In Fire Emblem, your units have a cap at level 20. Once reached they will not be able to progress further. The game introduces an item called the Master Seal, allowing your units to promote and become an advanced class.
This promotion can be attained from the moment a unit reaches level 10. There is a debate on whether it is better to promote early on level 10 or wait out the cap at level 20.
It varies from game to game, but in Fire Emblem Engage it is better to promote at level 10, rather than wait for your units to reach level 20.
In this guide I will go over the reasons why it is better to promote early, and why you should avoid reaching the level cap of your units.
To put into use what we talked about here, check out our guide on how to recruit and the best use for Rosado.
Master Seals and Second Seals
Master Seals and Second Seals are two items in Fire Emblem Engage that allow your units to promote and change class.
Master Seals can be gained by completing story chapters. On the contrary Second Seals can only be obtained by purchasing them from the item store.
These are all the ways you can obtain Master Seals in Story Chapters.
| Chapter 7 | Dropped by Hortensia |
| Chapter 10 | Dropped by Hyacinth |
| Chapter 11 | Dropped by the archer guarding the exit |
| Chapter 12 | The NPC holding it survives the chapter |
| Chapter 16 | Dropped by Marni |
| Chapter 17 | Dropped by Veyle |
| Paralogue: Mysterious Merchant | In the treasure chest room |
Here are the Story Chapters the item store refreshes its inventory and adds Master and Second Seals.
| Master Seal | Second Seal | |
| After Chapter 8 | 1 | 3 |
| After Chapter 11 | 2 | 3 |
| After Chapter 13 | 2 | 3 |
| After Chapter 14 | 2 | 3 |
| After Chapter 16 | 2 | 3 |
| After Chapter 17 | Infinite | Infinite |
Check out our guide on Skirmishes and if they are endless, and learn how to gain more money to purchase these seals once they appear in the shop.
Best time to Reclass and Why
In Fire Emblem Engage most units join your army in a base class, that can go up to level 20. Once level 20 is reached the EXP bar will turn green, and they will no longer be able to gain EXP.
There exists a hidden mechanic in the game, concerning EXP gain. The game keeps an internal level value that calculates how much EXP to give you.
As an example:
- A level 5 Alear once they reach level 20 in the Dragon Child class, will have gained a total of 15 levels.
- A level 5 Alear that was promoted at level 10 to Divine Dragon and reached level 10, will have gained a total of 15 levels.
The game only considers the total amount of levels gained as a whole and awards EXP, based on that information. Promoting will not impact your EXP gains.
Keeping that in mind, there is no real merit to keeping a unit in its base class up to level 20. They will have lower growth rates, no way to gain skills, and reaching the level cap will inflate the Skirmish levels to a degree, that they become unbeatable very fast.
Once they promote to an advanced class at level 5 they will gain a class skill. Have higher growth rates which mean on average better level-ups and for most classes an extra weapon option.
While in the advanced class, it is recommended to reach level 20 and then reclass to either the same or a different advanced class keeping your current stats. This way your unit will gain more stats on the desired stat.
Special classes, like the Thief class or the Dancer class, do not need Master Seals. They can only use second seals.
At level 10 you can use a Second Seal to change into a different base class, at level 21 you can change into a different advanced class, or once you reach the level cap of level 40 then reclass into the same class.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is by far your best choice to promote once you reach level 10 in Fire Emblem Engage.
Use this knowledge to promote your units, and save your gold to be able to purchase the seals to make your team stronger.
Since you are looking into how and when to change classes, consider checking out our guide on the best class for each unit.
Let us know in the comments down below which unit are you planning to promote first, and which classes you feel are worth promoting into.
With thousands of hours played on Nintendo systems since the original Gameboy, Nikiforos is happy to share his endless passion for Nintendo franchises and everything he can get his hands on.
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