Summoner Duels (Japanese:英雄決闘Hero Battle) is a game mode inFire Emblem Heroes, one of the modes of the game'sColiseum. It is a competitive game mode where players face each other on large maps in real time seeking to outlast the opponent.

Two additional variations of the mode,Summoner Duels R andSummoner Duels S, are held among the game's event categories. Both allow players to attempt to gain as high a score as possible before losing a certain number of total matches during the event; Summoner Duels R leave all team choice to each individual player, while Summoner Duels S require players to build multiple teams and give players influence over their opponent's options.

Overview

Preparation

Players build teams of five for use specifically in this mode, with the first slot being designated for the team's captain. Teambuilding in Summoner Duels has a few restrictions, in that Summoner Duels teams disallow duplicates (such as two ofLegion: Masked Maniac) entirely, and restricts performing units (such as those toSing orDance) and units with the Savior effect (primarily those with the Save family of skills, such asD/R Near Save) to one unit each. Unique to teambuilding in Summoner Duels is the Captain Skill, a selection of effects that apply whenever the captain meets certain criteria. Players can choose to set one of three available Captain Skills, which rotate each season. Teams are singular in the Coliseum and in Summoner Duels R (and in fact carry over between the two), whereas Summoner Duels S have players build four teams to a single bank, with the teambuilding restrictions applying to the entire bank.

Available Captain Skills to date
Captain Skill	Effect
Earth Rendering	If captain is in the Capture Area at the start of turns 2-4, Capture Area moves 1 space closer to captain's team (red moves up, blue moves down).
Adroit Captain	Grants +5 to captain'sspeed during combat, and grants "if unit's speed > foe's speed, neutralizes effects that guarantees foe's follow-up attacks or prevent user's follow-up attacks" to captain and allies within 2 spaces of captain during combat.
Secret Maneuver	During captain's combat, disables skills of all enemies, except foe in combat. Grants -1 special cooldown count to all allies at the start of turns 2–5.
Quick Draw	User's team is given the first action each turn (neutralized if both teams have Quick Draw active). Reduces the number of opponent's actions by 1 at the start of turns 2–4.
Eminence	Enables Pathfinder[effect 1] on captain. Inflicts -3 todefense andresistance of foes within 3 spaces of captain during combat.
Erosion	Disables Savior[effect 2] effects during captain's combat. If foe triggers Savior, inflicts -4 each to foe'sdefense andresistance during combat and foe cannotcounterattack.
Turmoil	At start of turn, grants "unit can move 1 extra space (that turn only)" to captain. If captain is within the Capture Area, they are counted as two Heroes.
Effulgence	Grants +4 each toattack andspeed during combat and neutralizes penalties on captain and allies within 2 spaces of captain.
Flash of Steel	If captain initiates combat, captain makes theirfollow-up attack before target'scounterattack. Grants "neutralizes effects that increase foe's special cooldown charge or reduce unit's special cooldown charge" to captain and allies within 2 spaces of captain during combat.
Rallying Cry	At start of turns 2–5, grants +6 each toattack,speed,defense, andresistance of captain and allies within two spaces of captain for 1 turn.
Mass Confusion	Grants +5attack to captain during combat. At start of turns 2–5, inflicts -7 each to attack,speed,defense, andresistance of enemies adjacent to other enemies their following actions.
Storm of Blows	Neutralizes foe's bonuses during captain's combat. Grants "unit makes guaranteedfollow-up attack" to captain and allies within 2 spaces of captain during combat.
Dauntless	At start of turns 2–5, grants "+1 special cooldown charge per attack during combat" to captain and allies within 2 spaces of captain for 1 turn, and inflicts Guard[effect 3] on enemies in cardinal directions of captain through their following actions.
Might of Myriads	Grants +6 each toattack,speed,defense, andresistance of captain during combat (except if captain triggers Savior[effect 2]). Captain cancounterattack regardless of range (except if captain triggers Savior).
Tandem Form	Grants +4 toattack andspeed to captain during combat. At start of turns 2-5, grants "unit can warp to a space adjacent to any ally within 2 spaces" to captain and allies within 2 spaces of captain for 1 turn.
Headlong Rush	At start of turns 2–5, grants Charge[effect 4] and Canto (1)[effect 5] to captain for 1 turn.
Reversal	Grants +5 toattack to captain during combat. Grants "inflicts -⁠(current bonus on foe's stat; calculated independently) each toattack,speed,defense, andresistance of foe" to captain and allies within 2 spaces of captain during combat.
Fault	Captain deals +⁠(highest total penalties among foe and enemies within 2 spaces of foe) damage (except with area-of-effect special), and allies within 3 spaces of captain deal +⁠(highest total penalties among foe and enemies within 2 spaces of foe × 50%) damage (except with area-of-effect special).
Impregnable	At start of turns 2-5, grants Assign Decoy[effect 6] to captain for 1 turn.
Heavy Burden	If captain uses or is target of a Rally or movement Assist skill, inflicts Gravity[effect 7] on foes withrange = 2 in cardinal directions of captain or ally after movement (once per turn; does not trigger if no valid target).
Piercing Cold	At start of turns 2–5, if captain is within 6 spaces of a foe, inflicts -7 tospeed and Frozen[effect 8] on closest foes to captain and enemies within 2 spaces of those foes through their next actions.
Flyting Talent	At start of turns 2–5, grants Rally Spectrum[effect 9] to captain for 1 turn.
Decisive	if user's speed ≥ (foe's speed − 30), triggers Potent Follow X%[effect 10] during combat (if captain cannot make afollow-up attack andattack twice consecutively,X = 100; otherwise,X = 50).
Toxic Remedy	At start of turns 2–5, grants Dosage[effect 11] and Bulwark[effect 12] to captain for 1 turn.
Betterment	At start of turns 2–5, grants Range: 2 Style[effect 13] and "unit cannot be slowed by terrain (except impassable terrain)" to captain for 1 turn.

An option termed "Matchmaking Settings" available only in the Coliseum version of the mode allows players to narrow character pools. At present, there are two settings; "No restrictions" allows all characters, while "Book III and prior" limits players to units released in the Book I, II, and III eras (ex.Igrene: Nabata Protector is allowed as a Book III unit, whereasOsian: Scolded Soldier is disallowed as a Book IV unit).

Different ways to battle

There are five different ways to battle in Summoner Duels three in the Coliseum version of the mode as well as the Summoner Duels R and Summoner Duels S events.

The primary method in the Coliseum is Favor Battles, which disallows custom rules, battles on one map for an entire season, and allows players to build up toward rewards. Free Duel allows players to play competitively using custom rules, but do not allow building up toward rewards; players can only be matched up either by setting the same custom rule settings or by designating that the opponent chooses the custom rules. Practice Duel pits players against computer-controlled teams, allowing custom rules but does not allow building up toward rewards.

The custom rules are as follows:

• Time Limit: Defaults to 30 seconds for an action. Also available: 60 seconds, off, randomly-selected. Note that there are ways within the gameplay to extend an action's time limit.
• Map: Defaults to randomly-selected. Also available: Long River, Walls and Trees, Enclosed, Bridges, Enclosed Ruins.
• Lv. 40, No Support: Defaults to off. Also available: On, randomly-selected. If active, ignores merge counts and supports on the combatants.

Summoner Duels R events generally play in the same fashion as Favor Battles, but without matchmaking restrictions.

Summoner Duels S events have an additional phase after matchmaking, in that a player is allowed to look over their opponent's teams and veto two of them. Once both sides have made their selections, players then select one of the remaining teams not vetoed by their opponent for use in the battle. Once this phase is finished, a match plays in the same fashion as in Summoner Duels R.

The gameplay

Gameplay alternates between the players between individual actions; for example, the blue team can make an action, followed by the red team, followed by the blue team again. For the first turn, the blue team goes first; for subsequent turns, the team that moves first is determined by whomever had more actions remaining at the end of the previous turn, not changing from the prior turn if both teams had the same number of remaining actions at the end of a turn.

Players are given six actions to perform during their turn; in a Summoner Duels battle, the usage of a Duo or Harmonized Hero's special skill, normally an action that can be used independently of a unit's normal action, counts toward this limit and are further limited to one per turn. Should a player run out of actions, either by hitting the six-action limit or being unable to execute an action, their turn automatically ends. Additionally, a unit with a 1-range weapon skill fights against one with a 2-range weapon skill, that unit gets +7 bonuses to theirDefense andResistance during combat.

There are two ways players accumulate score in Summoner Duels. The first consists of defeating the opposing team's units, in which doing so awards the player two points at base, with one-point bonuses should either unit in the combat be the opposing team's captain; the highest-scoring single play thus consists of one player's captain defeating the other team's captain, worth four points. The other method of scoring involves the Capture Area, a 6×4 grid denoted with gridlines; if a player has two or more of their team more than the other player does, that player scores two points.

Gameplay lasts for either five turns or until one player's team has routed the other's. If a player's team routs the other's, that player wins; should all five turns be completed in full, the player with the higher score wins. At the end of a Favor Battle, players earn Favor equal to their score up to a maximum of 10 as Favor, with winning players earning an additional 10 Favor; at the end of a battle in Summoner Duels R or Summoner Duels S, players either gain or lose Glory based on overall battle results.

Rewards

In the Coliseum

Rewards are given in relation to whichever captain of the player's has the highest Favor at any given time; unlike other Coliseum modes, these rewards are paid out once a unit reaches a Favor plateau.

Favor rewards
Favor	Reward
1,000	×100
900	×100
800	×100
700	×100
600	×200
500	×200
400	×400
350	×200
300	×100
250	×100
200	×100
150	×100
100	×1
80
60	×200
40	×200
20	×400
10	×200

In Summoner Duels R and Summoner Duels S

There are two types of rewards, rank rewards and tier rewards.

Dragonflowers in both types of rewards are consistent across a single event and vary between events. Duplicate Duelist Medals will be automatically exchanged for ×300.

Rank rewards Rank 1–1,000 50 120 30 5,500 1,001–3,000 40 100 25 4,500 3,001–6,000 36 90 22 3,500 6,001–10,000 32 80 19 3,000 10,001–20,000 28 70 17 2,400 20,001–30,000 24 60 15 2,000 30,001–50,000 20 50 14 1,500 50,001–70,000 18 40 13 1,200 70,001–100,000 16 30 12 1,000 100,001–300,000 14 20 11 800 300,001+ 12 10 10 600

Tier rewards Tier Glory Medals 24 7,300+ 50 80 23 7,000–7,299 48 76 22 6,700–6,999 46 72 21 6,500–6,699 44 68 20 6,000–6,499 42 64 19 5,500–5,999 40 60 18 5,000–5,499 38 56 17 4,600–4,999 36 52 16 4,300–4,599 34 48 15 4,000–4,299 32 44 14 3,700–3,999 30 40 13 3,400–3,699 28 36 12 3,100–3,399 24 32 11 2,800–3,099 24 32 10 2,500–2,799 24 32 9 2,200–2,499 20 28 8 1,900–2,199 20 28 7 1,600–1,899 20 28 6 1,400–1,599 16 24 5 1,200–1,399 16 24 4 1,000–1,199 16 24 3 600–999 12 20 2 300–599 12 20 1 0–299 12 20

List of Summoner Duels seasons

Unlike other Coliseum modes, Summoner Duels seasons last multiple weeks instead of one; their lengths have been somewhat inconsistent.

Note: All date ranges begin at 7:00 AM UTC on the first listed date and end at 6:59 AM UTC on the second listed date unless otherwise noted.

List of Summoner Duels R events

Note: All date ranges begin at 7:00 AM UTC on the first listed date and end at 6:59 AM UTC on the second listed date unless otherwise noted.

List of Summoner Duels S events

Note: All date ranges begin at 7:00 AM UTC on the first listed date and end at 6:59 AM UTC on the second listed date unless otherwise noted.

Trivia

• A promotional video for the mode that debuted at 3:00 AM UTC on December 10, 2021 showedFehnix'sHector: Dressed-Up Duo equipped withD/R Far Save 3.^[1] That skill did not exist inHeroes at the time of that promotional video; it would not be added to the game until the subsequentWinter Dreamland update on December 16.

Etymology and other languages

Summoner Duels

Summoner Duels R

Summoner Duels S

Gallery

References