Fire Emblem Heroes Adds New Characters, Upcoming Changes Announced

Fire Emblem Heroes has added new characters today, and Nintendo has announced some changes for players to look forward to.

A steady supply of new characters is critical to Heroes' gacha-style free-to-play model, and Nintendo has committed to routinely delivering new ones. This first batch is previewed in the video above; they include a pair from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Ephraim and Eirika, and two from the Japan-only Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Seliph and Julia. You can see the four additions in the gallery below.

Gallery

These additions also bring with it a new focus, called Family Bonds, which influences what characters you'll obtain while summoning. There's also a new story paralogue that carries the same name, giving you a handful of missions--and, by extension, new Orbs to earn--for a limited time.

Also of note is an in-game notification about future developments. It states that the ongoing app-release bonus period will now run until March 14, meaning you'll be able to continue receiving free Orbs for logging in. Similarly, the launch celebration event has been extended "indefinitely." As a result, Training Tower missions will continue to cost half as much stamina as usual, and equipping skills won't cost any stamina. And starting next week, the Training Tower will see new rewards added on Mondays.

One other significant change is a bit further out. Starting sometime in "early March," your characters will be able to earn experience from combat when they kill enemies "that are at much lower levels."

Fire Emblem Heroes launched earlier this month on iOS and Android. As of this writing, it's No. 13 on the iOS App Store's Top Grossing charts, a few spots ahead of Pokemon Go, which is about to receive a major update.