Top 10 Best Mercenaries

Hi! I was thinking about doing lists for each class, since I love making lists, so I decided to start with a list about the best mercenaries in the series!

The criteria is purely based on their usefulness in terms of gameplay. How easier they make the playthrough. I don't take into account their personality at all - in fact, I might include units whose personality I don't really like at all. I don't take into account Lv20/20 stats either because they barely are going to be relevant in a standard playthrough, if at all. I tend to favor bases over growths and clearing maps fast and reliable, though I won't disregard units that need to be trained, and I will try to take into consideration alternate strategies. If the game features reclass, I'll only consider the starting class. I'll only allow one incarnation of a character, and I don't take into account Fire Emblem Heroes due to being an unstable metagame, though I'll include characters from Tear Ring Saga and Berwick Saga as they're Fire Emblem games in all but name.

If more games are released or more strategies are discovered, I'll keep updating the list, and add the entries that don't belong anymore to the list to the Honorable Mentions.

#10. Harken, from Blazing Blade

With the highest base stats in the game, the Troubled Warrior finds a spot as the number ten slot on this list. Just seeing them is enough to see his promise as a combat unit: With 23 Str, 18 Spd, Harken reaches 31 Atk after the weapon triangle just with a Hand Axe, allowing him to defeat every non-promoted enemy of the game in one round (the most durable ones are Wyvern Knights with 32 HP, 12 Def). With a Killer Axe, Harken has the 35 Atk required for dealing with 51 HP 22 Def Generals on Chapter 31 (65,19% ORKO chance). In exchange, 42 HP, 16 Def, 11 Res make him require six Chapter 28x Wyvern Knight hits of 25 Atk to be defeated, or four hits of Silver Bow Snipers with 28 Atk. The low enemy stats in Blazing Sword give Harken the potential to leave a path of destruction after himself without investment.

This is important for two reasons. One because Harken is one of the best options for Cog of Destiny, the hardest map in the game. His starting resistance without assistance makes fall down with five hits of Shamans with Nosferatu (21 Atk). If the player opts to give him Pure Waters, this turns itself into a 14RKO. Staff accuracy from Valkyries with 15 Mag, 11 Skl gets brought down to 15% on a six range distance. Harken can survive as well two Purge hits (27 Atk), and the remaining 24 HP can sustain yet four Thunder hits (23 Atk). His base speed keeps him from being double-attacked by the Valkyries, whereas equipping himself with the Brave Sword allows him to ORKO their 34 HP, 8 Def. If Harken receives a Talisman, he can resist everything aforementioned alongside a Valkyrie with Elfire (26 Atk), allowing him to take care of the northwest section (the hardest one) by himself).

The second reason is that his high combat parameters give him the capability to face lategame bosses. With the Brave Sword, Harken reaches the required 32 Atk to kill Ursula in two hits (39 HP, 9 Def). With the Brave Axe, he reaches the required 33 Atk to defeat Sonia in four hits (46 HP, 21 Def). He's also one of the best units to use against Linus, reaching 20 damage per round with the Brave Sword against Linus's 61 HP, 22 Def (40 damage if the player uses Filla's Might). Limstella has 71 HP, 23 Def, and Harken can reach 42 Atk after Filla's Might to ORKO her.

This sounds cool, but then we're reminded of the same issue Raven had: He's not in a game that favors units with low movement, since you can raise mounted units to ridiculous potential. In any case, it's harder to accomplish Harken's feats, which means that if you were unlucky, you can resort to him for the endgame maps. There's a reason he's one of the best units in 0% growths.

#9. Deen, from Gaiden

With a desire to see the world burn arrives Deen to the number nine slot. For those players foreign to the land of Valentia, his potential doesn't seem promising on first instance, especially for arriving during midgame five levels ahead of promotion. With growths of 40 HP, 20% Str, 15% Skl, 15% Spd, 10% Lck, 10% Def, only the fossils known as Mycen and Nomah have lower growths, which would encourage someone to fall into the trap of choosing the mage Sonya in his place (thanks FEWoD, fooling people for years and years). However, his base stats of 32 HP, 13 Str, 17 Skl, 17 Spd, 9 Def allow him to have the highest offense at that point of the game. With the Shadow Sword, Deen reaches 26 Atk, 12 AS, which allows him to ORKO Lv3 Cantors (35 HP, 7 Def) on the Dead Swamp, with 72,25% chance of success due to the negative effect of Hex from the Shadow Sword.

Ok, but this is an unmounted unit, right? Sure he'll fall behind Pegasus Knights, right? Well, no. The strategy of sacrificing Silque in Alm's route to revive her in Celica's path allows unmounted units to have relevance in spite of their poor movement thanks to the fact that Silque has access to an unlimited-range Warp spell. For example, on the same Dead Swamp, it's possible to use Silque to warp Deen towards the aforementioned Cantor on the other side of the map just on the first turn. In this way, his high offensive stats aren't made superfluous by the usual problems of a class with low-movement, but rather make them the prime candidates to be warped to accomplish tasks with efficiency.

Ok, but he has bad growths, so his offense won't keep up, right? Well, not either. It happens that Gaiden has a three-class system, and Deen is only in the second class, so he can promote and benefit from promotion gains. Moreover, the promotion system consists on the stats under the class bases catching-up to those bases. Because of this, when promoting to Dread Fighter, Deen has 36 HP, 15 Str, 18 Spd, 11 Def, 19 Res. With the Shadow Sword he reaches 28 Atk, 13 AS, which allows him to ORKO Cantors with 38 HP, 8 def, or 2RKO Fiends with 40 HP, 18 Def in Duma's Gate, both of them reliably since Dread Fighters are immune to Hex. In exchange, Jamil (27 Atk) needs five rounds to take Deen down, and later Jedah (36 Atk) requires three rounds. This happens in a context where characters lack a resistance growth and almost no one other than Dread Fighters can surpass the single digit resistance stat to take two hits without dying.

To sum up, in spite of limited availability and a low starting level given the little experience gain in Gaiden, Deen is an unit that can provide valuable contributions to the team from the moment he joins, and whose training pays off with access to the best class in the game.

#8. Deke, from Binding Blade

Conquering girls' hearts and turning guys into fangirls arrives the chest-revealing Wounded Tiger at number eight. His scarred body pretty much shows that he's very experienced in combat and his initial performance surely reflects that, since Deke's strongest suit are his base stats: 26 HP, 9 Str, 12 Skl, 10 Spd, 6 Def are the second highest base parameters you'll have in your team by that point, only surpassed by the prepromote Marcus. With the Iron Blade he joins with, he reaches 18 Atk, 10 AS to cleanly 2HKO a Fighter with 30 HP, 4 Def after WTA in his joining map, the most durable enemy in there, whereas he'll be able to double-attack almost any enemy in the map if they're using Hand or Steel Axes (the exception being the Mercenary with 7 AS). In retaliation, enemies need 19 Atk to 2RKO him, something that only the Steel Axe Fighter reaches with 29% accuracy. Considering that every member in your army other than Marcus dies in two hits, this is a blessing since the player can rely more on him on combat. And his bases are all he needs. His 90% HP might allow him to improve his durability to turn 2RKOs into 3RKOs, but his 30% Spd growth rate isn't necessarily the best. After all, Deke ends up being an argument on the importance of base stats. Still at base, Deke with a Steel Blade (20 Atk, 9 AS) keeps ORKOing weighed down Archers (27 HP, 5 Def) and Soldiers (33 HP, 2 Def) in Chapter 7. He can also use the Armorslayer (30 eff. Atk) against Armor Knights (28 HP, 13 Def) in Chapter 7. Though his actual combat is better since at Lv10, Deke has 22 Atk, 11 AS with the Steel Blade, allowing him to ORKO more enemy types with 7 AS (Mages, unweighed Archers), whereas his 31 HP, 7 Def keeps some enemies to even 3RKO him. Considering how infamously brutal are the first chapters, Deke is a crucial member of the team during these maps while your cavalier of choice and Shanna are catching up.

Deke's long term prospects aren't as promising, though - after all, he's a Mercenary, and unmounted combat units are set in disadvantage in the context of this series. Once Rutger appears, he gets shaft as your third best unit until Chapter 7, and then he eventually falls down to irrelevance. He also competes for a very contested Hero's Crest, and if he doesn't promote, you'll have to retire him from your team. Still, if you decide to invest into him, you'd be able to get a very potent combat unit. If you give him the bosskills that would normally go to Rutger, he should be able to reach Lv14 for the start of Chapter 8, and have 38 HP, 15 Str, 17 Skl, 15 Spd, 12 Def. With a Hand Axe, his 22 Atk can ORKO the Axe users with 34 HP, 5 Def, and is 4RKO'd back by Steel Axes with 19% hitrates if he wields a sword. He's also a decent bosskiller at this point against Leygance's 41 HP, 19 Def (3HKO with the Armorslayer at 36 eff. Atk), Nord's 35 HP, 12 Def (55,11% ORKO chances with the Killing Edge), Orlo's 37 HP, 13 Def (at Lv14/4 he has 43,75% ORKO chances with the Killing Edge), Aine's 40 HP, 26 Def (2HKO with the Armorslayer at 46 eff. Atk), Flaer's 51 HP, 18 Def (at Lv14/6 he 2HKOs with the 47 eff. Atk with the Wyrmslayer). This makes him a solid alternative in draft settings where Rutger isn't assumed to be taken, though it's a real pity that he misses out on Henning, Scott, Grero, and the bosses that come afterwards due to his low speed growth.

Though frankly, Deke's early performance is so strong that it's enough to put him so high on the list, since few mercenaries are so powerful that one could call them essential. The units that are ranked higher just happen to be as impactful as he is at jointime and never really stop.

#7. Gerik, from the Japanese version of Sacred Stones

Apparently scarred Mercenaries are a thing since the number seven slot is taken by the Desert Tiger. You know how I said that unpromoted mercenaries are a bad class in the GBA games? Well, Gerik doesn't care in the slightest since he arrives at a whooping Lv10 ready to promote, and a Hero Crest in his inventory. Of course, you could try giving him more levels by enduring more time of mediocrity, but if you promote him instantly, you'll realize why, again, base stats are so important in these games. Before proceeding, one has to take into account that Sacred Stones introduces branching promotions. Usually, this ends up being superfluous since one of the classes outclasses the other one completely (why would one go for Amelia!General when she should be a Paladin without a doubt?), but in Gerik's case, he's one of the few characters whose two options are viable according to the playstyle: One as a Ranger, giving him a mount and bows; and the other one as a Hero, giving him access to Axes.

Ranger!Gerik Lv10/1 has 35 HP, 16 Str, 14 Skl, 14 Spd, 13 Def. In case it isn't clear, these stats are higher than Seth's base stats, which considering that Seth's bases carry him all the way down to endgame, it speaks a lot. Gerik's limitation in this case is his available arsenal: Bows and Swords happen to be the worst weapon types of the game, but Gerik still makes an important offensive presence here. With the Steel Blade he joins with, he has 27 Atk, 11 AS to ORKO every non-sword wielder on the map, and he can just wield a Killing Edge to reach 25 Atk, 14 AS and double-attack the enemies that hover around 10 AS. With the Silver Sword, Gerik Lv10/1 reaches 29 Atk, 14 AS, which is enough to ORKO every unpromoted enemy in the game. He can particularly gather a niche as a mounted bow wielder. Maps like Queen of White Dunes that have indoor narrow corridors are benefitial for Bow users since they have an existent enemy phase. With the Longbow, he can reach Eggs in Two Faces of Evil more easily, which is important given that otherwise they're going to hatch and turn into Gorgons.

Hero!Gerik Lv10/1 has 36 HP, 15 Str, 15 Skl, 15 Spd, 12 Def, 6 Res. As a Hero, the first advantage is to have access to Hand Axes, and thus 1-2 range. Gerik Lv10/1 with a Hand Axe has 22 Atk, 15 AS, which is enough to ORKO unpromoted magic users consistently, and at Lv10/5 he reaches 24 Atk to ORKO Gorgons in Two Faces of Evil. The other advantage is that, in 0% growths, he's one of the very few units that's capable of facing the threatening endgame bosses with Garm if he uses an Angelic Robe (the other ones being Duessel and Dozla). Sacred Stones's low difficulty is a source of mockery among players, but people seriously underestimate how threatening the game turns out to be by the end in a grindless playthrough. This is not like Blazing Sword where you're given Ninian's rings and Athos to handily trivialize endgame bosses, but rather it totally depends on what's your team composition and even surviving becomes a harder task. Morva's defense piercing 38 Atk can OHKO most early-promoted characters, yet Gerik Lv10/1 with an Angelic Robe survives one hit (Gerik Lv10/5 doesn't need the Angelic Robe for this and ORKOs in return with 57 eff. Atk from Garm). With a Barrier or Pure Water boost, Gerik Lv10/1 with the Angelic Robe survives one hit from Lyon's 55 Atk with Naglfar. With the Angelic Robe and two Speedwings, Gerik Lv10/1 reaches the 24 AS necessary to double-attack Fomortiis and survives one hit from Demon Light's 50 Atk. At Lv10/15 (completely feasible through bosskills and contributing in Two Faces of Evil), he should be able to 3RKO Fomortiis's 120 HP, 36 Def with his 61 eff. Atk with Garm. In 0% growths, the fourteen levels he should gain to get +6 str on average can be replicated with Energy Rings. Considering that he starts with D Axes, it might sound implausible that he reaches enough weapon rank to wield Garm, but it's feasible with usage of the Steel Axe in Eirika's route, since it gives twice as much WEXP, and if everything fails, the Devil Axe is there to give eight times as much WEXP.

Overall, in spite of his mediocre starting class, Gerik manages to keep up with mounted units' dominance and remain one of the best units in the game. It's frankly astounding. One must note that his Con is higher in the international version, making his Hero promotion weaker since he cannot be carried around by mounted units with 14 aid anymore, but that can be remedied with usage of the Warp staff.

#6. Ogma, from Mystery of the Emblem

Ok, I promise this is the last scarred mercenary. Though considering that this is the original Mercenary, it's easy to see why other characters took inspiration from him. Though in spite of being always copied, he's never yet been replicated, since he arrives at number six on this list, higher than any of his copycats. Before talking about him, we have to explain a bit Mystery of the Emblem's dismount mechanics. Maps in this game are split into two types: Indoor and outdoor maps. Mounted classes like Cavaliers, Pegasus Knights and Horsemen retain their full movement and stats during outdoor maps, but they suffer a strong stat penalization when they're indoors, justified by the fact that they have to dismount when they fight inside a castle. The penalization that stings the most is movement, since they get reduced to 6-movement. Mercenaries, who have 7-movement, aren't penalized by this, and retain their full stats on indoor maps, making them stronger than your cavalry if these are forced to dismount, thus giving them maps where they set the pace of the game.

Because of this mechanic, it's not hard to see how Ogma would be very useful in efficiency, since not only does he get a movement advantage but also has the stats to back up being on the front. Arriving at a high Lv7, with bases of 25 HP, 8 Str, 14 Skl, 14 Spd, 5 Lck, 9 WpnLvl, 8 Def and growths of 80% HP, 40% Str, 30% Skl, 30% Spd, 70% WpnLvl and 30% Def just on Chapter 4, Ogma has 16 Atk, 10 AS as his starting offense. Hunters on his starting map have 19-20 HP, 4 Def, leaving them to be ORKO'd, whereas they can only 7RKO in return with their 12 Atk with an Iron Bow or 4RKOd by their 15 Atk with a Steel Bow. In Chapter 8, Ogma Lv10/1 will have 27 HP, 11 Str, 17 Skl, 17 Spd, 11 WpnLvl, 11 Def, which is equivalent of Astram's base stats, a prepromote that joins in Chapter 16, and he's able to resist three hits from Paladins with 18 Atk, or two hits from Chapter 9 Dracoknights with 20 Atk (an Ogma Lv10/2 resists three of them). Which is frankly the most important thing to do. Mystery of the Emblem offers enough tools to reach ORKO parameters: With 19 Atk with the Killing Edge, he OHKOs 16 HP, 2 Def Mages from Chapter 9, and reaches 2HKOs against 26 HP, 4 Def Bishops. With the Dragonslayer, Ogma reaches 41 eff. Atk to ORKO Fire Dragons with 48 HP, 12 Def, and resists one strike of their 20 piercing Atk. By Chapter 16, you can have access to Silver Weapons. With a Silver Sword, Ogma Lv10/4 reaches 24 Atk, 15 AS, enough to ORKO that pesky Thief with 27 HP, 7 Def. He can also use the Swordkiller to reach 36 eff Atk and ORKO Heroes in the same chapter with 30 HP, 10 Def. By the final Chapter, Ogma Lv10/6 can have 31 HP, 13 Str, 18 Skl, 18 Spd, 15 WpnLvl, 12 Def. He's able to one hit from 38 Atk Barbarians. He's also able to ORKO 28 HP, 9 Def Dark Mages with the Silver Sword. Considering that Mystery of the Emblem is primarily a player-phase-centric game, in the sense that sending units to mop up enemies just like that isn't possible due to limitations on the game mechanics (1-2 range either doesn't double-attack or is present on physically weak units), being able to kill enemies with little investment (after all, the calculations were made with eight levels throughout the whole playthrough, and Mystery of the Emblem doesn't penalize exp gain on promoted units), being able to survive the counterattack (defense piercing attacks, magic when no one has resistance and high attack stats that are near the 40 points in a game with 20 stat caps on everything) and having good movement is a valuable enough combination to establish an unit onto your team.

For whatever is worth, Ogma's stats can be improved through the Starspheres, and the ones that would be the most helpful involve boosting his strength (Gemini + Leo) or defense (Gemini + Cancer), without many repercussions onto the team. For example, with a +3 strength above average, he could be able to OHKO Heroes in Chapter 16 by reaching 40 eff Atk with the Swordkiller, avoiding a counterattack from their 21 Atk (which would normally 4RKO him). Or Gemini + Cancer would bring his defense to higher degrees - with 16 defense, he would be able to resist five enemy heroes on the enemy phase.

#5. Navarre, from Mystery of the Emblem

Wait, isn't he a Myrmidon? Well, contrary to expectations, the character that inspired a whole archetype of edgy swordmasters wasn't one at the start, but rather a Mercenary. And one of the very best, considering that the Scarlet Swordsman lands at number five on the list. In truth, it doesn't seem like he should be above Ogma, since he joins a bit later, but there are a couple of things that give him the edge. Navarre joins at Lv8 during Chapter 7, and this map in particular is plagued by thieves. With the help of Phina, it's possible for him to kill most of them and get to Lv10 on that very same map. This is particularly helpful since thieves are quite a bit far from the starting point, and some of them carry valuable items, so he's going to contribute to gather them. Because of this, Navarre post-Chapter 7 will be able to promote and is pretty much as good of a Hero as a promoted Ogma is. This brings to the second point, which is that Navarre is RNG proof for the most important tasks. His 16 base speed alongside promotion bonuses allow him to reach 18 Spd to wield the Sword Killer and double-attack Heroes in Chapter 16. This makes him the choice for a Hero in 0% growths.

Honestly, that's pretty much it, and everything that was said about Ogma applies to Navarre as well. Navarre just happens to be slightly more reliable due to his strong base stats. Instead of writing too little, I'll provide some average values to compare just how big the difference between Mercenaries and unmounted units are.

Ogma Lv10/1
27 HP, 11 Str, 17 Skl, 17 Spd, 11 Def

Navarre Lv10/1
25 HP, 12 Str, 20 Skl, 19 Spd, 10 Def

Palla Lv16/1
28 HP, 13 Str, 13 Skl, 14 Spd, 10 Def

Cain Lv10/1
27 HP, 10 Str, 9 Skl, 10 Spd, 10 Def

Sirius Lv10
31 HP, 12 Str, 10 Skl, 12 Spd, 11 Def

Minerva at base
25 HP, 10 Str, 6 Skl, 12 Spd, 13 Def

Without a lot of levels, it's very hard for the unmounted characters to keep up with tasks like decimating Heroes on indoor maps, so fortunately we have Heroes for tasks like these!

#4. Sherpa, from Berwick Saga

I know that for Ogma I promised that it'd be the last scarred mercenary. Well, I'm still holding on that because Sherpa, our number four, is classified as a Highlander by the game, but for all purposes, he functions exactly the same. Joining at chapter 3 with 36 HP, 13 Str, 13 Spd, 6 Def, Sherpa's base stats are ridiculous, giving him 29 Atk, 4 AS at base with his personal weapon, the Brymranger. For reference, the game's resident early prepromoted unit, Ward, has 38 HP, 11 Str, 9 Spd, 10 Def which gives him 19 Atk, 3 AS with the Knight Sword, and 24 Atk, 1 AS with the Longspear if he's mounted. Taking this into account, it's noticeable that Sherpa's offense is phenomenal at join time, with the highest base strength in the game, and one of the highest base speed stats, and his bulk is impressive with the second highest base HP in the game.

What makes Sherpa stand out in particular are Berwick Saga's peculiarities. You see, Berwick Saga is a game where if you get hit, you can't counterattack, and there are barely double-attacks which lead to ORKOs being rare. Sherpa bypasses these rules with his skill Counter, which gives him counterattacks at any chance, and with the Brymranger's multiple strike capability, allowing him to nab ORKOs. Weapons have a chance to break, but the Brymranger's A durability means that it has to be used 20 times for it to have a 1% chance of breaking (the other swords as durable as it are the endgame weapon Vritra and the Quality Sword), and it can be used up to 50 times. Berwick Saga's hitrates are lofty, but he starts out with 86% hit before factoring bonuses thanks to his 36 base Sword skill (also the highest in the game). There's a chance for characters to be injured to become captured, but Sherpa's Robust skill makes him immune to it. Characters have certain requirements to join permanently, such as story events or happiness, but Sherpa only needs a single point in happiness.

Imagine if you had Harken after the early chapters, more or less when Lyn rejoins in Blazing Blade. That's more or less how Sherpa is. An unit that needs no active investment for him to be useful, making him a strong contender as the best unit in Berwick Saga. What keeps him from being higher in this list is that as good as he is, it's noticeable that his class is disadvantaged in terms of movement.

#3. Kamui, from Gaiden

Now we're getting to the big boys. Feeling good since the halway point of Chapter 2, we have Kamui arriving at third place. Most of what has been said about Deen applies to Kamui as well: A Mercenary whose movement handicaps are offset by the Warp spell, but while Deen arrives as a Lv5 Hero by the second half of the game, Kamui is available from Chapter 2, and has the chance to gain enough experience to promote at the end of it due to a Cantor and many Sorcerers in the upcoming maps. A freshly promoted Hero has 11 Str, 14 Spd, which equals to 24 Atk, 9 AS with the Shadow Sword you can get on a detour to the Dragon Shrine before proceeding to Grieth's Citadel. The boss from the Desert Fort is a Sniper with 33 HP, 6 AS, 7 Def, which means that it's cleanly ORKO'd by a Hero at base, and considering how threatening he is with his 1-5 range and effective damage against Palla and Catria, it's a huge help in an efficient completion of the map. If Kamui got a speed point as a Hero, it'll have enough to double-attack Sonya and ORKO her 28 HP, 11 Def after factoring her HP loss from the use of Excalibur. By the time Deen would arrive, it's not unreasonable to assume Kamui as a Lv9 Hero thanks to the class's low base power in the experience formula giving it a huge experience gain. If the player is willing to make a detour to the Dragon Shrine, it's possible to have a Dread Fighter when entering Chapter 4. We know from Deen's entry how good that is, just with more maps to utilize the Dread Fighter advantages and thus less risk of recoil damage due to immunity to Shadow Sword's Hex.

Honestly, that'd be about it. High experience gain and the best power in the team are enough to justify snowballing him, and your Hero will be the unit that dictates the pace of the playthrough.

#2. Saber, from Gaiden

Saber shares many traits with Kamui, except for lower growths, but as we realize in Gaiden, base stats are more dominant in this game. Thus it isn't hard to see why Saber should rank just about the same as Kamui, and everything said about him also applies to Saber as well. The reason why Saber is slightly better to be ranked higher comes from two reasons. One is that he's the most durable unit in your team until after the fourth map, when Kamui, a knight and a rather bulky archer join. Before that, the rest of the team has magic wielding allies who lose HP after every attack. Celica, Mae and Genny have lower defenses anyways, and Boey can be double-attacked. That's why you may be using him to keep others safe. The second reason comes from his higher resitance to magic in comparison to Kamui. Saber surpasses Kamui by four points. If we compare them to each other directly:

Saber at base: 22 HP, 6 Res
Kamui at base: 24 HP, 2 Res

Sorcerer w/ Miasma: 11 Atk, 5RKO to Saber, 3RKO to Kamui
Cantor w/ Miasma: 15 Atk, 3RKO to Saber, 2RKO to Kamui

This doesn't take into account Saber's superior HP growth (Saber has 50% HP, Kamui has 30%) that can potentially help him to resist one more hit from a Sorcerer. Both of them reach 2RKOs with the Steel Sword. Since Saber and Kamui benefit from the experience gathered against these enemies, it's an important advantage, and later on, as magic wielding enemies become more threatening, having higher resistance may be what saves Saber from showdowns he wouldn't otherwise survive. Jamil needs eight rounds of combat to defeat Saber, whereas Kamui falls after four hits. Dolth (31 Atk) needs four rounds of combat for Saber whereas Kamui falls after three. Jedah 2RKOs Kamui, but Saber can take one hit more. These advantages, alongside what has been mentioned in Kamui's and Deen's entries, are what give him this high ranking.

Now, he's not number one for few reasons. While he's there forever, he's not the absolute face of domination at jointime he eventually becomes. It really isn't his fault but rather how Celica's route is structured: Since enemies start out predominantly physical, Mae or Boey will have better offense and inflict more damage according to the statbooster investment at the start, with Mae even reaching ORKOs with Strength boosts, or Boey emulating Saber's superior bulk while targeting resistance. It's also true that once Kamui joins, both of them are pretty much interchangeable (or share credit), which makes them not as significant by themselves as they're replaceable with one another. Regardless, he's arguably Celica's most useful ally during her journey.

#1. Kliff, from Gaiden

Credits to @lenwe17 in Twitter for drawing this especifically for this blog.

Any of the villagers would rank here, but I'm putting Kliff as representative of all three simply out of preference. Gray could probably be the best if we take his higher base strength into consideration for a stronger earlygame, or Kliff's speed and defense growth in the lategame may offset the period he needs to be raised as a villager. Poor Tobin gets the short end of the stick, but regardless which one of them it is, they happen to be dominant forces in the game if promoted to a Mercenary (and strictly one of them, since it's counterproductive to have multiple villagers in the same class due to a lack of multiple powerful swords). The key to their success lies in the synergy between their stats and the weapon that's found very early in Chapter 1: The Thunder Sword. This weapon has fixed 15 attack, attacks at distance and hits resistance. This is important because no human enemy can resist two hits from this weapon: Soldiers have 26 HP, 3 AS, 0 Res; Archers have 24 HP, 2 AS, 0 Res; Cavaliers have 24 HP, 6 AS, 2 Res. I'm mentioning the speed because the Thunder Sword's drawback is its weight. With 3 Wt, it's enough to lower Alm's attacking speed down to 3, and due to his low 30% speed growth, it's unreliable to have him getting speed points. This is where the Mercenary's high 10 base speed comes in, which is sufficient to double attack any enemy in Chapter 1. Because of this, getting your Mercenary in the middle of the action may result in him sweeping the enemy army, especially if it's standing in a forest tile with ridiculous 40% avoid bonuses. The ease through which the Mercenary ORKOs enemies is especially noteworthy since nobody else can do it reliably: A Cavalier will inflict 4-6 damage per hit, and Tobin as a Cavalier is the only one able to double attack other cavaliers. With the Steel Bow, an Archer may reach 7-9 damage per hit, but due to the class's low speed, it's hard to assume a double-attack. Simply put, a Mercenary will have by far the best offense in Chapter 1 at base. Thanks to the class's high experience gain, it's possible that this leads to the Mercenary snowballing and reaching Lv7 to promote into a Hero, which gives it an increase to 14 Speed to double attack that Paladin boss at the end of Chapter 1 to damage 20 out of 28 HP.

Just like it was described with previous Gaiden characters, the class's low movement is circumvented by the presence of an infinite-range Warp spell (this time without resurrection tricks), capable of sending any unit to any part of the map. This means that the Mercenary's high parameters can be used at any point in the map that the player desires, and because of this, the map's quick completion is dependant on him. The Thunder Sword remains the game's strongest weapon, because even if enemies start gaining levels, it's still the highest possible damage output. By the time the player reaches the Forest Temple, it's possible for the Mercenary to be a Lv10 Hero and be able to promote into a Dread Fighter, the best class in the game. This also gives the Mercenary immunity to the Hex skill from the Shadow Sword, which means that it has the 28 Atk, 13 AS once the player transfers the weapon from Celica's path. As a point of reference, this is the same offense Zeke reaches with the Silver Lance. Since this is the highest damage output in your team, they're particularly helpful against bosses, who reach very high levels of defense in the lategame. This is noteworthy since the Villagers are particularly helpful against magic-wielding bosses. They receive 3-9 damage from Hestia and Marla, and 4-10 damage from Tatara, and if they're wielding the Shadow Sword, it's an ORKO. Since killing them prevents effects on the map (Delthea attacking in Tatara's map, or witches spawning with the twin witches), having someone who can do it consistently is a big help.

The only point where their offense ends up feeling diminished is at Chapter 5 with Mycen and the Gradius in play, which gives lance-wielding units the spotlight (Mycen reaches 37 Atk, which is even more ridiculous than the Shadow Sword). Though Dread Fighters are still very good and worth taking to the endgame. Everything that has been mentioned so far is merely taking into account the class's bases, because Gaiden promotion gains increase the stat to the promoted class's base stat. That's how powerful Dread Fighters were in the original games, which allowed them to be dominant consistently almost from the very beginning with the highest offense in your team without a single added point in their stats. Any of the weaknesses that limit their fellow mercenaries across the series are nullified by the game's own mechanics, and this is something that Intelligent Systems noticed as well since they removed many of these advantages when remaking the game while giving mounted units the potential to dominate with forged effective weaponry. That's what the best Mercenary in Fire Emblem does; it makes their peers to feel insufficient because there's always something wrong with them, and as the series continues and focuses more on increasing growths and inflating stats to give mounted units the edge, it's hard to think that they'll be surpassed.