—Opening Narration
The Empty King (虚ろなる王 Utsuro naru Ō The Hollow King in the Japanese Version) is Chapter 27 of Fire Emblem Fates in the Conquest version. The player will not be able to save after completing this Chapter, nor return to My Castle. The Player will also be unable to Kidnap units from this battle because of this. The Capture skill can be used, and the normal dialogue for capturing an enemy will display. However, upon completing this Chapter, when you next return to My Castle, the captured unit will not be in your Prison. This chapter takes place in Shirasagi: Throne Room.
Synopsis
With the death of Iago and the Nohrian army, and the capitals no longer in their control, the Avatar and Azura leads the Nohrian siblings to the throne room to confront and kill Garon. Elise is unsure about Garon being a monster and Leo asks why they didn't tell them before and why they are the only ones to know about Garon. All they can tell is that they know the truth about Garon being a monster and the Avatar asks for their siblings to listen to them about the truth and to believe in them. Xander eventually agrees to this and decides to trust them, but warns them that if they are lying and intends to betray them, they will be executed for treason.
The Avatar accepts this and opens the door into the throne room, where they manage to prove the truth of their words when Garon, seated upon the throne of truth, is revealed to be a slimy monstrosity in actuality. Azura reveals them the true King Garon; a monster. Angered and shocked, the fake Garon curses the Avatar for tricking him and attempts to kill everyone. The Avatar attacks him. However, their Grim Yato is unable to hurt him, and in retaliation, Garon launches several blows at them. Elise begs Garon to stop and Azura tells the siblings to fight Garon, but they refuse because Garon is still their father despite knowing his true identity. The Avatar begs them to put aside their disbelief and fight as the fake Garon is not their real father. The fake Garon taunts them about turning his children against them and attempts to kill the Avatar, but the attack is blocked by Xander.
Xander calls out the fake Garon and tells him he is no longer the father he once looked up to and that the real Garon would never have used his strength against his own children or needlessly conquered or ruined another kingdom. Suddenly, Xander's Siegfried reacts to the Avatar's Grim Yato, empowering it into the Shadow Yato. The Avatar decides to test the new Yato on Garon, and it hurts him as he screams in pain, and decides to kill them and his own children as Xander convinces the siblings to put aside their disbelief and fight alongside the Avatar.
After the battle, Garon is killed and dissipates into water. The Nohrian siblings have barely any time to process their grief and shock. The Avatar tells them the war is over and attempts to free the remaining captured Hoshidans, however, they are caught off guard by a sudden attack launched by a possessed Takumi. Corrupted and fueled by anger and vengeance, his Fujin Yumi has been corrupted into Skadi and attacks the Nohrian royals. The Avatar attempts to talk him out of fighting as they already killed Garon, but he is unreasonable and Azura tells them they have to kill Takumi as he is possessed just like Garon was. With no other choices, the Avatar walks towards Takumi with the intent of letting him kill them, as they blame themselves for letting Takumi die and betraying him and hopes his hatred will go away, however, they are struck when their Grim Yato fails to deflect an attack launched by a single arrow shot with Skadi, causing them to slip into a state of unconsciousness.
Strategy
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Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.
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Depending on the difficulty attempted by the player, the enemies and unit placement will change:
- On Normal Mode, there are 17 enemies; 6 Shrine Maidens, 3 Lancers, a Merchant, Berserker, Sniper, Sorcerer, Master Ninja, Swordmaster, Spear Master and Garon himself. There is a unit set point in each of the side rooms, and 10 in the bottom.
- On Hard Mode, two Swordmasters and Spear Masters are added into their respective rooms in Guard Stance, totaling up to 21 enemies. In addition, the set points are changed; rather then one in each of the side rooms, there are two each on the top two rooms.
- On Lunatic Mode, an additional Lancer is added in the group guarding Garon, totaling up to 22 enemies.
While most of the units on the side should not be a great threat, the biggest issue will most likely be the group guarding Garon. On all modes, the Lancers come with Counter and Countermagic, making them especially dangerous to deal with, as well as Movement +1, meaning they will keep up with the Merchant. On Hard Mode and Lunatic Mode, this group will all have Spendthrift; on Hard the Lancers have one gold bar, while the Merchant has two, and on Lunatic, each unit has one more. The Merchant also has Wary Fighter, making it difficult to kill him in one turn. While the accuracy can be put into question depending on who is tanking (Lancebreaker and Bowbreaker can deal with them easily), they can cause a lot of damage if they hit. It is best to avoid dealing with this group, since your attacks become rather limited during your turn.
If you do not want to take out this group (since you will either need shurikens or a high critical hit weapon or damage boosting skills), you can go through the side rooms. You will still need to take out the respective combatant units, even if they move out of the room, first. Each room has a Shrine Maiden. The four in the bottom and middle rooms have a special version of Entrap. All six have Moon Festals. If you cannot take out the combatant unit in each room in one turn, kill off the Shrine Maidens first, so that they do not restore a majority of their allies' health which can prolong the fight.
The Entrap used by Shrine Maidens is a special, enemy-only version which will always hit your units (it has an accuracy of 200 with infinite range). The trick to manipulating the AI of the Shrine Maiden is to learn 3 facts:
- They will Entrap your highest total stats available unit one by one. The distribution of which ally units entering which rooms will be based on which ally units function the worst against the enemy in said room (weapon triangle advantage, etc.).
- They will not Entrap units in rooms.
- They will not Entrap units in enemy range.
Garon is much more stronger in this route on all modes. Although he will not have Draconic Hex (which only appears in Birthright), he does have Dragonskin, which will reduce the attacks of everyone by half. This does not apply to the Avatar with the Shadow Yato, which deals 3/4th of its damage instead. On Normal, Garon only comes with Armored Blow and Warding Blow, which with his stats will mean whenever he attacks, he will most likely take little damage. On Hard, Savage Blow is added into his skill list, which can weaken your units enough for the remaining hostiles to kill them if they haven't been lured/disposed yet. This is even worsened on Lunatic Mode where Renewal is added, meaning that he will heal 21 hitpoints at the start of the enemy phase.
Therefore, on Lunatic Mode, you may want to bring several powerful units to dispose of Garon in one turn before he is able to use Renewal, as he can delay your units long enough for the rest of the stronger hostiles to reach and kill your units. Rally units are helpful in increasing the damage output of your units. You may also have Songstress Azura sing to one unit, then have a nearby unit shelter her so that she can sing to another unit. Several freeze staves may come in handy for holding off the invaders before they reach your units.