A guide to Aether Raids, one of the modes of play in Fire Emblem Heroes (FEH). This guide will show you how to play Aether Raids, recommended structures, the best Aether Raids units, and how to build your Aether Raid defense!

How to Play Aether Raids

Defeat enemy units in 7 turns

To win in Aether Raids, you must take out all enemy units within 7 turns. This is unlike the Arena wherein there is no turn-limit. This makes Aether Raids more fast-paced and strategic than the other competitive game modes.

Enemies do not move unless your units are in range of them

Enemy units in Aether Raids are AI-controlled and they will not move unless they are attacked or one of your units end the phase while in the range of the enemy danger zone. This encourages offensive strategies, which are very fit for the context of the game mode.

There are exceptions to this rule, however. These include, but are not limited to:

• Maps that utilize healing assist traps such as Restore+ traps or Return+ traps fueled by Winter Bernadetta's Hrist
• Maps fielding 7 units and using a dance trap
• Maps trapping units in a corner using a weaponless hero

Destroy Aether structures

It is not a clear requirement to destroy the opponents' Aether structures in a raid, but doing so will help recover some of the Aether raiding costs. Doing so consistently will allow you more raids in a season. This gives you the best opportunity to climb through the tiers in Aether Raids.

You must destroy the Aether structures before wiping out the entire enemy team as taking out the final enemy unit will end the raid immediately.

Aim for a high score

Integrate one or more bonus heroes into your Raiding party. Have all your units survive Integrate 2-3 Mythic heroes into your raiding party, and have units that are blessed in said hero's attribute.

Your score or lift after an Aether Raid decreases -20 per each ally that is taken out. It is increased whenever you integrate a bonus unit or an in-season Mythic hero that is accompanied by blessed allies.

Take note that appropriately blessed units and bonus units are granted with bonus stats that keep them from dying and help you achieve victory. Try your best to always integrate them into the mix so to give yourself the best chances for winning.

Defend your Aether Keep

Take out all enemies or survive for 7 turns!

In Aether Raids defense, your units will be controlled by AI. Your Aether Raids defense team will win if they are able to take out all raiding units or if at least 1 survives after the 7th turn.

Make use of defensive Mythic heroes

Dark and Anima Mythic heroes are considered to be defensive heroes. They reduce your lift gain when they are used in offensive Aether Raids, but they mitigate the amount of lift lost if they are used in defensive Aether Raids. Since most of these heroes are strong heroes anyway, we highly recommend using them in your defense maps. Take note that your Mythic hero must be under the appropriate season to be able to migitate the lift loss.

• Number of Mythic Heroes (max. 2) × number of allies with blessings × 5 • Number of merges × 1 (max. 20)

In July 2020, Auto-Dispatch for Aether Raids was released. This enables players to send out raiding parties to automatically battle for some lift. Enemy units encountered in Aether Raids are not player-owned and are much weaker than those encountered in normal offensive Aether Raids. It can be used 3 times per season and the characters dispatched can still be used in normal offensive Aether Raids.

Other notes for Auto-Dispatch

It takes 20 hours until Auto-Dispatch rewards are available. Lift acquired will only be 75% of the normal reward amount. No Aether structures are available in raids so you can not gain Aether back. Effects of Escape Ladder is not available upon defeat. The Defense Fortress will be the same level Wins here do not count as Aether Raid wins in quests.

Although Auto-Dispatch is a very convenient function, it takes time for your units to reward you with lift and it is not cost-efficient in terms of Aether to lift ratio. Additionally, you also can not recover lift as Aether stuctures are not available in Auto-Dispatch.

Make use of Mythical Heroes

Eff.	Atk+3	Spd+4	Def+5	Res+5

Light and Astra heroes are considered as offensive Mythic heroes that increase your lift upon winning an offensive Aether Raid. Dark and Anima heroes on the other hand are considered defensive heroes that decreases the lift loss upon failing to defend against an Aether Raid. The increase and decrease in lift can be increased by merging the Mythic hero responsible and by deploying them into battle with heroes that are blessed with the appropriate blessing.

Because of these, we strongly recommend you to aim for Mythic heroes to help you gain and preserve lift!

Spread your firepower throughout the many seasons

You can have up to 5 raiding teams per season when raiding in Aether Raids. Because of the many seasons, there will be many different line-ups used by other players depending on the season. We recommend having a diverse line-up of teams that can cover many different match-ups under a specific season.

You can re-use units in many different teams. What we mean by spread your firepower is that you should use your resources to make sure that you are strong in all seasons!

Aether Raids Structures

Structures can be built and upgraded

The structures that give you advantage in Aether Raids can be created using Aether Stones. By creating and improving structures, you are able to increase your efficiency and make room for more strategy in both sides of an Aether Raids. Making use of Aether Stones also grant you with Heavenly Dew that is used to upgrade said structures.

Aether Stones are awarded through playing Aether Raids. This encourages you to play Aether Raids consistently to grow stronger in this game mode!

Offensive and defensive structures

Defensive structures take up the majority of the screenshot. They are within the aquamarine outline. The offensive structures are at the bottom of the screen inside the orange outline.

There are two kinds of structure in Aether Raids, offensive and defensive structures. Your defensive structures are present in your Aether Raids defense map and their presence and effects will help you in defending your Aether structures and heroes. Offensive structures on the other hand are present with you during Aether Raids offense and have effects that will help you take down the enemy team. They have tiers and they can be improved by using Heavenly Dew on them. Improving these structures will strengthen their effects making it easy for you to defend or raid Aether Keeps.

We strongly recommend you focus on upgrading defensive structures over offensive structures. Offensive structures take up space on your bottom row. Oftentimes, the empty space is more valuable than the offensive structure itself; those empty spaces can be used to hide your units from defense teams that specialize in engaging on turn one.

The exception to this recommendation is the Escape Ladder. Always deploy this offensive structure unless it is out of charges.

Best structures to prioritize upgrades on

The Aether Fountain and the Aether Amphorae are structures that increase the amount of Aether you can store and the amount of Aether you restore per day. This means that having them upgraded means that you can partake in more Aether Raids per day! This is the reaon why we strongly recommend you upgrade these two structures first.

If the level of your Fortress (O) is higher than the level of your opponents' Fortress (D), then you will gain a stat bonus to all of your allies. This is a huge boost to your team or to the enemy team so we recommend upgrading your fortresses right after maxing out your Aether structures!

Prioritize Fortress (D) above Fortress (O). Aether Raids has a built-in feature where a lower level Fortress (O) is boosted in strength to match the defense team's Fortress (D). Only upgrade Fortress (O) when it is necessary to upgrade the Fortress (D) further.

Bonus structures change every other season. If they are present in your side of the field, then they will grant your fortress an extra level. If both Aether structures and both fortresses are at max level and you do not have the current bonus structure, we strongly recommend you building one for the season!

The Escape Ladder has a maximum of 6 charges (As of July 2021) per week. It reduces one charge each time you surrender a map or lose all of your units. Each use of the Escape Ladder returns the Aether spent for that battle.

This structure essentially lets you try again if you lose or surrender a match. Without question, this is the most important structure to upgrade after the Fortress (D) and at least a level 1 bonus structure.

If ever your Escape Ladder runs out of charges, don't forget to remove it from your lineup of active structures. It won't do anything except take up space; space that could've been used to hide your weaker heroes from opposing units.

Increase Lift by Using Mythic Heroes!

Light and Astra: Increase Lift Gain

Increased Lift Gain Formula
Number of Mythic Heroes × number of allies with blessings × 10 + Number of merges × 1

If the Mythic hero and blessed allies successfuly win an offensive Aether Raid, the lift gained will be increased by the value above.

The best teambuilding formula to maximize lift gain is using 3 Mythic heroes and 2-3 blessed heroes, with the 3rd blessed hero on the 6th unit slot.

Dark and Anima: Decrease Lift Loss

Decreased Lift Loss Formula
Number of Mythic Heroes (max. 2) × number of allies with blessings × 5 + Number of merges × 1 (max. 20)

If the Mythic hero and blessed allies fail to defend the Aether Keep, the lift loss will be decreased by the value above.

The best teambuilding formula to minimize lift loss is using 2 Mythic heroes and 4 blessed heroes, with the 7th slot unit either another blessed hero or a 3rd Mythic hero.

Stat Bonus for Blessed Allies

Mythic heroes grant their blessed allies stat bonuses depending on their Mythic element. The stat bonuses can be seen in a table in this section under Make use of Mythical Heroes.

Best Aether Raids Units

Versatile and/or specialized defensive units

Brave Hector	Micaiah	Fallen Lyon	Brave Edelgard

Baiting enemy units into unfavorable engagements is a very strong playstyle that also works in Aether Raids. Players often field defense teams with overlapping ranges to ensure that if you try to bait one unit, you end up having to withstand multiple attacks from different heroes.

Versatile defensive units such as Brave Hector and Brave Edelgard are a catch-all answer to withstanding multiple attacks. If properly supported by units such as Flayn and Corrin (M), these defensive units can survive multiple engagements and eliminate a number of enemy units in one turn.

Specialized defensive units such as Micaiah and Fallen Lyon work wonders against defense maps that also specialize in a specific type of offense. Various defense teams field multiple ranged cavalry units, and these two are great units to use against those teams.

High-powered offensive ranged units

Legendary Lilina	Reinhardt	Eir	Ninja Lyn

Being ranged also allows you to attack past the many buildings that are present in Aether Raids. In some situations, you may be able to take out whole teams without them retaliating too much. This is why high-powered offensive units like the ones above are very effective as well.

A good strategy to use is Hit and Run. Using an offensive ranged unit, kill an enemy and then retreat to safety with Reposition after an allied refresher unit gives them another turn. This activates the defense map and triggers the AI to approach your units. You can then pick them off one at a time on your next turn.

Units with multiple actions in one turn

New Year Peony	Pirate Tibarn	Ninja Lyn	Fallen Edelgard

Using units with multiple actions in one turn such as the ones shown above, you can clear a majority of the enemy team in one turn. Ninja Lyn and New Year Peony achieve this through their respective Duo skills. Fallen Edelgard has a built-in extra action on Twin-Crest Power. Units like Pirate Tibarn utilize the special skill Galeforce to obtain another action.

Refresher-assist units

Plumeria	Legendary Azura	Peony	New Year Peony

Since the turns are limited, you may need your stronger units to take two actions per turn and dancers can allow them to do so. In Aether Raids, we recommend flying refresher-assist units over grounded ones as there are terrain such as lava lakes, bodies of water and mountains that hinder ground dancers' mobility.

List of Heroes with Refresher Skills

Aether Raids Defense Guide

Protect your Aether structures

It is a good idea to prioritize protecting your Aether structures. This is because players will be actively seeking these structures to destroy them as it restores Aether for them. When they have breached your defenses, and your Aether structures are still up, they will be actively trying to juggle keeping their units alive, taking out your units and taking out these Aether structures. Odds are, they will fail at least one of these.

Utilize your Fortress (D) properly

Fortress (D) is the only structure that cannot be destroyed by enemy units. Flying units can not pass through it as well. It works well with some of the impassable terrain already in Aether Raids maps. Be creative in taking advantage of this structure to funnel your enemies right into your line of fire!

Run trial-and-error raids on your defense map

Under the Aether Keep interface, tap on Help & Extras to Test Defenses. This will allow you to run practice raids on your Aether Keep. Through this process, you will be able to know what the weaknesses of your Aether Keep are. Additionally we also recommend that you watch the raids from other players that are done against your Aether Keep. You will know how other minds go through your defenses and through that, you might be able to make changes that will better your defenses.

You can also run practice raids on your friends' maps under Friend Mock Battle! Use this to practice your raiding skills.

Defense map examples

Example 1: Using offensive cavalry ranged units to threaten starting spaces

A sample Cavline defense map with mostly F2P options.

This sample defense map utilizes F2P options like Reinhardt and Nanna to threaten the starting tiles for the raider's party. It also contains two Mythic heroes in Bramimond and Triandra to minimize lift loss in case the defense team fails.

Each defense team should have at least 2 Mythic heroes, with a 3rd possibly on the team as well through the 7th unit slot, and 4-5 appropriately blessed units. This team composition is the best way to minimize lift loss should the defense team lose.

A good number of players enter battle with a full row of offensive structures, leaving no room for their weaker units (such as their Mythic heroes who do not receive bonus stats) to hide. As soon as the enemy phase begins, the ranged cavalry units will be in range of at least one enemy, forcing them to engage. Bramimond will then move and be in range of a refresh from either Triandra or Masquerade Eldigan, allowing a second action to follow-up on the first wave of attack from the ranged cavalry units.

The bottom row is filled with decorations and the unbreakable Fortress, with the row above it filled with traps. The purpose of this building placement is to waste the raider's time and reduce the chance that he/she cannot engage with player phase units on turn 1.

Example 2: Utilizing the 7th unit slot as a dance and/or rally trap

A highly invested rally up trap defense map with mostly premium options.

This sample defense map presents multiple threatening units backed up by two Nótts, a Triandra, and a Legendary Sigurd to make the AI as unpredictable as possible. The Nótt on the second row is the 7th slot unit and will end her turn immediately. The other Nótt will move to the tile with the real gravity trap and use her Rally Up assist, creating a vertical line of Nótts with stacking Pathfinder to allow Legendary Sigurd to attack backline units as far as 7 spaces away and activate Holy-Knight Aura.

The rest of the ranged cavalry units will then engage, now with 4 movement due to Holy-Knight Aura and up to two possible Pathfinder spaces of additional movement, threatening enemy units as far as 8 spaces away.

The key component of defenses like these is having an offensive staff cavalry unit with Odd Recovery 3. Odd Recovery 3 cleanses all debuffs from nearby allies, especially dangerous ones like Isolation and Gravity. Without those penalties, the rest of the team is free to move and act unimpeded.

Nótt and Legendary Sigurd maps are very common in the Vault of Heaven since Nótt's release in-game. Various popular FEH content creators such as Eldervi have made videos showing the prowess of these two units put together, and a lot of people have emulated their success by building similar teams. If you are in the Vault of Heaven, ensure that you are prepared for defense maps similar to this.

Best Aether Raids Defense Units and Setups

Aether Raids Rewards

Rewards in Aether Raids include dragonflowers, Heroic Grails and Aether Stones that allow you to power-up not only your units, but your structures in your Aether Keep as well. Heroic Grails are used to summon heroes that you can use outside of the Aether Raids game mode. This makes this game mode a must-play if you want to progress efficiently in the game.

Rewards are dependent on your rank

The amount of rewards you get is dependent on your AR Tier! Progress through the AR Tiers to consistently get huge amounts of resources in the long run!

Aether is required to run raids

Aether is required to run raids! To increase the amount of Aether you get every day, you need to upgrade your Aether structures with Aether stones. At the end of every season, all of your Aether is replenished.

No rating system similar to Arena

Scoring is much simpler and is not dependent on a unit's overall power like the system used in the Arena. This means that you are more free to use your favorite units and bonus characters without penalty!

Aether Raids Related Links

Useful Links

Useful Information and Guides

Building Units

Building Your Heroes
Level Grinding | How to Level Up Fast	How to Gain SP Quickly
How to Use Inherit Skill	Merge Allies Guide
Heroes You Should Unlock Potential For	Which Heroes Should You Send Home?
When Should You Unlock Potential?	How to Use the Training Tower
Trait Fruits: How to Change IVs	How to use Dragonflowers
How to Get Divine Codes	How to Grind Summoner Support
How to Increase Ally Support	General Tips for Building Units

Building Specific Roles

Hero Roles
Heroes with Refresher Skills	List of Staff Users
Physical Wall Heroes (Tanks)	Magic Wall Heroes (Res Tanks)

Beginner Guides

Beginner Guides
Five Things to Know Before Starting	Reroll Tier List
Hero Building	Beginner's Guide
List of All Skills	How to Get Free Orbs
My Summoner Guide	Should I Merge or Fodder Off Units?

Arena

Arena Guides
Arena Guide	Best Arena Teams
Win 5 Battles in Arena With No Deaths	Arena and Aether Raids Seasons

Aether Raids

Aether Raids Articles
Aether Guides	List of Aether Raids Structures
Aether Raids Offense Guide	Best Aether Raid Defense Units

Summoner Duels

Summoner Duels Articles
Summoner Duels Guide