Lethality (瞬殺 Shunsatsu lit. Instant Kill in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance; 滅殺 Messatsu lit. Annihilator in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn onwards), also known as Silencer in the English version of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, is a special skill native to the Assassin-related classes. In its various incarnations, activating Lethality will instantly deplete the enemy's health, regardless of the normal battle damage calculations. The potency of this effect is countered by the lowest activation rate of any attacking skill.
In TearRing Saga: Utna Heroes Saga, this skill is known as Blazing Wind (烈風の技 Reppū no waza or Gale in the fan translation).
In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Silencer uses half of the user's critical rate as a percentage. This makes it highly recommended to use Myrmidons as the base unit when creating an Assassin unit in The Sacred Stones, as Myrmidons typically possess high skill stats. It cannot activate against the Fire Dragon or Fomortiis, but can activate against other bosses, although the use of the Iron Rune/Hoplon Guard will prevent it from triggering.
In the Japanese version of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Bane is called Shunsatsu, or what is known as Lethality in the earlier games.
In Awakening and Fates, if the user battles an enemy with Dragonskin, the skill is disabled. This skill is prioritized first over all other skill-activated attack skills. This is likely because it is the least likely to occur and the most devastating if activated. It can be blocked by Dual Guard and Guard Stance or the enemy can survive if they have Miracle and it activates.
Stats
TearRing Saga: Utna Heroes Saga
| Name | Activation | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
 Blazing Wind
|
(User's Skill - Enemy's Skill) +3)% | - |
| Effects | When activated, the user will be able to instantly kill the enemy, provided the enemy is low on HP, alongside the user having an Attack Range of 1. | |
| Users | Base skill of Ezekiel and Yoda.
| |
Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
| Name | Activation | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Silencer | 50% chance when unleashing a critical hit. | - |
| Effects | Allows the user to instantly kill a selected enemy unit. This skill is ineffective against certain characters. | |
| Users | Base skill of the Assassin class.
| |
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
| Name | Activation | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
 Lethality
|
(Critical Rate/2)% | 20 |
| Effects | Allows the user to instantly kill a selected enemy unit. This skill is ineffective against certain characters. | |
| Users | Occult skill of the Assassin class; Can be assigned with the  Occult Scroll.
| |
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
| Name | Activation | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
 Lethality
|
(Skill/2)% | 30 |
| Effects | Allows the user to instantly kill a selected enemy unit. This skill is ineffective against certain characters. | |
| Users | Class skill of the Assassin class.
| |
Fire Emblem Awakening
| Name | Activation | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
 Lethality
|
(Skill/4)% | - |
| Effects | Allows the user to instantly kill a selected enemy unit. This skill is ineffective against certain characters. | |
| Users | Class skill of Level 5 Assassins.
| |
Fire Emblem Fates
| Name | Activation | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Lethality
|
(Skill/4)% | - |
| Effects | Allows the user to instantly kill a selected enemy unit, provided that the unit would deal at least 1 damage in battle, not including any post-combat skills such as Savage Blow. This skill is ineffective against certain characters. | |
| Users | Learned by Master Ninjas at Level 5 or higher.
| |
Trivia
- Enemies never have Lethality on them in games where they appear where the skill is triggered by stats for balancing reasons.
- In the GBA series, there are no generic Assassins because of this.
- In both Awakening and Fates, Lethality has the following properties:
- Lethality changes the next attack of the user to one-hit a foe, but does not guarantee that it will hit. This means it is possible to avoid the Lethality hit.
- If the target is struck by a Lethality hit, Pavise and Aegis can still activate, even though Lethality will always ignore them.
- Triggered guards from a Pair Up in Awakening or a filled Guard Stance in Fates will block the Lethality hit.
- Miracle can trigger against a Lethality hit, meaning that a user hit by Lethality can survive if it activates.
- If the said unit has Counter or Countermagic (in Fates), since it did not instantly kill the opponent, damage will be returned to the attacker. It is possible for the attacker to die from the reflected damage if it is high enough.
- In Awakening, the highest obtainable activation rate for Lethality is 25%. This is obtained with Inigo as Chrom's son, being in the Assassin class with Limit Breaker, which will give him 60 Skill, or 15% activation rate. This is increased to 25% with Rightful King.
- In Fates, playable first generation characters can have a minimum 15% activation rate on Lethality with Quixotic, not factoring in their current skill stat. The Avatar and children characters can have a minimum 25% activation rate (also not factoring in their skill stat), as they can learn Hoshidan Unity which stacks with Quixotic and adds an additional 10% activation rate.
- In Echoes: Shadows of Valentina, the skill Lethality is fully programmed in the game files but goes unused during normal gameplay.
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