GamePress
Analysis by MackerelPye
Alm - Hero of Prophecy

5 Legacy

Obtainable as a 5 during certain summoning events only.

Hero Stats

Max Avg Total Stats at Lvl 40
158
HP 45
ATK 33
SPD 30
DEF 28
RES 22

Stat Variations

Level 1 Stat Variation
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 20 8 5 5 4
Middle 21 9 6 6 5
High 22 10 7 7 6

Level 40 Stat Variations
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 42 30 27 24 19
Middle 45 33 30 28 22
High 48 36 33 31 25

IV Sets

Key stats worth increasing through nature if possible.
Complementary stats that matter, but not to the point of picking them over key stats for nature increase.
Relatively worthless stat that can safely be decreased through nature.
HPATKSPDDEFRES

Skill Sets

Babyface: Conqueror of Nations (Maximum Damage)

Build by MackerelPye
Recommended
Falchion (Echoes) (+Eff) A Death Blow (3 or 4)
Alternate: Sturdy Impact
Positional Assist B Mystic Boost 3
Alternate: Lull Atk/Def 3
Luna
Alternate: Moonbow
C Joint Drive Atk
Alternate: Odd Atk Wave 3
IVs

+ATK

SDeath Blow 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Falchion (+Eff)

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Luna / Moonbow / Bonfire

Passive A: Death Blow / Sturdy Impact / Mirror Impact

Passive B: Mystic Boost / Lull Atk/Def / Renewal / Swordbreaker

Passive C: Joint Drive Atk / Odd Atk Wave / Infantry Pulse

Sacred Seal: Death Blow

  • Refined Falchion's fantastic damage output in a single strike—specifically, it makes two hits instead of one if Alm is at 100% health—makes a build focused on dealing maximum damage super obvious. To achieve this, running Attack-focused modifiers in Alm's A slot and Sacred Seal is, too, pretty obvious: Death Blow is a quick an easy way to do this in both skill slots at high values of +6-8.
    • A more luxurious take on this build would be running Sturdy or Mirror Impact, allowing Alm to better withstand surviving enemies (if they don't go down to Falchion's double strike first) by cutting their follow-up attack and padding a chosen defensive stat highly.
  • Though Falchion is powerful, its doubling effect is locked behind Alm maintaining full health. Even more inconveniently, the sword deals 5 damage to Alm after this effect is used, making Alm effectively only useful every second turn (Falchion will heal Alm back up, but only 10 HP every other turn). One way to circumvent this, however, is using Mystic Boost to immediately heal back to full health after every combat—assuming Alm hasn't taken any other form of damage in his last battle.
    • Alternatively, if you're willing to stop and wait every few turns for Alm to charge back to full health, there are a few B slots worth considering. Lull Atk/Def, for instance, augments Alm's damage even further by disabling enemy buffs and inflicting a Defense penalty on them.
    • On a budget, Renewal and Swordbreaker work well for increased second-turn healing or quad attacks against most Sword enemies, respectively.
  • An additional way to selfishly increase Alm's damage potential is through his C-slot. A luxurious option in this case would be Joint Drive Atk, which serves to increase both a nearby teammate and his own Attack in-combat. Since that is rather difficult to pull, however, Alm can opt for the more orb-friendly Atk Waves, or any other C skill which benefits his team.

A Heavy Brand to Bear (Heavy Blade / Special Spam)

Build by MackerelPye
Falchion (Echoes) (+Eff) A Death Blow (3 or 4)
Alternate: Heavy Blade 4
Positional Assist B Mystic Boost 3
Alternate: Lull Atk/Def 3
Galeforce
Alternate: Luna
C Time's Pulse 3
Alternate: Joint Drive Atk
IVs

+ATK

SHeavy Blade 3
Alternate: Death Blow 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Falchion (+Eff)

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Galeforce / Luna / Moonbow / Ruptured Sky / Dragon Fang

Passive A: Death Blow / Heavy Blade 4 / Life and Death 4 /Other Atk-boosting A-slot skills

Passive B: Mystic Boost / Lull Atk/Def / Special Spiral

Passive C: Time's Pulse / Joint Drive Atk / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Heavy Blade / Death Blow

  • Constant Special activation is this build's name of the game, and as the name implies, Heavy Blade in either the Sacred Seal or A-slot is the ideal way to achieve this. Due to the twice-attacking and dragon slaying property of Falchion, Alm finds himself quite a few unique and effective opportunities.
  • As a result of an emphasis on Specials, a little discussion on viable Specials is in order:
    • If you are able to inherit Time's Pulse for Alm's C-slot skill, Galeforce and Luna (and other 3 CD Specials if you so choose) become viable choices as their odd cooldown values will be adjusted to turn even. This is important to note since Falchion's Brave twice-striking property will not allow these Specials to activate within a single round otherwise.
    • If Time's Pulse is unavailable, Moonbow and Ruptured Sky make perfectly sufficient alternatives as they start out at a natural cooldown of 2, which is ideal with Heavy Blade acceleration + Falchion's timing.
    • Special Spiral + Dragon Fang bears mentioning as Alm can ideally fire off a Dragon Fang-powered hit every combat after he first procs it. This can be done thanks to Falchion's Brave property, Special Spiral, and Heavy Blade accelerating it signficantly. Please avoid using this with Time's Pulse as Special Spiral and Time's Pulse's activation timings are unsynergistic. 
  • Be warned that since Alm's base Attack isn't extraordinarily high, however, you are encouraged to rectify this issue by taking on certain unit building and teambuilding decisions. In particular, recommended actions to optimize Heavy Blade activation are:
    • Utilizing outsourced team buffs such as Drive Atk, Flower of Joy, Daniel-Made Bow, and Attack-based bonus skills like Rally Atk/Spd+.
    • Forgoing Mystic Boost in favor of Lull Atk/Def, which will aid in Atk comparisons by zeroing out enemy bonuses while increasing Alm's overall damage. Lacking Mystic Boost, however, means Falchion's pseudo-brave effect will not be immediately ready after every combat.
    • Running any higher Atk modifiers you can afford, such as Death Blow 4 or Life and Death 4 (instead their tier 3 variants).
    • Running Joint Drive Atk gives Alm another source of Attack, though the skill is quite expensive and running it means you can't use Time's Pulse for higher-end Specials.
    • Finally, instead of using Heavy Blade on Alm, use Infantry Rush on another ally to achieve the same objective while leaving room for another Attack-boosting skill slot.

Valentian Cardio and Yoga (Speed Invested Build / Quad)

Build by MackerelPye
Falchion (Echoes) (+Eff) A Swift Sparrow 3
Alternate: Life and Death (3 or 4)
Positional Assist B Lull Spd/Def 3
Alternate: Mystic Boost 3
Luna
Alternate: Moonbow
C Joint Drive Spd
Alternate: Spd Smoke 3
IVs

+SPD

SSwift Sparrow 2
Alternate: Death Blow 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Falchion (+Eff)

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Luna / Moonbow / Bonfire

Passive A: Swift Sparrow / Life and Death / Atk/Spd Solo

Passive B: Lull Spd/Def / Mystic Boost

Passive C: Joint Drive Spd / Spd Smoke / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Swift Sparrow / Death Blow / Darting Blow

  • This build isn't actually much different from the previous damage-focused build, though its change in focus should be obvious from the build name and slight change skills. In short, Speed investment is something to consider as Alm can break through otherwise tough matchups by performing quad attacks (rather than rely on a single strike to do the deed). A good milestone to reach would include 45 Speed after considering this build's skills. Moreover, Speed investment means Alm is less likely to get punished badly by getting doubled back, should his enemy survive the initial onslaught for any reason.
  • To fulfill the build's main objective, skills that increase Speed are obviously favored. This means:
    • Taking Swift Sparrow, Life and Death, or Atk/Spd Solo in the A-slot over the usual Death Blow or Impact skill.
    • Choosing Swift Sparrow over pretty much every other Seal, though you can afford to compromise with Darting or Death Blow depending on your desired balance of Attack and Speed.
    • Lull Spd/Def over Atk/Def to swing Speed comparisons in Alm's favor; it ensures other foes can't beat Alm's Speed by using Speed bonuses while keeping his damage output consistently pristine. Of course, Mystic Boost is an option if you intend on keeping Falchion's effect active at any given moment.
    • Joint Drive Spd is technically optimal as another source of self-granted Speed for Alm, though it's expensive and you can easily make do with other C slot skills otherwise.

Strengths

Refined Falchion

Alm's refined Falchion is his main point of usage. With it, he is able to perform double attacks in a single strike at full health, resulting in potentially destructive damage output given the right passive skills. In other words, this is a conditional Brave weapon that maintains 16 Might per hit as well as dragon effectiveness.

While this effect is a bit let down by the weapon inflicting damage on Alm upon using it, Falchion also offers built-in Renewal, allowing Alm to get this effect back self-sufficiently. The dragon effectiveness is the cherry on top; this combined with the double strike gives Alm the ability to wipe out most tough dragons (even blue!) out in a single round. As a result, his Arena Assault value is rather high, especially if you have trouble against top tier enemies such as Legendary Corrin or Spring Idunn.

Infantry Perks

Alm's inflated HP stat of 45 (48 after refinery and even more with merges and taking his Resplendent version) gives him great utility as an Infantry Pulse user, should any of his infantry allies require that. Besides this, Alm benefits from a variety of exclusive infantry skills and support, including Lull skills, Infantry Rush, other allies' Infantry Pulse, and Time's Pulse.

Weaknesses

Tons of Sword Infantry Competition

Unfortunately, Alm is just a single drop in a bloody ocean filled with other sword infantry units. At his current rarity—that is, a first generation five-star exclusive—it can be a bit difficult to justify using him over more easily-available, less investment-heavy choices. Laslow, for instance, sports a similar effect but essentially gains better stats and enemy phase performance while being significantly easier to merge. Other sword units such as Brave and Fallen Celica, Mareeta, both Byleths, and Kris also tend to stand out with better general performance while sporting more exciting build versatility.

Lack of Standout Stats

If Alm's Falchion wasn't refined the way it is, our farmboy hero would honestly be worse off than he is now. Specifically stat-wise, his non-HP stats don't allow him to shine in much significant capacity; his decent defenses and Speed tend to offer little performing returns. His most important stat, Attack, is sufficient but may whiff a few key kills or Heavy Blade comparisons without significant investment.

One-Trick Pony / Playstyle Weaknesses

Those who have used Alm by now should know the painful experience of waiting for Alm to "recharge". Without the help of Mystic Boost (which is somewhat tedious to obtain at this moment of writing), Alm must wait between every other turn to get back to full functionality; anything can happen between then. Moreover, Falchion ultimately limits him to player phase, and his enemy phase tends to disappoint greatly (due to bad stats) whether or not you build around it. As a result, he may see great use to you as a dragon slaying unit (something that Legendary JuliaAlm's Brave self, etc. can do with little investment) or late-game cleaner while shining in little else.

Weapon Skills

Weapons SP Rng. Mt.
Iron Sword
Learns by default at 1 ★
Unlocks at 1 ★
Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
50 1 6
Steel Sword
Learns by default at 3 ★
Unlocks at 2 ★
Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
100 1 8
Silver Sword
Learns by default at 4 ★
Unlocks at 3 ★
Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
200 1 11
Falchion (Echoes)

Effective against dragons. At the start of every third turn, unit recovers 10 HP.

Learns by default at 5 ★
Unlocks at 5 ★
Non-Inheritable skill.
400 1 16
Weapon Evolution
Weapon Upgrades
Weapon Upgrades

Special Skills

Special Skills SP Turns
Dragon Gaze

Boosts damage by 30% of unit's Atk.

Learns by default at 4 ★
Unlocks at 3 ★
Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
100 4
Draconic Aura

Boosts damage by 30% of unit's Atk.

Unlocks at 4 ★
Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
200 3

Passive Skills

Passive Skills SP Slot
Attack +1

Grants Atk+1.

Inheritable by all units.
30
A
Attack +2

Grants Atk+2.

Inheritable by all units.
60
A
Attack +3

Grants Atk+3.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 5 ★
120
A
Windsweep 1

If unit initiates attack, no follow-up occurs. Against foe with sword, lance, axe, bow, dagger, or beast damage, if unit’s Spd - foe’s Spd ≥ 5, foe can’t counterattack.

Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
50
B
Windsweep 2

If unit initiates attack, no follow-up occurs. Against foe with sword, lance, axe, bow, dagger, or beast damage, if unit’s Spd - foe’s Spd ≥ 3, foe can’t counterattack.

Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
100
B
Windsweep 3

If unit initiates attack, no follow-up occurs. Against foe with sword, lance, axe, bow, or dagger, or beast damage, if unit’s Spd - foe’s Spd ≥ 1, foe can’t counterattack.

Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
Unlocks at 5 ★
240
B

Other Info

Origin
Fire Emblem Echoes

Banners Featured In

Official Hero Artwork