Changing classes has always been a core mechanic in Fire Emblem games, and in strategy role-playing games in general! In Fire Emblem Engage you’ve plenty of incentive to change classes - to continue leveling up, to increase your base states, to enjoy better growth rates and to access more weapon types being the main ones. Generally speaking, changing classes makes your character stronger, and isn’t that what these games are really all about; getting that endorphin rush by seeing numbers get bigger? This page will cover how to change your class in Fire Emblem Engage.

How to Change Classes in Fire Emblem Engage¶

You can change classes any time you’re not in battle by navigating to the menu, selecting the “Inventory” option, picking a character, then selecting the “Change Classes” option. This will bring up a list of classes the character can potentially change to. If this is your first time checking this out, you’ll probably see a lot of gray, and little immediate potential for change; changing classes in Fire Emblem Engage is a bit of an involved process, and you’ll generally need to meet certain conditions, as follows:

• You must be the correct base class to promote to an advanced class (any advanced class can change into any other available advanced class)
• You must be Lvl 10 in a base class if you wish to promote to an advanced class or Lvl 20 to reset back to Lvl 1 in the same class (a base class can change into another base class and an advanced class can change into another advanced class regardless of level)
• You must expend a Master Sea to change from a base class to an advanced class, or you must expend a Second Seal to make any other form of class change.
• You must have the correct [Proficiencies] to change into the desired class.

Seals and Proficiencies are covered on their own pages (follow the links for more information). Seals come in two forms, Master Seals (used to promote from base classes to advanced classes) and Second Seals (every other type of class change), and you can find them in missions - either dropped by enemies or looted from chests. Mostly, however, you’ll buy them from the Item Shop on the Somniel, which will stock them intermittently and in limited quantities until after Chapter 17, when their supply becomes unlimited. As for proficiencies, you can unlock these by increasing your Bond Level with Emblems. Different Emblems will grant different proficiencies, and you keep any learned proficiencies even after the Emblem Ring is unequipped. The quickest way to increase Bond Level is to train with Emblems in the Arena.

Changing classes almost always starts you out at Lvl 1 in your new class, whether you’re using a Master Seal to move from a base class to an advanced class, or a Second Seal to do… anything else. The game tracks your level, however, so don’t expect to get easy EXP from changing classes. A character who uses a Master Seal to promote to an advanced class from a base class at Lvl 20 will count as a Lvl 21 character for EXP purposes, likewise a character who reaches Lvl 20 in a base class and uses a Second Seal to return to Lvl 1 in any base class will still count as a Lvl 21 character. If you overlevel with a character, you’ll largely have to resort to gaining EXP via training in the Arena, or by killing Silver Corrupted in Skirmishes.

Base Classes, Advanced Classes and Special Classes in Fire Emblem Engage¶

There are three types of classes in Fire Emblem Engage, base classes, advanced classes and special classes. Everybody’s gotta start somewhere, and base classes are where most of your characters will start, being weaker, less diverse versions of the advanced classes they’ll eventually morph into. Base classes and advanced classes both can reach Lvl 20, and after Lvl 10 you can promote from a base class to an advanced class, which is generally preferable in every way.

A character’s base class will determine what advance classes they can promote to, at least initially:

Base Class	Advanced Classes
Archer	Bow Knight, Sniper
Axe Armor	General, Great Knight
Axe Cavalier	Paladin, Wolf Knight
Axe Fighter	Berserker, Warrior
Axe Flier	Griffin Knight, Wyvern Knight
Dragon Child	Divine Dragon (Alear only)
Lance Armor	General, Great Knight
Lance Cavalier	Paladin, Wolf Knight
Lance Fighter	Halberdier, Royal Knight
Lance Flier	Griffin Knight, Wyvern Knight
Lord	Tireur d’elite (Alcryst only)
Lord	Successeur (Diamant only)
Mage	Mage Knight, Sage
Martial Monk	High Priest, Martial Master
Noble	Avenir (Alfred only)
Noble	Vidame (Celine only)
Sentinel	Cupido (Fogado only)
Sentinel	Picket (Timerra only)
Sword Armor	General, Great Knight
Sword Cavalier	Paladin, Wolf Knight
Sword Fighter	Hero, Swordmaster
Sword Flier	Griffin Knight, Wyvern Knight
Wing Tamer	Lindwurm (Ivy only)
Wing Tamer	Sleipnir Rider (Hortensia only)

Advanced classes are superior versions of base classes, often having access to more weapon types, a greater movement range, better base stats (which you’ll get immediately after promoting) and better stat growths. While you’ll initially be fairly limited in what advanced classes you have access to, once you promote to an advanced class you can use a Second Seal to change into any other advanced class, bypassing the base class requirement entirely. Like base classes, you can only reach Lvl 20 as an advanced class, after which you can… just use a Second Seal to change to another advanced class, where you’ll start at Lvl 1 again.

FInally, we have special classes, which are pretty much limited to the Thief and Dancer, and since the Dancer is limited to Seadall, the Thief is functionally the only special class most characters have to worry about. Special classes are unique in that a character can progress to Lvl 40 before hitting the level cap, and they cannot use Master Seals to promote to an advanced class. Instead, they use Second Seals to change to a base class at any level, or to an advanced class at Lvl 21. Like advanced classes, they learn a class ability, but at Lvl 25 instead of Lv 5. For Yunaka and Seadall, they don’t really ever have a great need to change classes, unless you want to give Yunaka more weapon options.

When Should You Change Classes in Fire Emblem Engage?¶

Once you’ve hit Lvl 10 in a base class you can use a Master Seal to promote to an advanced class, and while it may be tempting to max out your base class first, but you don’t really gain anything from doing so. In older Fire Emblem games you’d typically learn some class ability or another from each class, giving you some incentive to reach the required level(s) to unlock these abilities, but in Fire Emblem Engage you only learn one class ability at 5th level (for an advanced class) or 25th level (for a special class), and you only retain that ability as long as you remain the class that grants it, so there’s really no reason to class-hop once you find a class you like.

This game also tracks your overall level when you change classes, despite “resetting” your class level down to Lvl 1. This allows you to keep leveling, but you’re still your old level - promotion to an advanced class at Lvl 10 will effectively count you as being Lvl 11. Promoting at Lvl 20 will count you as being Lvl 21. Resetting your class level with a Second Seal functions the same way - using a Second Seal while Lvl 20 as a base class to return to Lvl 1 as any base class still counts you as being Lvl 21, for example. In older Fire Emblem games, resetting your class level allowed you to benefit from some relatively easy level ups while retaining your old strength, but that’s not the case in Fire Emblem Engage, so there’s even less incentive to wait before promoting to an advanced class, and once you are an advanced class, there’s no particularly good reason (from an EXP perspective) to change classes before you hit Lvl 20.