Best Units for Maddening Run

The best units to use in Fire Emblem Engage's Maddening Mode are the ones with above average stat growths, and have access to skills that synergize well together. Read on to see our rankings on the best units to use during a maddening playthrough of FE Engage.

Tier List Updates

January 31, 2023
Citrinne	Moved from B Tier to A Tier. We were hesitant to bump her to higher tiers due getting her too early which may further spread the exp gain on the early chapters but having Citrinne early also allows us to roll for an Olwen S rank bond ring ring for a giga long range mage early on without too much investment if you opt to not use Anna on your playthrough.
Louis	Moved from A Tier to S Tier. Louis is an absolute tank that you can funnel resources to as soon as chapter 4. We originally put him in A that borders around S just due to how effective he is but further playthrough solidified his role as an S tier pick.
Goldmary	Moved from B Tier to A Tier. Starts as a Hero class with great defense stat growth. She also joins in the middle of your playthrough which makes her a decent unit without too much investment.
January 28, 2023
Yunaka	Moved from B Tier to A Tier. Yunaka is amazing as a dodge tank with one of the highest speed growth in the game. Once she gains access to Corrin's emblem, she can start creating her own terrain to abuse her innate passive skill. Borderline S tier.
Kagetsu	Moved from S Tier to A Tier. Kagetsu's survivability is great but without damage supports, his critical strikes starts falling off but he is still a great unit to slot in for your run.
Amber	Moved from C Tier to A Tier. A perfect cavalry unit to slot in after Alfred. He also has higher strength scaling and higher base stats which is much more essential in a Maddening Run due to the insane level discrepancies and higher stats of enemies.
Alfred	Moved from A Tier to B Tier. Same issue as Kagetsu where Alfred's survivability is great. However, given the fact that you'll need to invest experience to less units means there's less room for Alfred for your starters. He is outclassed by other units you can get later on which makes him a poor investment.

Best Overall Units for Maddening

S Rank
Alear (M)	Alear (F)	Seadall	Anna
Louis	-	-	-
A Rank
Kagetsu	Ivy	Diamant	Louis
Zelkov	Chloe	Rosado	Panette
Pandreo	Jean	Veyle	Alcryst
Amber	Yunaka	Citrinne	Goldmary
B Rank
Etie	Mauvier	Lapis	Hortensia
Fogado	Merrin	Alfred	-
C Rank
Vander	Clanne	Framme	Boucheron
Celine	Bunet	Timerra	Jade
Saphir	Lindon	-	-

Best Maddening Units Tier Explanation

S Tier

Units	Strengths and Reasons for Recommendation
Alear	When Recruited: Prologue ・Can strengthen adjacent allies with Divinely Inspiring. ・Good amount of damage and evasion to survive and defeat enemies with minimal to no support.
Kagetsu	When Recruited: Chapter 11 ・High Dexterity allows Kagetsu to unleash critical hits after critical hits ・High Speed and Defense growth promote natural survivability while also dishing out decent amounts of damage.
Seadall	When Recruited: Chapter 15 ・Dance allows units to act twice which adds great amounts of flexibility for the team. ・The only unit with access to dancer class and is arguably the best support unit in the game.
Anna	When Recruited: Paralogue: Mysterious Merchant ・Passive skill allows your team to gain extra gold income from your already limited gold in Maddening route. ・Starting class must be changed immediately to mage to maximize the unit's high magic scaling

A Tier

Units	Strengths and Reasons for Recommendation
Ivy	When Recruited: Chapter 11 ・Great damage both against armored targets and mage units once promoted ・A Flier unit that uses magic attacks is unique to Ivy
Diamant	When Recruited: Chapter 8 ・ High HP and Damage allow him to survive the frontlines much easier than other units. ・ Promotion skill's HP Drain allows him to utilize his attack stat and HP much more effectively.
Louis	When Recruited: Chapter 4 ・ Unit with one of the highest HP and Defense scaling in the gamenl] ・ One of the most effective physical tanks in the game and is near integral in holding out some of the enemies in Maddening.
Zelkov	When Recruited: Chapter 11 ・ Thief Class allows Zelkov to use Daggers which are great weapons to refine due to higher bonuses. ・ Can inflict hit reduction to enemies while also having a high evasion rate making him a good damage dealer and an evasion tank
Chloe	When Recruited: Chapter 4 ・ The first flier unit you'll have. ・ Great Speed and Dex growth make her relevant until the later stages of the game if invested.
Rosado	When Recruited: Chapter 16 ・ A high HP flier unit with high Speed and Dex growth. ・ Great for picking lone enemies as he can still survive the counterattacks due to his high survivability.
Panette	When Recruited: Chapter 13 ・ The best axe user in the game. ・ Insane damage and HP growth make her good for tanking and defeating enemies with one hit with a killer weapon.
Pandreo	When Recruited: Chapter 13 ・ A Qi Master and Possesses a great support passive skill ・ Ability to heal and use Chain Guard while adding his strong passive skill makes him a good staple in a Maddening run.
Jean	When Recruited: Paralogue: Budding Talent ・ Easily the best unit you can get early on ・ Good stat growth due to passive and does not need to contest allies early on for EXP thanks to staves.
Veyle	When Recruited: Chapter 22 ・ Access to Dragon Race and decent base stats makes her a low investment unit and still able to perform during later chapters. ・ Decent passive which allows the unit to survive hits from multiple sources (provided they are durable units).
Alcryst	When Recruited: Chapter 7 ・ Early bow user with decent stat growth ・ Strong Dex scaling allows Alcryst to hit harder despite having low strength later on due to Advanced Skill's passive
Amber	When Recruited: Chapter 8 ・ Your 2nd cavalry unit and has a great strength scaling. A great unit to consider investing experience into. ・ A great substitute for Alfred if you don't invest in putting experience on him.

B Tier

Units	Strengths and Reasons for Recommendation
Etie	When Recruited: Chapter 3 ・ The first archer unit you can get. ・ High Str scaling but low Dexterity makes her damage fall off. Best used as a secondary archer.
Mauvier	When Recruited: Chapter 21 ・ A healer with decent survivability that can go on the offensive. A decent unit to use if you have extra space in the latter stages of the game. ・ Decent overall but cannot be a full-on support due to not having access to Chain Guard due to his Cavalry class.
Yunaka	When Recruited: Chapter 6 ・ High Evasion stat and can use daggers make her a great early game unit. ・ Damage falls off later on due to low-strength scaling. Better replaced by Zelkov after transferring refined weapons to him.
Lapis	When Recruited: Chapter 7 ・ A Great dodge tank that can dish out decent damage. ・ A good stand-in unit until you can get Kagetsu.
Hortensia	When Recruited: Chapter 14 ・ A Flier that can use Staves. ・ The only unit that can naturally use Staves with an extra range.
Goldmary	When Recruited: Chapter 16 ・ Highest defense scaling in the game. ・ A great unit to slot in if you didn't invest in Louis as a physical attack tanker.
Fogado	When Recruited: Chapter 12 ・ A Cavalry user with bow expertise ・ Best for picking off fliers but is easily out scaled by other bow users. Best reclassed to a different class.
Merrin	When Recruited: Chapter 13 ・ Can use Daggers which are great weapons to invest in. ・ Wolf Knight Passive is great for preventing units from reaching your backline. However, she has worse scaling than Zelkov that can reclass to Wolf Knight as well so it's not worth having Merrin and Zelkov on your team unless you can get enough materials for upgrading both of their weapons.
Citrinne	When Recruited: Chapter 7 ・ High magic stat but everything else falls flat. ・ A great mage unit to use before gaining access to other stronger mage classes.
Alfred	When Recruited: Chapter 3 ・ A great unit to invest in as this is your first cavalry unit ・ Good scaling and great advanced skill passive to increase Alfred's survivability even further.

C Tier

Units	Strengths and Reasons for Recommendation
Vander	When Recruited: Chapter 1 ・ High starter stat but abysmal growth due to starting in an advanced class. ・ Vander is best used as a damage soaker to lure in enemies but is best replaced by other durable units later on.
Clanne	When Recruited: Chapter 2 ・ Bad stat scaling and passive force him to be near Alear who is a melee unit. ・ Best used as a stand-in or damage dealer to armored units early on.
Framme	When Recruited: Chapter 2 ・ Bad stat scaling and passive similar to his brother. ・ A great temporary healer for the early chapters but is best replaced by other healers later on.
Boucheron	When Recruited: Chapter 3 ・ Highest HP scaling in the game. ・ Great for chain attack usage in the early game.
Celine	When Recruited: Chapter 4 ・ Subpar Magic and Strength growth makes her weak in both fields ・ A good early-game mage until alternatives are found.
Bunet	When Recruited: Chapter 12 ・ Decent base stats make him a good chapter stand-in. ・ Average stats make him a poor investment choice compared to other units.
Timerra	When Recruited: Chapter 13 ・ High Dex scaling but other stats fall short. ・ Advanced class passive makes use of Defense to damage enemies but her Defense stat growth is not high enough to justify reliance on her advanced skill.
Jade	When Recruited: Chapter 9 ・ Lacks enough defensive stat for maddening runs compared to other high-defense stat units like Goldmary and Louis
Saphir	When Recruited: Chapter 19 ・ Low overall stat growth. ・ Low evasion stat doesn't make Saphir's passive worth to play around with.
Lindon	When Recruited: Chapter 18 ・ A healer with a focus on offensive skills ・ A great unit to have if you don't have a magic unit during the mid-stages of the game but is easily outclassed by other earlier accessible units.

Madenning Units Tier List Evaluation and Criteria

Points to Consider
Specialties over Average Stat Spread How worth it would it be to invest in leveling said units Skill Synergies according to base stat and growths Comparison between other obtainable units and their capabilities

Focused Stat Growths over Spread Out Growth

Units that are great at everything will not be particularly strong in one specific field. In Maddening, we need evasive units to dodge and tank units to take hits. Units that are average in multiple skillsets are naturally placed lower as their capabilities will not be valuable in any part of the team composition.

Units Evaluated Based on Maddening Information

In Maddening, experience is limited and enemies are much stronger and higher in number. In this tier list, we prioritize the amount of value we can get per unit and rank each unit accordingly. Some units may be strong but contrast with another unit and may be pushed lower on the tier or higher.

Difficulty Level Differences

Tier List is Different For Normal and Hard Difficulty

This Tier List is exclusively made for the game's maddening difficulty and may require precise setup and benching of other units and such, other units may be prioritized lower or higher even if they are great units for lower difficulty.

Best Unit Tier List

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Fire Emblem Engage Related Guides

▶︎ Beginner's Guide to Fire Emblem Engage

All Tips and Tricks