Fire Emblem Engage Emblem Pairings: Best Rings for each Character
There's a lot of classic role playing equipment and character management in Fire Emblem Engage, as you'd expect for the series - but one of the most impactful player choices in the game is all new for this title - picking the best ring combos, aka deciding which Emblem Pairings to put in place for the maximum effect.
This is all linked to the Engage system and the new Emblem Rings gear, which allow you to equip special rings and in turn embody the spirit and skill set of and even fight alongside classic Fire Emblem units. Because of how powerful the skills and various modifiers applied via the Emblem system is, it's absolutely key to make good use of this mechanic - and the best way to do that is to pick synergystic combinations where the choice of Ring and the unit equipping it works together in a smart way that is complementary, thus enhancing your combat abilities.
This page exists to give you advice on the Best Ring Combinations and Emblem Pairings - a bit of a primer to help you in your decision-making process.
Best Rings for each Character & Ring Combos/Emblem Pairings for Fire Emblem Engage
First thing's first - and it's something of a tradition of a thing to say on guides for gameplay mechanics like this: there is no absolute best ring combination setup or emblem pairing suite for Fire Emblem Engage. Engage is a full-fat, red-blooded strategy RPG, and that means you've got a lot of latitude as a player to decide how to deploy your army and how to set up your characters.
This means that a lot of strategies will work for you with varying degrees of success, and one of the best things about Engage is that it's deep enough in its strategy focus that you can totally get weird with your picks here and it isn't going to break the game or make things impossible for you. In fact, you might discover your weird new strategy really works - so we encourage you to experiment.
With that said, we do have some suggestions of the best ring combos in Fire Emblem Engage; some pairings of Emblem and Unit that are just so perfect that we can't quite ignore them. And on this page, we'll give you some suggestions for each Emblem. This is a work in progress, and we'll be adding more as we experiment:
Marth & Alear
Your first two unit and Emblem in the game are respectively Alear, the protagonist - whatever name you've given them - and Marth, the first Lord in the Fire Emblem series. Engage will start you out with the Marth Ring equipped to Alear, and it ends up as a promising and strong combination for the whole rest of the game.
Marth is generally best off paired with sword users thanks to his Rapier, of which Alear is one. Marth's skill-set also includes a higher shot at dodging incoming attacks and some health regen. You can turn Alear into a dodge-focused tank with this setup, which is ridiculously powerful all game.
Celica & Celine
As a rule, the natural partner for Celica will be those with a strong magic stat to begin with, given Celica is one of just a handful of magic-focused Emblems in the game. You should know the rules with magic in Fire Emblem: generally it's the tool of glass cannons, who can do huge amounts of damage but also can be taken down easily.
The most natural fit is probably Celine, and not just because their names are a little similar. Celene is likely to become one of your go-to mystical units, and she's got stat growth that lines up well with Celica. Clanne is also a magic-focused character, however, and is also therefore quite valid for Celica. Much later in the game, if you choose to recruit Lindon, he can pair well with the Celica Emblem Ring, too, thanks to her Warp Ragnarok ability.
Sigurd & Louis
In truth, Sigurd is one of the most useful Emblems and of all of the early-game Emblems is probably the one most likely to form an absolutely critical part of your equipment and unit setup. As such, there's quite a few Emblem Pairings that work, though for our money one of the absolute best is achieved by pairing Sigurd with Louis.
This pairing will give you an absolutely ridiculous amount of movement in a tanky character who can really take a punch before going down, which means that you can rush ahead with them if you want. The one weakness is arguably low speed, but as you level up you can often make this pairing so powerful that you'll one-shot a lot enemies, rendering speed relatively irrelevant. It's powerful.
But, like we said, Sigurd will go well with a lot of characters. Pair him with a healer like Framme and you can have an extremely mobile healing machine that just is a little ridiculous. Alternatively, you can pair Sigurd with an a unit that's already mounted - giving you what almost feels like whole-map battlefield mobility at any time.
Leif & Diamant
Going for an Emblem Pairing of Leif and Diamant can lead to a real strong jack-of-all-trades, given that Diamant has natural access to both swords and axes, while Leif will then add a lance into the mix. Combine this with the ability that Leif has to counter with the best available weapon when attacked and you'll find that you'll always have the upper hand when you come under fire, at least in Weapon Triangle terms.
Alternatively, you could consider pairing Leif with Jade or Louis - powerful, tanky characters who'll make the most of Leif's Build stat.
Roy & Alfred
One of Fire Emblem's most famous leads thanks to Smash Bros, Roy is famed for being ridiculously powerful - just as he was represented in the cross-over fighter. In truth, Roy will work pretty well as an upgrade for any tanky character, but there's more to him than that - which is why we recommend giving Alfred Roy's Emblem Ring.
Alfred is already pretty mobile thanks to being mounted, but Roy has the Advance skill will give a little bit of extra range, while a more tanky status for your cavalry is always welcome. Aside from Alfred, Diamant is also great for Roy, simply because it's pairing two tanks to make for one mega-tank.
Ike & Diamant
I know, we suggested Diamant with Leif earlier - but any character as naturally tanky as Diamant was always going to be a natural fit with Ike, who has skills like Wrath that help the person who has equipped the Ike Emblem Ring to crit more easily. While you can create something a little more subtle using Diamant elsewhere, combining himw ith Ike can deliver you a stupidly powerful unit you can drop into the front of any fight, knowing they'll be able to carry the can for much of the fight.
For similar reasons, you could also pair Diamant with Louis, where you get a lot of the same advantages, just with a slightly different weapon and stat growth setup.
Micaiah & Jean
When Jean joins your party, he'll be squishy and vulnerable - but paired with Micaiah he can become quickly valuable. Part of that is because Micaiah's Great Sacrifice skill can be used to restore HP to all allies on the battlefield, including those that the player isn't controlling. This reduces HP to 1, but can be done from a safe position to allow Jean, who is something of a natural healer, to gain lots of EXP relatively quickly.
Even once Jean has been grown, Micaiah is a natural fit, as both are characters that are most suited to healing and supporting the rest of your units from afar.
Lucina & Fogado
Hailing from Fire Emblem Awakening, Lucina might be associated with being more than a little Marth-inspired, but she has her own unique pros and cons as an Emblem here in Engage. Specifically, she has the great Dual Strike and Dual Assist abilities that allow her equipper to chain attack like a backup unit, and do so more effectively - and for our money, that's a pretty good fit for Fogado.
As an archer, pairing Fogado with Lucina can give you a highly manuverable character that can one-shot and chain attack enemies from a distance with relative ease. It's extremely fun. Alternative, you could pair Lucina with Lapis to make the most of the chain attack and backup elements of Lucina's skill set.