Fire Emblem Heroes update 2.3 now live, adds Rival Domains and Blessed Gardens modes, more
Fire Emblem Heroes received a major update today: version 2.3 adds quite a few new modes and other additions, most of which had been announced previously. Let’s go over them one by one.
The biggest addition is likely Rival Domains, a new mode that’s accessible via the Special Maps section. These stages, which are available in Normal, Hard, Lunatic and Infernal difficulty modes, cost no stamina to play, and new ones will be added every Saturday, starting on March 17th. When starting a Rival Domains map, you have to put together a brigade consisting of 20 units – these can be your units and the lead units of those on your friends list. You will control eight units at the same time, and when one of them falls, they will be replaced by one of the other 12 units in your brigade, in the order you selected them. The reason you can use so many units is that Rival Domains maps are larger than normal maps: they are are eight squares wide and ten squares tall. Rival Domains also features two new terrain additions: forts and camps. Units standing on them get defensive boosts, recover HP between turns and can even teleport between forts and camps you control. They can be destroyed by attacking them however, and destroying your opponent’s main fort is the victory condition for a Rival Domains map. Depending on how well you did, you will then receive a variety of rewards, including the very valuable Divine Dew.
Another new mode is Blessed Gardens, which can be accessed via the new icon on the top left of the Battle Screen. These maps, which cost five stamina to play, come in four varieties, one for each type of Blessing: Garden of Water, Garden of Wind, Garden of Earth and Garden of Fire. Each Garden contains four maps. Only characters that have received a Blessing can take part in battles in the corresponding Garden, so you have to carefully choose who to give your blessings to in order to put together four balanced teams. The first time you enter the Water Gardens, you will receive four Water Blessings, plus you can earn the other Blessings by playing maps in the Water Garden, so don’t worry if you don’t have enough Blessings right now. New maps in this mode will be added every Sunday, starting on March 11th.
Also, three new weapon upgrades are now available in the Weapon Refinery:
- Eirika: Restoration Lady: Sieglinde
- Leo: Sorcerous Prince: Brynhildr
- Soren: Shrewd Strategist: Wind’s Brand
Finally, some other changes in this update include:
- When looking at a Hero’s detailed profile page when they appear in the Friend’s List, Arena, etc, you will be able to see the associated player’s name
- Starting with the next Voting Gauntlet, if you lose a battle, you will be able to deploy your Heroes again right away
- A colorless dragon unit is planned to be added
- You can now sort your Heroes by level
- iOS devices will no longer automatically go to the lock screen while downloading data
