Fire Emblem Engage’s unit classes play a massive part of the strategy game, but the game doesn’t strictly tell you how to change unit classes.

In this guide on how to change unit classes in Fire Emblem Engage, we’ll also be walking you through supplementary details, including explaining why unit classes matter, and how to earn the all-important Master Seals.

If it’s other areas of Nintendo’s strategy battler you need help with though, you can check out our guide on Support conversations and romance options.

Fire Emblem Engage unit classes explainedHow to change unit classes in Fire Emblem EngageHow to get Master Seals in Fire Emblem EngageFire Emblem Engage - Announcement Trailer - Nintendo Direct 9.13.2022

Fire Emblem Engage unit classes explained

There’s some crucial information you need to know about how unit classes in Fire Emblem Engage work, even if you’re a veteran of 2019’s Three Houses. The classic weapon triangle is now back, meaning swords work well against axes, axes are great against lances, and lances can make short work of sword-users.

Taking this into account, you want to make sure you’ve got a varied army when venturing into battle in Fire Emblem Engage. This isn’t Three Houses, where you can smack around anyone with Byleth and company, so if you’re using all lance-users in Engage, you’ll quickly become undone if you’re up against axe-wielders.

Consider this when choosing which unit class you want someone to switch to. Taking protagonist Alear for example, you might want to promote them to a purely sword-based class when changing their unit type, or if you don’t have many elite lance-based troops in your army, you might want to change them to a Hero, which specialises in both the sword and lance categories.

Remember: you can see which weapons a selected class excels at by hovering over it in the 'Change Class' menu and looking below the class’ name. In the screenshot above for example, we can see the Swordmaster is excellent at swordplay, represented by the 'S' next to the sword symbol, which is the highest rating a class can accrue for a weapon.

How to change unit classes in Fire Emblem Engage

Simply put, Fire Emblem Engage doesn’t actually tell you how to change unit classes. Once a unit hits level 20, they’ve effectively hit their level cap, and it’s at this time that you need to choose which category you want to promote them to.

To do this, head into the main menu of Fire Emblem Engage by pressing the '+' button while in Somniel. Scroll down to 'Inventory' and select it, and then at the bottom of the subsequent menu, you’ll see an option titled 'Change Class.' It’s here that you can promote units and change their classes going forward.

There are two tiers of classes in Fire Emblem Engage: Basic, and Advanced. The Basic tier is what Alear, Alfred, Boucheron, and all your other followers start at at the beginning of the game, and they’ll need to hit level 20 on the Basic tier before they can be promoted to an Advanced tier class.

When you do this, your unit’s level gets reset to one. Don’t panic though, because they’re now in the upper tier of classes, meaning that a level one Advanced class is still significantly more powerful than a level 20 Basic class.

If you do change your unit’s class to another Basic tier instead of an advanced tier, be warned that they’ll be significantly weaker, having their level reset to level one on the lower tier. If you’re going to do this, we’d highly recommend doing it near the beginning of Fire Emblem Engage, rather than waiting until you’re a dozen hours into the game and effectively rendering a unit useless by resetting its level to one on the Basic tier.

How to get Master Seals in Fire Emblem Engage

Yes, there’s unfortunately a cost to promoting a unit to an Advanced tier class. Fire Emblem Engage works with Seals to promote units, and this might sound familiar to those who played Fire Emblem Three Houses, which employed a very similar system a few years ago.

If you want to promote a unit from Basic to Advanced, you’ll need one Master Seal for every unit you want to promote. This can be a pretty tough ask in some scenarios, because if you’ve got 10 or so units to promote out of Basic tier, you’ll need the exact corresponding number of Master Seals to do it.

One way of earning Master Seals is by completing Paralogue Battles relating to Fire Emblem Engage’s older heroes. Periodically throughout the story of Engage, you’ll see a Paralogue Battle option open up on the overworld map, represented by a shining purple diamond symbol.

If you can tough it out in these optional battles, you’ll be rewarded with a Master Seal for each one you accomplish. Be warned though that these battles are incredibly tough, not only in the recommended unit level, but also because they often drastically restrict the number of units you can take into battle with you, in some cases lowering the maximum number of units to as little as six.

On the other hand, Master Seals are actually available for purchase in Somniel, provided you’ve got the funds. If you head to the Plaza, and then to the Item Shop hosted by Anisse, you’ll find you can purchase a Master Seal for 2,500G each. It’s not a cheap method of acquiring Master Seals, but if you’re out of luck with Paralogue Battles, this is your only option.

Good luck in Fire Emblem Engage!

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