Manuela Fire Emblem Guide

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Ethan's first contact with the FE saga was with a Super Nintendo emulator that his father had installed on his PC. The ROM in question? Genealogy of a Holy War. After that, He remembers the first Fire Emblem game he managed to complete was The blazing Blade on a GBA emulator for android and his favorite character of the whole saga is Seliph. Outside of FE, Ethan is a keen indie gaming fan and loves reviewing games when he gets the chance!

Things to know about Manuela at the start of the run

Level: 15
Health: 34
Strength: 14
Magic: 14
Dexterity: 13
Speed: 16
Luck: 12
Defense: 8
Resistance: 15
Charm: 15+1
Movement:5
Special Ability: Infirmary Master, Heal, White Magic Heal+5, Sword Prowess Lv3, Faith Lv3
Combat arts: Wrath Strike, Grounder, Hexblade
Crest: None.
Magic: Heal, Nosferatu, Ward, Silence
Weapon: C+ word (Bonus), E lance, E axe, E bow, E gauntlets, E Reason (Weakness), B Faith (Bonus), E Authority, E armor (Weakness), E Horse unit, D Flying unit (Bonus)
Equipped items: Iron Sword and Intermediate Seal.
Class: Priest

One of the main things that can be noticed when starting to play with Manuela is that she begins with a level 15, quite advanced. This can be both an advantage and a weakness. An advantage because leveling her up in the more advanced parts of the game will be much easier, but a weakness because, unlike other characters, you will not be able to customize her as much. This is because she already has some base stats that incline her towards a series of advanced classes: the priest descendants.

Despite this, also because of the bonuses she handles with the sword, it might be a good idea to change her class as far as more physical options are concerned. This is not something I would recommend, but it is an option the game gives you, thanks to her sword bonuses.

As far as Manuela’s personality goes, she’s quite fun. She has the typical story of a person with a rather complicated love life. Most of her story is related to the fact that she hasn’t met the man of her dreams even though she’s already quite old. She is excessively flirtatious, but most of the people she is interested in don’t meet her expectations.

She also tends to drink too much alcohol, which is part of her character. Likewise, she is rather careless and somewhat clumsy. If you want a comparison, Manuela is similar to Misato from Neon Genesis Evangelion or Tsunade from Naruto. That is a character who often gives the facade of being alcoholic and careless but has a genuine interest in the welfare of her students.

Manuela’s Background

Manuela is a character with a rather interesting background. Before being a teacher, Manuela was part of an Opera company where she was one of the leading singers.

However, Manuela had to change careers for a more stable one, so she became a monastery teacher. She decided to become a teacher because it would bring her much more stability than a singer. She has fond memories of her time in the company, even though she had to work too hard to get a relatively low salary.

She has pretty diverse interests due to her time in the opera company. For example, she got a taste for wine and alcohol (within the Opera company, they had the inside joke that Manuela could “outdrink a fish and the sailor who caught it.”), she also got a taste for fashion because she was in charge of sewing most of the costumes.

Another cool skill that Manuela has is the ability to cook, as well as medical skills. We can know this through her interactions with Edelgard, where she reveals that she has medical knowledge and would like to be a housewife if she ever gets married.

However, one of the most important things about her background is that she is not married because she prioritized her career within the Opera company, which ended up depriving her of the time to dedicate to finding a husband. As we mentioned, it is essential to her character arc that she is constantly looking for a partner.

What you need to know about her, at the end of the day, is that Manuela is a relatively supportive and friendly figure who cares too much about the welfare of her students, who longs for her past as a singer, and who, despite working in the monastery, has not so much respect for the nobility, treating all the characters equally. On top of that, Dorothea finds her great inspiration and tries to imitate her.

Should I use Manuela?

The truth is that the use of Manuela depends a lot on your own needs. Manuela is a rather complicated character within the category of Priest characters. This is since she is not a character that has as many healing capabilities as other characters. In addition to this, she does not have a lot of offensive power, having an average Strength and Magic growth. Despite this, she makes up for it with pretty good growth in speed and dexterity. Added to its Charm, this makes it an excellent alternative to use in battalions.

However, suppose you want to focus on turning her into a Priest. In that case, the reality is that you may have a big problem, which is that she does not have good resistance to most mages because her resistance is quite inferior and her defense. Despite that, due to its HP growth, it compensates for its defense weaknesses; having lucky insurance allows it to resist a lot of punishment.

Manuela’s best feature is her personal ability, “Infirmary Master,” which allows her allies to have more chances to make critical evasions. This can become a good function if we consider that many allies don’t have a good amount of evasion.

On top of that, due to his proficiency in sword and faith, he has a decent enough skill tree to become any physical or magical class. Added to the fact that she has a strength in Flying, it could be a good idea to turn her into a pegasus knight or Falcon knight because she has an outstanding speed and dexterity, as mentioned before. But, her low resistance makes her an easy target for mages.

Another alternative (which was the one I used) is to turn Manuela into a trickster. This is one of the most viable options because she has good swordplay and a good faith spell pool. This, coupled with her Foul play Combat art, allows her to have one of the best speeds in the game overall.

However, if you don’t want to get too complicated, the best option is to turn her into a Bishop. This is because, from the beginning, she is a Priest. As she gains more spells, she can become an excellent option to make combos with Flayn or Constance, especially if you Warp her to make her do it twice.

Manuela is overall a character that, while she sacrifices her pure power for a more powerful utility, has a unique niche, her best use being her speed, similar to petra or Leonie. It’s a unique perk that can generate quite a bit of damage on a strategic level if used correctly.

As far as his affinities are concerned, the possible ones are:

Byleth (S-Support with male Byleth)
Edelgard
Ferdinand
Dorothea
Sylvain
Lorenz
Seteth
Flayn
Hanneman
Gilbert
Alois
Cyril

Of this list, I recommend you interact mainly with the masculine characters because it is hilarious to see their reaction to Manuela Flirt’s attempts.

How to transform Manuela Into a pretty good Bishop?

As I said, the ideal would be to turn Manuela into a bishop because she starts as a priest. Besides that, her efficiency of being able to have a good speed makes her a good choice for general healing.

The best build is to concentrate on her faith and reason. That’s because focusing on her reason allows her access to bolt in her pool, which, while she is not one of the best spell users, makes her a good alternative at a general level.

Also, be sure to get Warp so she can attack twice in combos with Constance. This is the best way to play with Manuela in terms of turning her into a Bishop.

Manuela Bishop Abilities

She starts with:

Infirmary Master: Adjacent allies gain Crit Avo +10 during combat.
Heal: Grants access to Heal. If a unit has already learned Heal, multiply its uses per battle by 2×.
White magic Heal +5: Grants additional HP when using healing White Magic.
Sword Prowess Lv3: Improves the user Hit Rate, Evade, Critical Rate, and Critical avoid when equipped with swords.
Faith Lv3: Improves the users’ Hit Rate, Evade, Critical Rate, and Critical avoid when equipped with faith magic.

When she becomes a Bishop, she gains abilities are:

Faith Lv5: Improves the users’ Hit Rate, Evade, Critical Rate, and Critical avoid when equipped with faith magic.
White Tomefaire: Grants Attack +5 when equipped with an offensive White Magic spell
White Magic Heal +10: Heal 10 extra HP when using white Magic.
Terrain Resistance: Nullifies damage from the terrain.
White Magic Uses x2: Doubles the number of uses for White Magic.
Renewal: Unit recovers up to 20% of max HP at the start of each turn.

How to play Manuela Bishop?

The final Manuela Build should look like this:

Health: 91
Strength: 53
Magic: 48
Dexterity: 56
Speed: 83
Luck: 52
Defense: 42
Resistance: 44
Charm: 69
Movement: 10
Special abilities:
Infirmary Master: Adjacent allies gain Crit Avo +10 during combat.
Faith Lv5: Improves the users’ Hit Rate, Evade, Critical Rate, and Critical avoid when equipped with faith magic.
White Tomefaire: Grants Attack +5 when equipped with an offensive White Magic spell
White Magic Heal +10: Heal 10 extra HP when using white Magic.
Terrain Resistance: Nullifies damage from the terrain.
White Magic Uses x2: Doubles the number of uses for White Magic.
Renewal: Unit recovers up to 20% of max HP at the start of a turn.
Crest: None
Magic: Bolting/ Warp (Warp Preferred)/ Nosferatu/heal
Equipped items: vulnerary.
Class: Bishop

This build is intended in general terms to be able to use mainly faith magic-based attacks. It is a build designed for a defensive bishop (which makes a lot of sense if we consider that Manuela is a character designed to be more defensive).

What Happens if I don’t Choose Manuela for My Team?

Manuela can be recruited in any of the three routes. However, if not, the recruit has different results:

Manuela does not appear on the verdant wind or crimson flower routes.
Suppose she is not recruited during the Azure Moon route. In that case, Manuela will appear as an enemy in Dimitri’s paralogue as an enemy unit. She will not be able to be recruited, having to be defeated. Although if you defeat Hubert first, she runs away.

How to defeat Manuela as a boss?

There are two occasions when Manuela appears as an enemy. However, of the two options you have to eliminate Manuela, only one is dangerous.

The first occasion you fight Manuela is in the first chapter of the game; being a mock battle, you don’t have any strategy to defeat her since she is not a great danger.

The second occasion is during The Silver Maiden, in which she uses the Assassin class. This is unusual for Manuela (who, as mentioned, is a priest, not a physical class), making her a relatively rare class overall and a rare battle.

The primary strategy is not to eliminate Manuela but Hubert since doing so automatically causes Manuela to flee. For this, the ideal is to send characters with Axebreaker and Levinsword to eliminate Hubert, who has a meteor spell. It is important not to eliminate so many of the characters around Hubert because if you do, he will call for reinforcements.

Suppose, in a given case; you face Manuela directly. In that case, the idea is to eliminate her with a character that uses swords or Magic because she is equipped with a sword (Wo Dao). However, she has the axebreaker ability equipped, which is a problem if you try to use the conventional triangle strategy. Likewise, if you decide to use Magic, you have to avoid getting hit so that she doesn’t activate her magic bind.

Therefore, the ideal is not to enter into direct conflict with Manuela but, on the contrary, to eliminate Hubert so that she flees.

The stats in this battle are:

Level: 38
HP: 50
Strength: 24
Magic: 15
Dexterity: 26
Speed: 41
Luck: 14
Defense: 20
Resistance: 8
Charm: 21
Movement: 10
Special abilities:
Crest: None
Magic: Heal, Physic, Nosferatu, Ward
Weapon: B-sword, B-lance, E-Axe, C-bow, E-Gauntlets, E- Reason, C-Tomes, E-Authority.
Equipped items: Wo- Dao, Elixir, and Advance Seal.
Class: Assassin.

Gift List, Share a Meal, and Lost Item

The gift list for Manuela is:

Gemstone Beads: Favorite (One star).
Book of Sheet Music: Favorite (Three Star).
Goddess Statuette: Favorite (Three Star).
Blue Cheese: Favorite (Four Star).
Owl Feather: Favorite (Three Star).
Smoked Meat: Dislike (one star).
Riding Boots: Dislike (Three-star).
Board Game: Dislike (Four-star).

The share a meal list is:

Beast Meat Teppanyaki: Favorite
Fish and Bean Soup: Favorite
Sautéed Jerky: Favorite
Spicy Fish and Turnip Stew: Favorite
Sweet and Salty White fish Sauté: Favorite
Garreg Mach Meat Pie: Favorite
Fisherman’s Bounty: Favorite
Fish Sandwich: Favorite
Pickled Rabbit Skewers: Favorite
Super-Spicy Fish Dango: Favorite
Two-Fish Sauté: Favorite
Daphnel Stew: Favorite
Gronder Meat Skewers: Favorite
Sautéed Pheasant and Eggs: Favorite
Cabbage and Herring Stew: Favorite
Vegetable Stir-Fry: Favorite
Bourgeois Pike: Favorite
Derdriu-Style Fried Pheasant: Favorite
Saghert and Cream: Dislike
Small Fish Skewers: Dislike
Onion Gratin Soup: Dislike
Sweet Bun Trio: Dislike
Cheesy Verona Stew: Dislike
Country-Style Red Turnip Plate: Dislike
Peach Sorbet: Dislike
Pickled Seafood and Vegetables: Dislike
Gautier Cheese Gratin: Dislike
Fried Crayfish: Dislike

Lost items:

Wellness Herbs
Clean Dusting Cloth
Light Purple Veil

The best way to level up Manuela

The best way is by using her in skirmishes and teaching classes. This is mainly due to the number of magic attacks it requires. Improving her faith and reason are the main thing within her build, which can be given through the monastery classes.

On the other hand, the other alternative is in the skirmishes to increase her physical attacks. It’s a good idea if you’re looking for a middle ground between the two combat styles, physical and magical.

FAQs

Question: What is the best class for Manuela?

Answer: The best class for Manuela is Bishop. There is also the alternative of turning her into a trickster. That’s because most of Manuela’s abilities aren’t entirely physical.

Question: Which House does Manuela Belong to?

Answer: None; the truth is that Manuela is a teacher. However, her storyline has much to do with the house of the Black Eagles.

Question: Can Manuela Marry?

Answer: Yes, it is part of her storyline, but she does not have a canonical partner.

Final thoughts on Manuela

Manuela is a rather curious character. She is not only a physical character but rather a mixture of many options. This means that even though she doesn’t stand out in anything, she can end up covering different fronts. What I enjoyed most that Manuela is that she is a highly charismatic character and also allows you to have the area of faith-based Magic covered. If you want her on your team, she is a perfect option.