Robin 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!

Important Information to Know about Robin

Robin

You can customize everything about Robin, including gender, height, stats, voice, hair and eye color, and even the character’s name. One of the first things to consider when playing with Robin is that he is an avatar character. Because of that, most of the stats he will have in the game will depend exclusively on how we select him at the beginning of the game. This is similar to what happens with other characters (for example, Byleth or Corrin). Therefore, we must consider our play style when creating the character because that will ultimately depend on our stats.

I think it is best to have a balanced character. However, suppose you have the opportunity to play several games. In that case, you can try different structures and strategies until you find the one you feel most comfortable with. Of all the characters, Robin is the most versatile character. This is because he has access to all the classes of his genre. He really is a completely blank canvas. You can train him to perfection to get most of the skills in the game (with the apparent exception of those exclusive to the Chrom or Lucina classes because those are really locked to them).

Assuming that you are following a balanced build for a male Robin (the most common build for Robin,) his stats are:

Level: 1
Class Tactician
Health: 19*
Strength: 6*
Magic: 5*
Skill: 5*
Speed: 6*
Luck: 4*
Defense: 6*
Resistance: 4*
Movement: 5
Special Ability: veteran
Weapon: Sword -E and tome -E
Equipped items: Thunder and bronze sword.

One of the first points you must consider is that all the stats Robin will have are entirely based on his character build. Robin’s health varies between +5 and -3 depending on your options; luck varies between +4 and -2. Finally, the rest of the statistics vary between +2 and -1.

Even leaving this aside for a moment, it is essential to consider one of the most exciting points regarding Robin: just like Chrom, Robin is one of the characters with superior growth statistics in every way. For example, we can observe how all his stats are close to 50%, the lowest being his resistance, growing only 30%.

HP:80%
Str: 55%
Mag: 50%
Skl: 50%
Spd: 50%
Lck: 55%
Def: 40%
Res: 30%

This automatically makes Robin the most balanced character in the game. His high health growth and the fact that he can cover his physical defenses make him a competent character for most fights. His only real problem lies within his stamina (magic defense). His magic resistance is relatively low, which leaves him unprotected against most advances by special units. However, he compensates for this with his own magic attack, making him a mixed attack unit.

Robin’s Background

Robin’s background is complicated at best. Most of Robin’s background story within Awakening would be considered spoilers. So I’m going to split this into three parts. The first will be the non-spoiler version, the second part the spoiler version, and the third part the Xenologues story. Even though xenologues are not 100% canonical, they give us an exciting look at Robin’s story from another perspective.

The Non-Spoiler Version

The basic story of Robin is that one day he appeared in the middle of a field in Ylisse with amnesia. He has no memory of his past and is wondering what had happened. That’s all there is to it. He has absolutely nothing else in the way of backstory. That makes sense since he is an Avatar character, and his backstory can implicitly be filled in with our own ideas.

Spoiler Alert

Now, getting into spoilers: Robin is actually the son of Validate, the leader of the Grimleal sect. His function was explicitly to have the power of Grima, the fallen dragon, within him in the event of his father’s death. Grima had managed to corrupt Robin in the future, turning him into the ultimate weapon. He was able to eliminate the entire army of Crhom, except for his children. His children manage to travel back in time. When Grima tries to do the same, his soul splits into two parts because he was still sealed in that part of the timeline. One part of him tries to possess his Vessel but fails, erasing his memory.

The reason Grima fails to possess Robin is that Grima is not strong enough, and Robin is determined enough to resist possession. As a result, although he had lost most of his memories, he still had his skills as a tactician. Still, the mark of Grima will occasionally try to possess him, giving him flash-forwards from the corrupted feature.

The Xenologues Story

Finally, as far as xenologues are concerned, we are told about some rather curious ideas. Every time you finish xenologues 1 to 12, the story’s protagonists mention that Robin reminds them of the tactician of their games. This seems to reference the fact that Robin is the reincarnation of these characters. While this is an interesting theory, it has not been confirmed, but it could be a background that would explain why Robin is so special.

Besides that, in the Future Past version, we see more of the alternate timeline of Robin being possessed by Grima. Here we can appreciate his personality and how he was pretty sadistic with his enemies.

Why Should I Play with Robin?

The reality is that you don’t have a choice — Robin is the deuteragonist of the game. While with the exception of the prologue and chapters 1, 2, and 23, it is not mandatory to play with him, the reality is that he is quite desirable.

Robin is a character with pretty good growth due to his Veteran skill. Thanks to it, even in the lunatic mode, he can become the statistical leader of the game quite quickly before the middle of the game. This is very good, as it allows you to not worry about his possible weaknesses.

Due to his flat growth and abilities, the reality is that he can fill almost any role within a battle, both defensive and offensive. This allows Robin to become an essential piece of your army if you want him to. I consider Robin to be one of the best characters in the game. He has a good versatility in his roles as an attacker, both physical and magical.

Because he can use both swords and tomes, it allows him to take a position of attacking enemies in stats with more significant weakness. Despite using tomes, Robin is not considered a Mage Unit, which allows him to not be as vulnerable to anti-mage enemies. However, he does have movement penalties while walking on sand. This can be seen as a sort of double-edged sword.

As for his possible promotions, Robin can naturally evolve to Grandmaster, one of the game’s most potent units. In addition, he has the best Rally Skill in the game, Rally Spectrum. This opens up even more gameplay versatility in terms of his strategies.

Robin is the best unit, as he can get every skill of every class, upgrade all his stats, and marry every partner of his opposite gender. This allows Robin to take on basically any role the player wants.

Robin can bond with every single character, and each one is fundamental for the development of his story. It’s very easy for Robin to bond with other characters thanks to his veteran skill, which gives him bonuses while using pair-up abilities.

How to Transform Robin Into the Best Grandmaster

The reality is that Robin is automatically the best grandmaster and unit in the game. However, if you want to make him an even better unit, you can take advantage of his reclassing abilities relatively simply. The first thing you have to do is change his class from tactician to Myrmidon. As a Myrmidon, he will have better attack stats, which will help him raise his luck stat because Myrmidon is a class that depends on luck to attack. This is further enhanced by mastering him as an assassin. When you have done both of these, you can then turn Robin into a Mage to improve his magic stat.

When you are done raising his magic stat and improving his spell pool, you can turn him into a dark mage to give him access to dark spells. This will change his defense stats; however, that can be covered relatively simply by changing his class back to cavalier. Cavalier is the best choice because it will raise his defense stat, but it won’t change his speed.

An alternative option is to change from dark mage to cleric to later become War Monk. This will allow you to cover his resistance, defense, and improve his speed without affecting his other stats.

Finally, you change back to grandmaster to end up with the best unit in the game. You will have superior stats and skills that can be complementary to each other, and if you want to switch classes, you can do so quickly.

An alternative option that can also be done is to simply switch to each and every class to collect their skills and thus have an even more complete Robin. However, I personally do not consider this the best option, mainly because it is more time-consuming and complicated than the other ones I’ve gone over.

The Skills of Robin Grandmaster Promotion

As a tactician, he has the innate ability:

Veteran: x1.5 experience gain when in pair up.

When he reaches level 10 he gains:

Solidarity: Critical and critical avoid +10 to adjacent allies.

When he becomes a Grandmaster, he gains at level 5:

Ignis: Adds (Magic)/2 to strength when dealing physical damage and (Strength)/2 to magic when dealing magical damage.

And at level 15, he gains:

Rally Spectrum: All Stats (except movement) +4 to all allies within a 3 tile radius for one turn.

How to Play Robin Grandmaster in the Best Way

The following is a build based on Robin having his main bonus on Hp, his flaw in luck, and going through the recommended class sets:

Class: Grand Master
Health: 110
Strength: 50
Magic: 45
Skill: 50
Speed: 50
Luck: 45
Defense: 45
Resistance: 35
Movement: 8
Skills:
- Ignis: Adds (Magic)/2 to strength when dealing physical damage and (Strength)/2 to magic when dealing magical damage.
- Vantage: Strike first during an enemy attack when HP is under half
- Lethality: Instantly defeats the enemy
- Tomefaire: Magic +5 when equipped with a tome
- Vengeance: Adds half of the user’s current accrued damage to the user’s attack.
Weapon: Sword -A and tome -A
Equipped items: Sol, valflame, and Forseti.

One of the best things about this build is that despite being mixed, it allows Robin to have a good quality defense. This is thanks to his abilities. In addition, thanks to Sol, his offensive ability also becomes defensive due to how it works when activated with a direct attack.

In general, it allows Robin to have several roles simultaneously: attack, defense, and support roles without many problems. This added to the ability to automatically eliminate enemies with his use of lethality, make him the best option to clean up the map.

Even if he has low health points in a given case, he is still a superior option because he has access to Vantage and Vengeance. With the former, we ensure that he will have the first move in the attack, and with the latter, we ensure that the counterattack won’t do too much damage.

It is simply the best option in terms of attack and defense possibilities.

The Best Way to Level Up Robin

The best way to level up Robin is by using his veteran skill. With Veteran, Robin almost doubles his experience, which means he can gain experience much faster than the other characters. The only requirement is to use the pair-up skill. This is quite good because it’s an option that benefits not only in gaining experience but also in the relationships that Robin will have with the rest of the characters. This allows you to obtain a better performance in general from your army.

Likewise, participating in skirmishes is a good idea. Still, in reality, of all the characters in the game, Robin does not need any unique gadgets to gain experience since he is one of those who generates experience on his own.

Other Apparitions of Robin

Robin appears in several games of the saga. Within Fire Emblem, he appears in:

Fire Emblem Fates: You have to make use of his amiibo for him to appear in the My Castle section. This Robin is not the same character of Fire Emblem Awakening, but the one that appears in super smash bros. You have to interact three times to be able to add him to Corrin’s army. His class is Grandmaster, and he is a special unit. Besides that, if Owain, Severa, or Inigo interact with him, they will have unique dialogues.
Fire Emblem Echoes Shadow of Valentia: He appears when you use his amiibo as an illusory shadow. Use the tactician class. His stats vary depending on the moment of the game in which he appears and only lasts one turn.
Fire Emblem Warriors: The male version of Robin is one of the main characters in the game. He appears in chapter three. He can be used throughout the story. Plus, he can become a grandmaster, just like in fates and awakening.

Besides that, he also appears in these games:

Code Name Steam: Only appears if you use the smash bros Amiibo. He is a playable character specialized in medium and long-distance attacks thanks to his use of Levin’s sword and fire tome.
Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3ds/Wii U: He was revealed along with Lucina. His main difference from other Fire Emblem characters is that his weapons break after a certain amount of use. He uses the Levyn Sword and the Fire, Air, Lightning, and Nosferatu tomes. He can charge his attacks to power them up, and his Final Smash involves the Pair Up mechanic.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate: His moves are similar to those he had during the previous game. The main difference he has is the fact that his attacks were rebalanced.
Super Mario Maker: He appears as a mysterious mushroom when scanning the amiibo in the 8-bit sections.

There are several versions of Robin in Fire Emblem Heroes. These are the male Robin versions:

High Deliverer: Infantry/tome.
Winters Envoy: Infantry/Lance
Fell Reincarnation: Armor/Breath
Fall Reincarnation: Armor/Breath

And these are female Robin:

Mistery Tactician: Infantry/Tome
Seaside Tactician: Infantry/Lance
Fell Vessel: Flying/Breath
Fall Vessel: Flying/Breath
Tactful Deliverer: Armor/Take

FAQ

Final Thoughts on Robin

I love Robin. He’s a fantastic character because he is charismatic and versatile. He’s also one of the main reasons Fire Emblem Awakening is so special. Even though Fates and Three Houses tried to mimic that with Byleth and Corrin as avatar characters, they failed. Robin is, in simple words, the ideal character for the game. His story, his context, and everything he represents sum up the message of Awakening in its entirety: No matter where you are from, no matter who you are, the right people will love you the way you are.

It’s a pretty powerful message. The story aside, I like Robin’s versatile style of gameplay. The fact that he can be an attack, defense, mixed, or support unit is something you rarely see in Fire Emblem, which gave it a fresh touch.

Question: Canonically, who is Robin’s Wife?

Answer: He doesn’t have a canon wife. However, taking into account Morgan’s existence and Morgan’s hair color, these could be: Olivia or Lissa. And in the case of the female version of Robin, the closest husbands to canon are Frederick or Lon’qu.

Question: Who is the best wife for Robin?

Answer: Lissa or Victoria are the best options for a male Robin because they help Morgan get better magic options. The best partner for female Robin is Chrom.

Question: Which is the canon ending for Robin?

Answer: The ending where he kills grimma and wakes up again after several years is canon. It’s the ending that, while bittersweet as Robin disappears, makes the most sense for his story as a character.

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