The most recent entry in theFire Emblemseries,Fire Emblem: Three Houseshas been well received and praised by series newcomers and veterans alike. Due to the manner in which the player is able to teach and train each individual student according to their strengths and a player’s preference, the game features some of the most free-form and flexible gameplay the series has ever seen. While this slightly homogenizes the cast, as each character could hypothetically be made into the same class, each character still possesses their own strengths and weaknesses. While players love utilizing strong characters, it’s possible to examine the most lackluster and underwhelming units players have access to inThree Houses.
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However, it’s important to note that due to the freeform nature ofThree Houses, each playable unit has the potential to be quite powerful in their own right. These units tend to be the hardest to use effectively, and tend to possess less utility than their counterparts.
10Bernadetta
Bernadetta is far from the worst character thatThree Houseshas to offer, and simply suffers from the unfortunate combination of underwhelming base stats, underwhelming growth rates, and underwhelming proficiencies. With four skills she struggles to learn, and only two she excels at (three if you include her hidden talent), Bernadetta leaves players few class options, making her one of the least flexible students in the Black Eagles. While she can be made into most bow using classes or a cavalier with ease, the number of classes she will struggle to master greatly dwarves those which she can take on quickly.
9Ingrid
A member of theBlue Lions,Ingrid is a unit who is often associated with thePegasus Knightclass due to her proficiencies in ranks associated with the class. While Ingrid’s base stats and growth rates are also similar to those traditionally found on Pegasus knights across the series, this means that she is hindered by the class’s traditionally subpar strength stat. It is quite common for a player’s Ingrid to go numerous level ups without increasing her strength stat.
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One remedy to this unfortunate drawback can be found in non-Azure Moon play throughs, as Ingrid can be recruited later into the game, joining with a higher base strength stat. Players who picked the Blue Lions may need to resort to feeding her strength enhancing items if they hope to keep Ingrid’s strength up to par.
8Flayn
While Flayn is a unit available in all routes save for Crimson Flower, her core weakness is her suboptimal redundancy. Flayn is a healing-focused unit who should ideally be utilized in a supporting role. However, each house automatically has access to an excellent healer at the start of the game, with the Blue Lions beginning with Mercedes, the Golden Deer beginning with Marianne, and the Black Eagles beginning with Linhardt.
Flayn may appear to be a serviceable healer at first glance, but she tends to pale in comparison to each house’s respective starting healer. Unless a player seeks the redundancy of two healers, Flayn tends to be quite unnecessary.
7Manuela
Like Flayn, Manueala is another unit that most players utilize for support. Proficient with swords and white magic, Manuela joins a player’s ranks as a priest. Unlike most priests in the game, however, Manuela’s spell list is made up mostly of utility spells such as Ward and Warp rather than actual healing spells.
While the addition of theDLCTrickster class provides the perfect outlet for both white magic and swords, Manuela tends to lack when it comes to sword-based damage when compared to units like Petra and Felix, while being unable to contend with the support of a unit like Linhardt.
6Hanneman
Hanneman is one of the numerous units from the Church of Seiros that has made his way onto this list. An incredibly limited and linear character, Hanneman is able to deal large sums of damage through offensive magic, but is incredibly frail. While his offensive spell list features Meteor, he’s a one trick pony that is incapable of impacting a player’s army in a meaningful way in any non-magic classes.
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Even as an offensive magic unit such as a warlock, he will be on par with a unit such as Annette or Dorthea, who are respectively much more flexible and have superior availability.
5Alois
Like Manuela and Hanneman, Alois is a Church of Seiros unit hindered by his lack of flexibility and availability.
Physically strong and proficient with axes and brawling, turning Alois into a War Master is a straightforward and easy endeavor. However, by the time that he joins a player’s army in Chapter Eleven, a player is likely to have numerous worthwhile physical units whom they were able to build up and train to fit their preferences.
4Cyril
On paper, Cyril should be a notably powerful unit. Possessing the Aptitude ability that raises all of his growth rates by 20%, Cyril would normally be able to grow into quite the powerhouse. Unfortunately, his default growth rates are unimpressive to begin with, making this ability only bring him up to par with the rest of one’s units.
At least his proficiency in axes, lances, and flying allow players to quickly raise him into the covetedWyvern RiderandWyvern Lordclasses.
3Caspar
A member of the Black Eagles, while Caspar may have excellent availability, numerous aspects of his gameplay leave much to be desired. Excelling in the use of axes and his fists, Caspar is too straightforward for his own good. Lacking a crest and any abilities of note, Caspar has little to no utility outside of his ability to hit things hard. Unfortunately for him, there are characters who can hit equally as hard while bringing more to the table through unique applications and traits.
2Anna
Only available to players with theThree HousesDLCpass, Anna is unfortunately an unimpressive unit with very little going for her. As a balanced all-arounder, Anna doesn’t particularly excel at anything. While she can flexibly fill numerous roles, she’s quite unlikely to outshine other better suited units in the same class.
1Gilbert
Gilbert is a unit riddled with flaws that have given him the unfortunate distinction of the worst unit inThree Houses.Toting some of the worst availability in the game, Gilbert can only be utilized from Chapter Thirteen onwards in the Azure Moon route, heavily limiting a player’s ability to train and customize him.
While Gilbert joins a player’s army with solid proficiencies in lances, axes, riding, and heavy armor, he is hindered by a pathetic base speed stat of 2, preventing him from doubling nearly any enemies in the game, and in turn getting doubled himself.
