Villager

The Villager is a class that debuted in Fire Emblem Gaiden.

History in the Series

Villagers are as they describe; a common citizen forced onto the battlefield. In some scenarios, Villagers are unarmed in battle or at best, may have a Sword or a Lance. These factors often lead to Villagers being NPC units that need defending/rescuing and are seldom an enemy unit.

The Villager class is sometimes a playable class, usually restricted to one single unit in the entire game. These villagers are usually encountered when an enemy force invades or threatens their home village and the Lord of each game happens to be nearby to intervene. Either due to being inspired by the Lord and their forces, wanting to contribute to their village and/or their family in a meaningful way, or simply because they have not other option, this Villager can become a new member of the army. They are often untrained or have very minimal exposure to warfare. This is usually reflected in their poor starting stats due to their low Level, especially in comparison to the units already in the roster by the time they are recruited. While the Villager starts off with a poor start, their notable trait is their exponential growths as they level up, usually having consistently high chances of gaining points in their various stats with each Level, sometimes eclipsing other powerful seasoned fighters in the army. In most of the earliest forms of the Villager, they simply have higher growth rates in general, though later games beginning with Awakening have the Aptitude skill to denote this or some variation of this skill. All in all, the Villager class is a Trainee class and are the stepping stone into a regular class.

In Gaiden and its remake, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Villagers wield swords as their weapon of choice. They are regarded as a "tier zero" class in this title, given that they are able to promote into a variety of first-tier classes. In Gaiden, Villager is a class exclusive to male characters, and grants the promotion options of Mercenary, Soldier, Archer, Mage and Cavalier. In Shadows of Valentia, it is also possible for female characters to be the Villager class, and they have the promotion options of Cavalier, Mage, Cleric, or Pegasus Knight. Villagers can promote into any one of these classes by visiting a shrine when their level is 3 or higher. In Gaiden, the class that they promote into is chosen randomly, but in Shadows of Valentia, the player can freely choose what class they want their Villagers to promote into.

Although weak as a class, Villagers have the potential of leveling up infinitely by following the Mercenary path, as the corresponding third-tier class, Dread Fighter, is able to promote back into this class any time after reaching Level 10.

Furthermore, in Echoes, an item called a Pitchfork can be used to allow any unit in any class at any level to promote into a Villager at a shrine. This gives that unit the ability to then promote into a different class of their choosing, essentially allowing them to reclass in a manner somewhat similar to what is allowed by the Second Seal item in Awakening and the Heart Seal item in Fates. However, this can only be done three times, as there are only three Pitchfork items obtainable in the game, via the "Mila's Bounty" free DLC gifts.

The Villager class returns in Fire Emblem Awakening, this time wielding lances in a manner that is similar to the Recruit class. The class has no promotions and is considered a special class, capping at Level 30. However, unlike most other special classes, it has low stat caps and it is encouraged to reclass into a secondary class to absolve these low caps. It is exclusive to Donnel and any potential son he may have, making it a male-only class. Male Morgan can inherit the class either from Donnel or a son of Donnel.

In Fire Emblem Fates, the class wields Lances as its sole weapon of choice, much like its incarnation in Awakening. The Villager is a fully-fleshed class instead of a trainee-tier one, given that it can directly promote into either the Merchant or the Master of Arms class. It is one of four base classes in Fates that cannot be chosen as the Avatar's secondary class and cannot be accessed via a Partner Seal or Friendship Seal. However, the children of Mozu inherit the class from her.

The class reappears in Fire Emblem Engage as a non playable class used exclusively by Other Units who are incapable of engaging in combat. The functionality of the Villager class in this game is comparable to the Civilian class that appears in other titles.

Other Games

In TearRing Saga: Berwick Saga, the class is known as Farmer, an NPC only class that appears only in Chapter 12. They wield Forks, a subtype of the Spear class of weapons, although their poor stats hinder their effectiveness with them.

In Vestaria Saga: The Holy Sword of Silvanister, the class is once again known as the Farmer. It wields Lances and Throwing Spears.

Combat

Because Villagers are basically civilian recruits who have not received formal combat training, their starting stats and growth rates tend to be extremely low. They are weak, pitifully so in some instances, and are extremely fragile and can be felled easily by most conventional enemies. In most instances, they appear no later than a quarter into the story, making them even weaker than most units in the army at the time, but not to the point that they are completely unusable. As a trainee class, they are ill-suited for long term usage in the class and is merely a starting point. This is reinforced by the fact that their stat caps are generally quite low, forcing the player to promote or reclass them as soon as possible.

While initially weak and ill-suited for combat, the Villager class is considered to be more of an archetype than a class. All units who start off as a Villager or a trainee class, in general, are noted for their potential, generally having some of the strongest growth rates in their respective games and becoming some of the strongest units in the game. If intending to use a Villager character, it is encouraged to use them immediately from recruitment and reclass them as soon as possible. Once they enter an actual combat class, their potential becomes more apparent and usually excels in their new role. Overall, Villagers are considered investment units. They require delicate handling and a bit of risk to give them the experience needed to grow in the beginning but offer large rewards once they are given time to grow.

In-Game

Base Stats

Maximum Stats

Growth Rates

Class Skills

Promotions

Notable Villagers

Gaiden/Shadows of Valentia

• Atlas - A villager from the Mountain Village on Celica's route.
• Kliff - A Villager who loves learning and hungers to see more of the world.
• Gray - An easygoing and loyal Villager who's worldly and competent.
• Tobin - A honest Villager who likes to earn his own living.
• Faye - A devoted Villager that is eager to follow Alm. Exclusive to Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
• Possible promotion for: Saber, Kamui, Jesse, and Deen
  • Other characters except for Alm and Celica can now be reclassed to Villager with the Pitchfork in Shadows of Valentia.

Awakening

• Donnel - A handy and hardy farm boy from a Ylissean country village.
• Holland - A hostile villager who aids the nefarious Nelson in order to support his family.

Fates

• Mozu - A Hoshidan villager who is rescued by Corrin.

Engage

• Durthon - The Somniel's armorer.
• Anisse - The Somniel's shopkeeper.
• Calney - The Somniel's smith.
• Pinet - The Somniel's clothier.

Vestaria Saga: The Holy Sword of Silvanister

• Mianne - The younger sister of Alexander. Despite her frail appearance, she wields the powerful Miracle Hoe.

Trivia

• Villagers and the unplayable Soldier class share the same battle animations in Awakening.
• In Awakening and Fates, Villagers often seem to take the role of the Civilian class in some chapters, frequently appearing as functionally defenseless allied units that must be protected. The exceptions are Holland, who is an enemy, Donnel, who can be recruited, and Morgan who, if he is Donnel's son, starts out as a Villager and can be recruited.
• In Awakening, Villagers boast equal Defense and Resistance, a trait shared with their sister class, Lords, female Great Lords, Tacticians, Grandmasters, Cavaliers, Paladins, Dancers, Manaketes and Grima's personal class. Additionally, they boast equal Strength and Magic, a trait shared by Tacticians, Grandmasters, their sister class and Dancers.
• In Fates, Villagers are the only generic units that cannot be captured. Apart from being the rarest NPCs in-game (they do not appear in Birthright apart from the Arena (those NPCs cannot be captured) and Sophie's Paralogue as allies), the only times they appear as enemies are in Conquest and Revelation as Vallite enemies, who cannot be captured. Despite this, data does exist for captured Villagers, although this unit data is assigned the hooded man portrait rather than either generic Villager portrait.

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