of enemies. InAwakening,Donnel is recruited at the start ofhis paralogue, but will leave the army if he is defeated or does not level up at least once.
Talking to enemies
The most frequent form of recruitment is to use thetalk command on specific enemy units with certain characters and persuade them to defect to the player's army. Recruitable enemies are usually readily distinguishable in that they are not generic, actually possess an identifiable name and face, and in most cases are not the chapter'sboss.
Examples of this include:
- Castor (Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light/Shadow Dragon)
- Warren (Mystery of the Emblem/New Mystery of the Emblem)
- Ayra (Genealogy of the Holy War(first generation))
- Dalsin (Thracia 776)
- Sin (The Binding Blade)
- Dorcas (The Blazing Blade)
- Joshua (The Sacred Stones)
- Ilyana (Path of Radiance)
- Aran (Radiant Dawn)
- Gaius (Awakening)
- Rhajat (Fates: Birthright/Revelation)
- Lindon (Engage)
Talking to neutral or partner units
A variation on the above, on occasion neutral or partner units will appear on the map and can again be talked to by specific units, typically the army's leader, in order to recruit them.
Examples of this include:
- Lachesis (Genealogy of the Holy War(first generation))
- Asbel (Thracia 776)
- Clarine (The Binding Blade)
- Erk (The Blazing Blade)
- Ross (The Sacred Stones)
- Mia (Path of Radiance)
- Tormod (Radiant Dawn)
- Libra (Awakening)
- Nyx (Fates: Conquest/Revelation)
- Jade (Engage)
Visiting a village
Some units can be recruited by visiting a village in which they reside.
Examples of this include:
- Merric (Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light/Shadow Dragon)
- Marisha (Mystery of the Emblem/New Mystery of the Emblem)
- Ronan (Thracia 776)
- Lugh (The Binding Blade)
- Canas (The Blazing Blade)
- Lute (The Sacred Stones)
- Laurent (Awakening)
- Mitama (Fates: Birthright/Revelation)
Hiring for a fee
Some enemy or neutral units require to be paid a sum ofgold in order to be recruited. The payment required varies for each character, but is typically within the range of 10,000G.
Examples of this include:
- Beowolf (Genealogy of the Holy War(first generation))
- Hugh (The Binding Blade; Hugh makes multiple offers of decreasing price, and his stats accordingly become lower for every cheaper offer he makes)
- Farina (The Blazing Blade)
- Rennac (The Sacred Stones, if not recruited byL'Arachel)
- Volke (Path of Radiance andRadiant Dawn)
Examples of other requirements
On rare occasions, the recruitment of certain units has more complicated and obscure requirements which typically require a certain amount of prior knowledge to actually succeed.
- InFire Emblem: Thracia 776, to recruitLifis,Salem, andMisha, they must becaptured and not released before their respective chapter's end.
- InFire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, to recruitKarla, you have to getBartre as a level 5warrior before in the beginning of chapterchapter 31xH, then make fight the two and make both of them survive.
- InFire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, two units can only be recruited from the player's second playthrough onward:Pelleas andLehran. To recruit Pelleas, he must be spared in the opening cutscene ofPart III, Chapter 13. To recruit Lehran, theBlack Knight must be deployed inthe Part I, Endgame,andIke must fight the Black Knight as an enemy inPart III, Chapter 7 and both must survive.
Inverse recruitment
InFire Emblem: Path of Radiance andRadiant Dawn, in rare instances it is possible for units in the player's army to actually be recruited by the enemy by talking to certain enemy units. The sole unit capable of doing this inPath of Radiance isJill, who is recruited back into the enemy by talking toShiharam inChapter 20; in this case, she cannot be re-recruited by the player. In Part 3Radiant Dawn, Jill andZihark can be recruited by members of either army as the player's perspective shifts between them, and will join the opposite side in certain chapters if they speak to certain enemy units (Haar orMist for Jill,Lethe andMordecai for Zihark).
Etymology and other languages
| Names, etymology, and in other regions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Language | Name | Definition, etymology, and notes |
| English | Recruitment | |
| Japanese | 仲間入り | Joining (a group); literally "comrade entering". |
| French | Recrutement | Recruitment |
