Should you play Casual mode or Classic mode in Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave?

You have to decide whether to play Casual or Classic mode in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave before the prologue starts. The game gives you minimal information to base your decision on, though. Fortune's Weave, like Three Houses before it, divides its difficulty modes into four options initially. You've got normal and hard and then Casual and Classic, and each of those settings tweaks how the game unfolds in different, very important ways.

Below, we explain the difference between Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave's Casual, Classic, normal, and hard modes and what to expect from each.

Differences between Casual and Classic mode in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

Image: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo via Polygon

The only difference between Casual and Classic mode in Fortune's Weave is how the game handles character defeats. If a character's HP drops to zero in Casual mode, they retreat from that battle and are unavailable for the remainder of it, but are playable in the next mission. The exception is your Flame Lord of choice and other characters central to a particular mission. It's game over if their HP reaches zero, even in Casual mode. Retreat has no bearing on their support levels or their availability for support conversations, meals, or anything else outside of battle.

In Classic mode, a character dies when their HP reaches zero… sort of. In Act 1, during the Heroic Games, characters retreat instead of flat-out dying. They remain alive and still show up around the city, but they aren't available for meals or any other party actions, battles, support conversations, gift-giving — nothing. The game treats them as dead, despite their continued existence.

The exception here is if you're battling with guest members in a Heroic Games match. The guest group leader has to stay alive, but if one of their fellow fighters retreats, it doesn't count as a death. You can still give them stuff, invite them to a meal, and so on after the match.

In Act 2 and Act 3, everyone straight-up dies like normal if you're playing Classic mode.

Differences between normal and hard modes in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

Image: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo via Polygon

Normal mode is ideal for beginners or someone who wants to play for the story instead of the tactics. Enemy levels in each chapter are closer to the recommended level, and it's easier to get your units' stats on par with, or above, enemy stats. That means even your slightly underpowered units won't get slaughtered immediately if they engage in combat, and it also gives you more flexibility to experiment with classes and skill training without feeling like you're being punished for making a less optimized choice.

Hard mode enemies have higher levels — elite enemies will often be three levels or more above the chapter's recommended level — and much higher stats. Higher defense and resistance aren't that big of a deal, since you can get around that with the right weapons or magic. Higher speed and attack speed are where hard mode gets dangerous. Enemies with higher attack speed will attack twice in combat, which can be fatal for even your best-built characters. Hard mode expects you to think more carefully about which classes you assign to your characters and the weapons and accessories they have.

For example, swords often have higher attack speed and lower weight than spears. If you have a Shido (Fortune's Weave's term for the classic swordmaster class) with a strong spear and a slightly less powerful sword going up against another Shido or quick enemy, you may be better off sacrificing power for speed just to make sure your opponent can't attack twice.

If you try hard mode and it's just too much, you can adjust the difficulty by interacting with the Shrine of Causality in the Obelisk Chamber. You can't go from normal mode to hard mode, though.

Image: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo via Polygon

The other, very important thing about normal mode is how it handles Divine Sand. Divine Sand is what you use to activate blessings, including Fortuna's Blessing, the one that lets you rewind time like Divine Pulse in Three Houses. You'll obtain other blessings by performing service in Dagsion's temples, a process similar to doing monastery chores in Three Houses, but without getting skill points.

Anyway, on normal mode, Fortuna's Blessing costs zero Divine Sand. You can use it to rewind time as often as you want. Other blessings also have lower costs than they do on hard mode. For example, Aurora's Blessing, which cuts physical and magical damage in half for one turn, costs 15 Divine Sand on normal mode and 20 Divine Sand on hard mode. On hard mode, the Fortuna's Blessing rewind costs five Divine Sand. You can use it a total of 20 times per battle if you use no other blessings and, of course, less than 20 times if you're tossing other blessings in the mix.

Regardless of which mode you're playing on, you can use Karma Shards, earned by completing in-game challenges, to unlock Boons of Salvation in the Obelisk Chamber, to purchase discounts on your preferred blessings.

If you're new to Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, we can help you navigate the complex paths of causality. We have put together explainers on which character you should pick first and how to change heroes so you can set up the campaign according to your preferences.

Fortune's Weave is a massive game, that's why we explain how long it will take for you to finish it. As you progress through the initial Heroic Games matches, you should focus on recruiting more characters, unlocking Boons of Salvation, and spending free time in the best way possible. Just don't forget to visit the Perch and have a quick Bird Time session.