Attack is a battle command for a Player Unit.
Overview
Attack is a command that allows any Player Unit to initiate combat on either Enemy Units and some pieces of terrain such destructible walls. Player units must have an applicable weapon in their inventory and there must be at least one applicable target to initiate this command. Before starting combat, Players are given an option to switch that character's equipped weapon before combat. Once the player has confirmed their final battle preparations, the battle begins.
The combat forecast in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.
In Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Players were given virtually no foresight into combat. The Combat Forecast, formally introduced in Genealogy of the Holy War, is a window of statistical information that appears when a player selects an enemy for a unit to attack, giving the player a detailed insight of the battle statistics before committing to their choice.
The following information is listed in the combat forecast:
- The participating units' names (normally the player's unit in blue and the enemy unit in red).
- Weapon: the unit's equipped weapon. In games with the weapon triangle, there is a visual indication of whether a unit has weapon advantage. If the player switches weapons, doing so will often change some of the calculations below.
- HP: The amount of HP the unit has left.
- Damage (or Might): The amount of damage the attack will do, if it hits. If a unit can perform a Follow-Up Attack or has Brave weapons equipped, it will show a x2 next to the number. If the unit can perform a Follow-Up Attack while wielding a Brave Weapon, it will show a x4.
- Hit: The probability that the attack will hit. Subject to errors.
- Crit: The probability that the unit will perform a critical hit.
In the Game Boy Advance series, the combat forecast can be disabled or set to a detailed mode which splits the Damage field into the following:
- Attack: The total power of the attack, before Defense or resistance.
- Defense: The amount by which the attack's damage is reduced by defense or resistance.
- Attack Speed (AS): The relative speed of the attack. A unit can attack twice if this is a certain amount higher than the enemy's attack speed.
The Combat Forecast is mainly a tool for the player to use in order to provide information on what is a likely battle outcome. It does not inform the player of the actual results, as there are chance-based elements to battle outcomes determined by a Random Number Generator. Specifically, a unit may dodge an attack despite an opponent's high chance to hit, the activation of a combat skill or a Critical hit, or the backfire of a weapon like the Devil Axe.
Fire Emblem Heroes features a simplified Combat Forecast as characters lack more complex stats that appear in the main series such as Dexterity or Luck. As such, Heroes lacks both a Hit Rate and Critical Hit rate, making all attacks guaranteed hits, even if they deal no damage, and removes unexpected damage changes due to Critical Hits. Players can reliably utilize the Combat Forecast in Heroes to see the exact outcome of battle including how much HP will remain on either unit, highlighting if a Hero will be defeated by their portrait flashing red, and how much in-battle stat bonus and penalties they will receive after calculations.