Characters You Should Bench in Fire Emblem Engage

Fire Emblem Engage, like the previous games, gives you lots of units to fill out your army over the course of the main story. However, the unit limits are somewhat restrictive, so you’ll really need to pick and choose who you want to invest in. Today, we’ll discuss characters you should bench in Fire Emblem Engage.

Characters that can be Safely Benched in Fire Emblem Engage

We must preface this guide with a small note: Much like the previous Fire Emblem games, ANY unit can be considered viable with enough favoritism and investment. If a unit is working out for you, then by all means, continue to use them. This guide is just meant to be an overall look at every unit’s potential at first glance.

Compared to past Fire Emblem games, Engage starts to hit you with deployment caps very soon into the main campaign. You won’t be able to realistically train up every single unit, so you must select some favorites to use often.

Due to the nature of growth rates, some units are just going to be better than others. Here’s a quick list of what units are usually safe to bench due to lackluster potential.

Related | How to Revisit Towns in Fire Emblem Engage

Vander, Clanne

Vander should come as no surprise to most Fire Emblem vets. Vander is the classic “assistant Paladin” unit that is seen in many Fire Emblem games. His internal levels are already high at the start of the game, so you’ll have difficulties training him.

Not that you should, as you’ll most likely bench him once the deployment caps kick in. He’s got great versatility for the first six chapters, but as soon as you start getting other units, it’s a good call to bench him.

Clanne is a good mage early on, but is quickly outclassed by the other mages you get later on. Framme is saved by the fact that she’s a Qi Adept/staff user, so she has much more utility to offer. She’s also one of two natural staff users you have early on, the other being Jean.

Etie, Boucheron, Celine, Alfred

The Firene recruitments are unfortunately good for only their recruitment chapters. Boucheron is especially notorious for having high HP and Bld but lacking in just about everything else, which makes him a liability on the harder difficulties. The only two exceptions to this are Chloe and Louis, both of whom are some of the best units in the game.

Alfred, Celine, and Etie are decent units but get quickly outclassed by the next kingdom’s recruitments. You’re going to hear “quickly outclassed” a lot in the guide!

Lapis

As you approach Brodia, you’ll recruit Alcryst, Lapis, and Citrinne. Alcryst has a lot of great potential, while Citrinne is at least decent for a few chapters, but Lapis gets outclassed as soon as you reach the next chapter.

You’ll get Diamant, who is pretty much a better version of Lapis. Once he promotes into his unique advanced class, he becomes a very solid unit. Lapis isn’t strictly bad, as you can reclass her into better options to make her somewhat viable, but Diamant comes already ready to go.

Bunet

Bunet joins you once you reach Solm. Pandreo is a good mage, Fogado is an OK archer, but Bunet doesn’t really have anything going for him, especially when you already have Louis.

His stats point him towards being a tanky frontliner Calvary unit, but you’ll quickly realize that he can barely take a hit due to his busted base stats. This is especially noticeable on higher difficulties, so you’re better off just benching him.

Lindon, Saphir

These two come so late in the game that it’s hard to make them useful. By this point, you’re pretty much set in your preferred party, and these two don’t offer anything worthwhile to make them replace what you’ve already got.

That concludes our list of characters in Fire Emblem Engage that you should bench. Engage is still early, and a lot of players are still figuring out the meta and who’s good, so opinions will vary on who is worth keeping around. What do you think of the list? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!