Fire Emblem: Awakening Units - Chrom Info

This hub is going to talk about Chrom, the protagonist of Fire Emblem: Awakening. As per Fire Emblem tradition, Chrom is of the Lord class. I chose to do a write-up on Chrom as he is forced to deploy in pretty much every chapter of the game. So, while you'll possibly have better units in your army, you're going to be stuck with Chrom forever and ever, so learn to get along!

Some people have said that they dislike Chrom as a character. I am personally about neutral (he's not spectacular like Ike, and definitely doesn't have Marth's charisma, but he could be worse) in terms of my opinion about Chrom.

During the course of this hub, I will give an overview of Chrom, his base stats, his base growths, skill list and other aspects.

So, let's get started!

So, who is Chrom?

As mentioned in the introduction, Chrom is Fire Emblem: Awakening's main Lord and story protagonist. To be somewhat more specific, he is the younger brother of Exalt Emmeryn, the leader of the halidom of Ylisse, and Lissa's older brother. As befits a Lord, he gets to use Rapiers and, befitting the descendant of Marth, is the only person who can use the Falchion.

Where can I get Chrom?

As you may expect, being the protagonist of the game, Chrom is available from the start of the game. He shares this distinction with your My Unit, Lissa, and Frederick.

Why should I use Chrom?

Short Answer: Because you don't have a choice!

Longer Answer: Because the Falchion is an infinite durability weapon (sword to be specific). In a game where resource management is crucial at the harder difficulties (and even more so if playing in Classic Mode), having a weapon that will never break is always an advantage. Besides, Great Lords (the promotion of Lords) learn Aether, and Aether is awesome (although somewhat weaker than its equivalent in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn; for those of you who have played those games).

Can I use a Second Seal to Class Change Chrom?

Amusingly, the answer is actually yes. Of course, there's a part of me that dislikes the idea of having Chrom as anything than a Lord. It just feels right, min-maxing and optimization be darned!

Optimizing Chrom?

Yeah, Chrom as a Lord/Great Lord (they have identical growths) has the worst growths out of any class he can become (not by much mind you; the main differences are usually 5% to 10% in one or two stats in favor of the non-Lord class). So, I don't think I could blame you if you up and decided to class change after getting Aether.

Note: As a curiosity, Chrom can't use Rapiers unless he is a Lord, so there's that very specific drawback. Then again, it's not like there aren't other ways to deal effective damage to mounted units and armored units...

Okay, so what alternate Chrom class would you use?

Heh, that's actually tricky. The only class Chrom can become that can use Axes is the Great Knight, and I'm personally inclined to believe that Paladins are better. Great Knights have less Resistance and more Defense, but having a few less points of Defense doesn't nearly mean as much when you're nearing cap as it does at the start of the game, and both Paladins and Great Knights are promoted classes. Also, Paladins have one more movement than Great Knights. Lance and sword users are extremely prominent, the Falchion counters Wyvern Riders and the Rapier can counter Pegasus Knights.

I'd just keep Chrom as a Lord. Too much grief trying to figure this sort of thing out, when the stat growth differences at the end of the day can be compensated for with one or two permanent stat booster items.

Serenes Forest is an extremely useful website if you're a Fire Emblem player. It has information from every entry in the franchise, including those entries that never made it out of Japan. Rather than post all 16 (!) of the skills that Chrom can potentially learn in the table below, I'll take the liberty of sending you off to Serenes Forest and just post the most relevant ones (read: the ones he learns as a Lord and Great Lord).

With what I said in the overview about being stuck with Chrom, it's a good thing that his stat growths are as good as they are. Who wants to be stuck with a unit you have to use and can't pull their own weight? Because, you know, Fire Emblem has never done anything like that before.

Sarcasm aside, Chrom is definitely one of the better Lords of the franchise, which is a good thing considering how high enemy unit stats get, especially in later chapters and even more so at higher difficulties.

Look below for a table listing the possible skills Chrom can get as a Lord/Great Lord. Please see the sidebar for a link to Serenes Forest's full skill list for Fire Emblem: Awakening.

As you can see, despite a Lord's slightly weaker growths as compared to most other classes, there is a lot of incentive to keep Chrom as he is until at least Level 15 of Great Lord. Dual Strike + is beautiful, as Double Strikes are really deadly in Fire Emblem: Awakening. Charm is a bit weak, to be fair, but it has a three tile range. This means that it is really useful if you're trying to hold a chokepoint. Aether is probably the most useful weapon skill in the entire game. As mentioned before, this is a weaker version as compared to the Aether skill of Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. Even so, if Aether triggers, it is highly likely that whoever is facing Chrom is probably going to get one-turn KOed. Finally, Rightful King is just awesome for making sure that Aether triggers more often.

• Whenever possible, attack with Falchion. Only use a secondary weapon when necessary to secure a kill (usually the case when you have an enemy that you can do bonus damage to with the Rapier, such as a Knight, Cavalier or a Pegasus Knight).
• If Chrom dies, it is Game Over (yes, even if you're playing on Casual Mode). As such, make sure not to take crazy risks with him.
• As a corollary to the previous bullet, it is not required for Chrom to visit villages and houses to get rewards as in previous iterations of Fire Emblem. However, you do get a little extra conversation (usually) if Chrom is the one visiting.
• While I can't assure you 100% that this is canon, it would seem that the Fire Emblem: Awakening designer team has Chrom x Sumia as the official pairing. The next section will be a little spoiler-y, and will talk about Chrom, supports, and the fact that it is actually a plot point for Chrom.

You've probably been reading around and have found out that units can get married in Fire Emblem: Awakening. As you may expect, a married couple will have at least one child. This ties in to events in the second half of the game, so there's going to be spoilers here, as noted in the section title.

Basically, Chrom's marriage is a crucial plot point. If your Chrom has not reached a S Rank support with Sumia, Maribelle, Sully, or Olivia by the end of Chapter 11, then he will marry the female unit (out of those four listed above) with whom he has the greatest support level by that time. If there are multiple women with the same support level, then the game performs a tie-breaker with the following priority:

Sumia > Maribelle > Sully > Olivia

Here's an example: You have A Rank supports with both Maribelle and Sully. Chrom will marry Maribelle unless you get his Sully support to S Rank.

Why is this such an important plot point? Well, in the interest of limiting spoilers just a tad (although it should be fairly obvious by Chapter 7 or so), "Marth" is related to Chrom. I won't say how, but shame on you if you can't figure it out for yourself by Chapter 11.

In conclusion, you're stuck with Chrom for the entirety of Fire Emblem: Awakening. However, when compared to most of the other Lords of the franchise, Chrom can actually pull his weight, so don't worry too much about the constant forced deployment.

Feel free to talk about Chrom and things related to him in the comments section. Also, don't hesitate to ask questions if something in this hub is unclear!

Until the next time, take care and have fun! ;)

-Winterfate