Fire Emblem Heroes: details on April update (Inherit Skill, Hero Merit, more), next Grand Hero Battles
Update: the update for Fire Emblem Heroes is releasing on April 12th (April 11th in North America, due to timezones). Click here for more details, and here for the patchnotes!
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Today, Nintendo shared plenty of details about some of the changes that are coming to Fire Emblem Heroes next month, as part of the second major update for the game.
The first change applies to Inherit Skill, a features that will go live tomorrow (March 16th). Following the update, it will be possible to inherit skills that were previously inherited when using Merge Allies. Here’s an example: if you take a Marth that inherited the Special Skill “Sol”, and use it as the source character for Merge Allies, then the Target Marth will also end up with Sol. If you try to do this right now, you will lose that precious skill.
The April update for Fire Emblem Heroes will also add a new feature called Hero Merit (or HM for short). HM is something you earn in battle, and once a character has earned enough of it, you can get some Hero Feathers. Unfortunately, that’s all we know for now, and it’s not clear how you can get the Hero Feathers in the first place. We do know about one restriction, though: Duplicate Heroes share their Hero Merit!
- Defense: to clear the map, you need to defend against enemies for a set number of turns;
- Reinforcements: enemy reinforcements will appear on the map, and you will have to defeat them too in order to win the battle.
As for the Arena, the update will change the way Arena scores are handled, along with the matchmaking conditions. About the latter, players will no longer be matched based on the total base stats of their characters. Instead, matchmaking will be based on the combination of the following 4 values:
- Character levels and * rating;
- Number of bonuses gained by using Merge Allies;
- Total base stats after removing the effects from all skills, including Weapon Skills;
- Equipped skills.
According to the developers, this will help ensure you’re matched with players of a similiar level, but it will also have a surprising side-effect… it will also slightly increase the score you can obtain on all difficulty settings!
Finally, the Arena is getting one last change: you will be able to tap on a Bonus Hero, in order to get a description of that character… Pretty handy if you’re not sure who’s who!
Also, the developers mention a mysterious equippable item, that will allow you to expand Hero abilities. More details about it will be shared in the upcoming days!
Naturally, the April update is just the second in a series of major updates for Fire Emblem Heroes. The developers are hard at work on more new content and features, such as a new in-game event. Details are not set in stone right now, so we will not learn much about it today, but we do know that event will feature perma-death.
The goal of that event is for fans (both veterans and newcomers) to enjoy the thrills of the classic Fire Emblem experience, where one bad move can mean the permanent death of a precious unit. Players will have to play even more strategically than before, because there will be no way to revive a fallen character! Naturally, you will not lose any Hero permanently: it will only apply to the event itself.
The current plan is to have players gain battle achievement evaluations, that would allow them to earn special rewards.
Finally, we have a planning for upcoming Grand Hero Battles:
- March 24th: Michalis, the Ambitious King
Get your Heroes ready for the next Grand Hero Battle starting 3/24 as the Ambitious King, Michalis is coming! #FEHeroes pic.twitter.com/XrdeZeGRo0
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 15, 2017
- Early April: Navarre, the Scarlet Sword
- Late April: Zephiel, the Liberator
- Early May: Xander, the Paragon Knight
- Late May: Lloyd, the White Wolf
Those characters have been added to the list of confirmed characters!
Source: Fire Emblem Heroes / Nintendo
