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Ballistae (ロングアーチ Rongu āchi, lit. Long Arches in the Japanese versions) are special long-ranged artillery weaponry that recurrently appear across the Fire Emblem Series. Deployed across many a battlefield by units of the Archer class line, these weapons are capable of firing ammunition over great distances, dramatically expanding the range of the normal Archer, Sniper or Marksman. Much like their Bow counterparts, ballistae are capable of inflicting effective damage against Flying Units like Pegasus Knights and Wyvern Riders and cannot be countered. In Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, ballistae are solely operated by a special Ballistician class.

In Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, ballistae are a weapon, not a tile, employed exclusively by the Ballistician class. There are five types of ballistae in these games:

  • Thunderbolt, a ballista that inflicts bonus damage to enemy ballisticians.
  • Stonehoist, a standard but inaccurate ballista.
  • Hoistflamme, a more accurate, but slightly less durable and weaker ballista as compared to the Stonehoist.
  • Arrowspate, a ballista that inflicts bonus damage to flying units.
  • Pachyderm, a ballista that inflicts the highest damage against a regular target. It has more accuracy than a Stonehoist, but has low durability.

In Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, ballistae are a terrain type that grants 5 avoid. Like forests and other spaces that provide cover, passing through them costs extra movement, and ballista spaces require 2 movement spaces to traverse. The interesting thing is that this applies to flying units as well, making the ballista space the only terrain in the game that affects the movement of fliers.

In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Chapter 23 (Linus' version) features a ballista next to Linus himself with an exceptionally long attack range of 15 tiles, sufficient to target a unit visiting the red-roofed house on the southeastern corner of the map.

In the games Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and others, there are three variations of the Ballista. There are the generic bronze ones, which have normal power, similar like the ones from past Fire Emblem games. The Iron Ballista are slightly stronger in power and the Killer Ballista comes with an upped critical percentage, increasing the chance of taking out enemy units with one strike. In Radiant Dawn, ballistae do not have weapon effectiveness against Dracoknights.

Weapon Stats

Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade

Name Type

Ballista Ballista

Bow Ballista

Rank Uses Mt Hit Crt Rng Wt WEx Worth
E 5 8 70% 0% 3~10 20 1 -
Effect

-

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

Name Type

Ballista Ballista

Bow Ballista

Rank Uses Mt Hit Crt Rng Wt WEx Worth
E 5 8 70% 0% 3-10 20 4 -
Effect

-

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

Name Type

Ballista Ballista

Bow Ballista

Rank Uses Mt Hit Crt Rng Wt WEx Worth
E 5 8 60% 0% 3-10 20 4 -
Effect

-

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

Name Type

FE9Ballista Ballista

FE9 Bow Ballista

Rank Uses Mt Hit Crt Rng Wt WEx Worth
E 5 18 100% 0% 3-10 20 4 -
Effect

Ignores its user's Strength.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

Name Type

FE10ballista Ballista

FE10 Bow Ballista

Rank Uses Mt Hit Crt Rng Wt WEx Worth
E 5 18 100% 0% 3-10 20 0 -
Effect

Ignores its user's Strength.

Trivia

  • If Radiant Dawn is hacked so that a ballista is in the inventory of a bow-using class, the ballista is fully functional and said unit can move with a ballista in their inventory.

Gallery

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