This guide is almost fully spoiler-free.

Some character names, requirements, and events are

mentioned; a few maps are touched on.

This guide is written with the assumption that readers have completed at least one Fire
Emblem game and are familiar with the series basic mechanics.

Thracia 776 is set in the same universe as the preceding title, Genealogy of the Holy War. It
is not necessary to have played this game first: the opening cinematic of Thracia sets up the
story for those new to the world of Jugdral.

Introduction

Thracia 776, the fifth Fire Emblem title, is a wonderful game but a game that requires
assistance. Newcomers commonly find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer number of
strategic options, the complexity of various side objectives, and the frequent (sadistic)
surprises.

So players are left with a choice: either go into Thracia 776 blind and feel lost, or read
lengthy walkthroughs and ruin the magic of a first playthrough.

This guide provides an alternative. Gameplay and story spoilers are kept at a minimum, but
important information about mechanics, strategy, and preparation are provided. I aim to fully
equip players with all the tools they need to tackle Thracia on their own.

I encourage newcomers to read through this companion fully before starting, and then
reference it periodically as they progress.

Navigating Menus

The translation is incomplete, and this is felt most prominently in the menus. Many options
and descriptions are either partially translated or rendered as gibberish.

Translation Patch Glitch

There is a glitch to be aware of. Ch.24 and 24x feature mercenaries whose names and data are
bugged out. If the cursor scrolls over these units, the game becomes softlocked and must be
reset.

To get around this, enter the options menu and switch the "cursor info" (looks like a dialogue
box) to the right. This will disable the buggy information and prevent a softlock.

Elite Mode

Thracia offers multiple difficulties, although the easier difficulty is locked behind a cheat
code.

After selecting New Game but before starting a file, press Right Left Right Left Right Left
Right Right. A chime will sound. Press B to go back to the previous menu, and the option for
Elite Mode will become available.

In Elite Mode, all units receive double experience; otherwise it is identical. This is a great
option for those who want a more manageable first playthrough.

Notable Mechanics

1. Escape Maps. This trips up more new players than anything else. On escape maps,
Leif must escape last; any units who do not escape beforehand are considered
captured and lost for a majority of the game.
2. Stealing. Thieves can now steal weapons as well as items. Thieves must be faster than
the enemy and their build must be higher than the item/weapon weight. Only one
weapon or item can be stolen per thief per turn.
3. Rescuing. Thracia is the first Fire Emblem game to include rescuing, but it functions
differently from other games. First, a character must have a higher build stat than the
intended rescue target. Second, a character who has rescued another unit will have
most of his or her stats halved. Third, if a carried characters build is more than half
the build of the carrier, movement is halved. Fourth, all mounted units are treated as
having 20 build. This means mounts cannot be rescued but can rescue any unit of
<=10 build without movement penalty.
4. Capturing. Instead of killing, players are given the option of capturing enemies
instead. This has the same requirements and penalties of rescuing listed above, but
units must reduce enemy HP to zero (while fighting with halved stats) to successfully
complete a capture. The upside is that players can acquire all items from a captured
units inventory. Very helpful! (Note: If an enemy does not have a weapon or 1-2
range tome equipped, that unit can be captured without lowering its HP to zero.)
5. Pursuit. Some characters are blessed with higher critical than usual on pursuit
(second of a double-attack) hits. New players do not need to worry about the precise
numbers, but it is worth paying attention to critical frequency: if a unit is getting more
criticals than expected, he or she might have an innate pursuit critical boost. (Note:
All non-pursuit hits have their critical rate capped at 25, regardless of what the
battle forecast says.)
6. Fatigue. When characters perform actions in battle, their fatigue score is increased. If
fatigue score goes above a characters maximum HP, eg. HP of 20 and fatigue of 21,
that character is forced to sit out in the following map. Units who do not participate in
a chapter have their fatigue reset to 0. This encourages using many units and limits
 strategies like dance abuse, staff abuse, etc. (Note: Special items called S-Drinks can
be given to fatigued characters in the battle preparations screen. This resets fatigue
and allows them to participate.)
7. Stars. Some units possess special stars, which can be viewed on the second page of
the status screen (press X on a character to open this screen). Leadership stars add
+3 hit and avoid (per star) to all player units on the map. Movement stars add a 5%
chance (per star) that a unit may act again after ending his or her turn. (Note: You
may run across foes with leadership / movement stars. These function the same way
but apply to enemy units.)
8. Magic. There is no resistance in Thracia; instead the magic stat pulls double duty,
acting as both magic power and magic defense. This has many implications, among
them that mages are typically the best magic tanks and pure water (an item that
increases magic) is more useful than ever.
9. Trading. A small note about trading: unlike most games, Thracia allows units to trade
with multiple allies in the same turn. This opens up possibilities for complex trade
chains and makes on-map inventory management a little easier.

Calculations

Highlights:

attack speed (melee weapons): speed - (weapon weight - build, 0 if negative)

attack speed (magical weapons): speed - weapon weight
double attack if: (attack speed - enemy attack speed) >= 4
The weapon triangle is low-impact. Favorable matchups add 5 hit and unfavorable
matchups subtract 5 hit.
If a weapon is effective (eg. armorslayer against knights), it triples weapon might.
Critical attacks double pre-defense damage (rather than tripling post-defense damage,
which is the formula most common in later games). This make criticals a great way to
cut into high-defense enemy units.

AI Quirks

This section lists predictable enemy behavior that can and should be exploited throughout the
game.

1. With rare exceptions, enemies will prioritize capturing unarmed units over attacking
armed units. This can be manipulated to distract enemies and lower their statistics for
player phase. Keep in mind that captured units will instantly have their inventories
(including items and staffs) transferred to the capturing enemy; if setting up bait, it is
recommended that units trade their inventories away first.
2. Dark mages with rewarp staffs will prioritize attacking units in range over warping
elsewhere.
3. Enemy turn order is predictable. If on a given enemy phase one group of units moves
before another group of units, that group will always go first. Pay attention to turn
order because it is useful information for many situations.
4. If an enemy unit can only attack at range, it will attack (so long as the attack deals
damage) no matter how disadvantageous. This behavior is most usefully exploited
against bosses and other strong enemies.
Essential Gameplay Tips

Not following these tips will make the game much harder in places than it would be
otherwise.

1. Players will collect many stat-boosting items during the first few missions. These
should all be given to Leif, and given to Leif as soon as possible.
2. Dagdar is a warrior who auto-recruits during Chapter 1. Place a vulnerary into his
inventory and consider giving him Halvans brave axe. This preparation will pay off
later.
3. Staffs are more powerful in Thracia than any other Fire Emblem. Incorporate at least
two staff-wielders into your core team. Id further recommend Safy, the games first
staff-wielder, be promoted early to improve her staff rank.
4. Weapons are prohibitively expensive. Capturing, not shopping, should be your main
way to keep well-supplied.
5. Enemy grunts often carry valuable equipment. Before starting a map, poke around
enemy inventories and see if there are good weapons and items to procure. Remember
that enemies cannot be captured while mounted.
6. You can never have too many door keys. Purchase at vendors.
7. Do not hoard weapons and items. Use them.

Recruitments

This section lists characters whose recruitments are too cryptic for players to figure out on
their own without a good deal of trial-and-error.

Homeros: Visit his location with Nanna.

Sleuf: Leif must enter the church in Ch.15 and then visit Sleuf's residence in Ch.16.
Eyrios: Talk with Karin, Olwen must be dead or never recruited.
Misha: Talk with Karin, put her to sleep, capture her (don't release!).
Xavier: See below.

Xavier requires a more detailed explanation. While infamous, this recruitment is not difficult
with preparation.

The goal is to put all Lenster knights to sleep, have the villagers talk to the sleeping knights,
and then talk to Xavier. I advise players kill the soldiers because the Membership Card is not
worth the added hassle.

Here are the recommended steps:

acquire a sleep sword from 16a/16b

bring your bulkiest A-sword unit who will not kill the knights on critical ((str + 8) x2
< enemy HP+def)
give this unit a scroll to negate enemy criticals
open the left door and keep your sword wielder on the same column as the door; this
manipulates the knights into hugging the wall
snipe the Freege knights with magic (long-range tomes are unreliable)
slowly back up the sword user until all Lenster knights are put to sleep
 allow the NPCs to speak with their matching knights; this may require rescuing and
dropping NPCs so they don't clog up space
talk to Xavier with Leif

Take your time; there is no reason to move quickly. All reinforcement points are obvious and
can be blocked.

Gaidens

This section lists all gaiden (optional) maps and their requirements.

2x: Protect the villages.

4x: All civilians escape.
8x: Capture the boss, have Tanya and Dagdar alive.
11x: Complete the chapter within 30 turns, NPC survives.
12x: Complete the chapter within 19 turns.
14x: Visit three houses that do not give any rewards when visited.
21x: At any point in the game, abandon a unit (ends a map captured OR left behind on
escape mission).
24x: Open the big door, nab the chest, have Sara alive. One of the boys, not girls, is
the key-bearer.

Conversations

This section lists useful conversations not made obvious by the game script. These are
strongly encouraged because the conversations reward players with valuables, important
information, or special events.

Please note that this is not a complete list. Many conversations exist purely for character
development, while others provide valuables but attentive players will be able to figure them
out.

2x: Leif -> Eyvel

9: Carrion -> Selphina
12x: Lara -> (enemy) Pahn [important!]
13: Glade <-> Selphina
15: Mareeta -> (enemy) Shanam
21: Linoan -> visit church first

Skills

Thracia has a small number of skills, but their properties are not made obvious in-game.
Below is a complete list of skills, organized by type, and what their effects / activation rates
are.

To see which characters have what skills, pull up a characters status screen and scroll down
to the second page. Press X to examine the skill icons and see their names.

Grant new abilities

 Bargain: purchase items at half price
Dance: lets an ally move again
Steal: can steal weapons and items from enemies; unit must be faster and his or her
build must be higher than the items weight

Guaranteed activation

Ambush: always attack first

Awareness: negates enemy skills
Charge: if user attack speed and remaining HP are higher than an enemys, initiates a
second round of combat
Charisma: all units within a 3-tile radius gain +10 hit and avoid
Elite: doubles experience gain
Wrath: always critical on a counter-attack (not guaranteed with Ambush)

Percentage-based activation

Big Shield: negates enemy attack [(Level)%]

Continue: initiates another hit [(Attack Speed)%]
Moonlight Sword: guaranteed hit, negates defense [(Skill)%]
Prayer: against a killing blow, dodge becomes 100% [(Luck x 3)%]
Shooting Star Sword: perform five consecutive attacks [(Skill)%]
Sun Sword: guaranteed hit, damage dealt to enemy is restored to player HP [(Skill)%]

Scrolls

Scrolls (they look like sheets of paper with colorful icons) boost growth rates, and their
boosts can be stacked by having characters carry multiple at a time. Scrolls also prevent non-
wrath enemy critcals.

These are useful items but not as useful as many believe. Growth rates do not matter much in
Thracia. More importantly, focusing on scroll abuse makes the game tedious and the small
benefits are not worth the headache.

I would strongly recommend players spread out their scrolls, since negating criticals is
always useful.

There are seven scrolls that give major boosts to the seven stats. These boosts are worth
keeping in mind; treat other scrolls as giving small all-around growth improvements.

Growth boosts are +30% unless listed otherwise.

Hezul: +HP
Noba: +str
Heim: +mag
Odo: +skl
Sety: +spd
Blaggi: +luk
Dain: +def (and 5% movement)
Neir: +bld (10%)
Chapter-Specific Advice

Most maps are best enjoyed blind, but there are some instances where a little foreknowledge
goes a long way.

Ch.1: The axemen left some really nice axes at home.

Ch.3: Very important to complete the side objectives.
Ch.4: Very important to complete the side objectives. Be cautious of the unseen.
Ch.5: The center of the map is open, but there is one spot with a one-tile chokepoint.
Use it.
Ch.6: Make sure to check which player units have mounts and which do not.
Ch.8x: Bring a mage.
Ch.10: Be patient, they leave before too long.
Ch.14: Green units are not allies.
Ch.15: Leif can escape first without penalty.
Ch.17a: Green units are not allies (again).
Ch.18: Good place to steal a certain staff in bulk.
Ch.20: You need to kill the boss, too!
Ch.22: If all else fails, mash End Turn forty times.
Ch.24: Children hold the key. The key-bearer is random but always male.
Ch.24x: This map contains a number of unexplained, unexpected warp tiles. I would
recommend looking at this map to avoid them, but ONLY when youve gotten here
for yourself, as this link contains story and gameplay spoilers.

This guide was a little longer than I intended, but if youve made it through then you are
ready to tackle Thracia 776 without any additional help.