Effie

Default
Attack
Special
Injured

S.Default
S.Attack
S.Special
S.Injured

Blue Lance

Effie - Army of One
3-4 Obtainable as a 3 - 4 only

Hero Stats

Max Avg Total Stats at Lvl 40

168

HP 50

ATK 40

SPD 22

DEF 33

RES 23

Stat Variations

Level 1 Stat Variation

Resplendent Weapon

5★

4★

3★

	HP	ATK	SPD	DEF	RES
Low	21 21 23 23	11 27 13 29	4 4 6 6	10 10 12 12	3 3 5 5
Middle	22 22 24 24	12 28 14 30	5 5 7 7	11 11 13 13	4 4 6 6
High	23 23 25 25	13 29 15 31	6 6 8 8	12 12 14 14	5 5 7 7

	HP	ATK	SPD	DEF	RES
Low	20 20 22 22	11 22 13 24	3 3 5 5	10 10 12 12	2 2 4 4
Middle	21 21 23 23	12 23 14 13	4 4 6 2	11 11 13 13	3 3 5 5
High	22 22 24 24	13 24 15 26	5 5 7 7	12 12 14 14	4 4 6 6

	HP	ATK	SPD	DEF	RES
Low	20 20 22 22	10 18 12 20	3 3 5 5	9 9 11 11	2 2 4 4
Middle	21 21 23 23	11 19 13 21	4 4 6 6	10 10 12 12	3 3 5 5
High	22 22 24 24	12 20 14 22	5 5 7 7	11 11 13 13	4 4 6 6

Level 40 Stat Variations

Resplendent Weapon

5★

4★

3★

	HP	ATK	SPD	DEF	RES
Low	47 47 49 49	37 53 39 55	19 19 21 21	29 29 31 31	20 20 22 22
Middle	50 50 52 52	40 56 42 58	22 22 24 24	33 33 35 35	23 23 25 25
High	53 53 55 55	43 59 45 61	25 25 27 27	36 36 38 38	27 27 29 29

	HP	ATK	SPD	DEF	RES
Low	44 44 46 46	35 46 37 48	17 17 19 19	28 28 30 30	18 18 20 20
Middle	47 47 49 49	38 49 40 51	20 20 22 22	31 31 33 33	21 21 23 23
High	50 50 52 52	41 52 43 54	23 23 25 25	34 34 36 36	24 24 26 26

	HP	ATK	SPD	DEF	RES
Low	43 43 45 45	33 41 35 43	16 16 18 18	26 26 28 28	17 17 19 19
Middle	46 46 48 48	36 44 38 46	19 19 21 21	29 29 31 31	20 20 22 22
High	49 49 51 51	39 47 41 49	22 22 24 24	32 32 34 34	23 23 25 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.

HP	ATK	SPD	DEF	RES
Average	Best	Worst	Best	Best

Skill Sets

No More Holding Back (Near Save)

Build by StanTheWoz

Recommended

	Courtly Candle+ (+Def) Alternate: Allied Lance+ (+Def)	A	Close Def 4 Alternate: Sturdy Stance 3
	Positional Assist	B	Crafty Fighter 3 Alternate: Slick Fighter 3
	Glimmer Alternate: Ignis	C	A/D Near Save 3 Alternate: D/R Near Save 3
IVs	+Atk or +Def / -Spd	S	Steady Breath Alternate: Atk/Def Bond 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Courtly Candle+ (+Def) / Allied Lance+ (+Def) / Bridal Sunflower+ (+Def) / Effie’s Lance (+Eff)

Assist: Positional Assist / Flexible

Special: Glimmer / Ignis / Flexible

IVs: +Atk or +Def / -Spd

Passive A: Close Def 4 / Sturdy Stance 3 / Flexible

Passive B: Crafty Fighter 3 / Slick Fighter 3 / Wily Fighter 3 / Flexible

Passive C: A/D Near Save / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Steady Breath / Atk/Def Bond 3 / Flexible

Effie’s high HP, Atk, and Def make her a solid choice for a Near Save.
The choice of weapon is flexible. Courtly Candle+ offers a nice boost of 5 Atk and Def while Effie’s HP is at least 50%, as well as reducing the damage from her foe’s first attack by 50% if they can follow-up attack. This pairs well with Steady Breath seal and Glimmer to potentially allow her to KO her foe before they can follow-up. There are a number of other good choices of weapon as well, including Allied Lance+, Bridal Sunflower+, and Effie’s Lance.
The Special is flexible, with Glimmer being a solid option that Effie can potentially activate on her first counterattack, as above. Ignis is more powerful but generally requires Effie to get hit again and counterattack again to activate.
The A skill and B skill are both flexible. Effie benefits from boosts to Atk and Def, sometimes Res, as well as effects that neutralize her foe’s bonuses, neutralize her penalties, slow her foe’s Special charge, and charge her own Special. Many different combinations can work so long as you are getting different benefits from the A and B skill - for example, it is not as useful to use Close Def 4 with Wily Fighter, since both provide the effect of neutralizing enemy stat bonuses, and it would be better to pair Close Def 4 with Crafty Fighter or Slick Fighter.
The C skill should be some variety of Near Save, the particular stat combination is not very important, with Atk and Def being arguably the best.
The seal is flexible. Steady Breath is a great option that provides Effie an extra +1 Special charge on every attack when her foe initiates combat, allowing her to activate 2-cooldown Specials on her first counterattack or 4-cooldown Specials on her second. Atk/Def Bond or Atk/Def Form are also good options that provide more Atk and Def when Effie is near allies.

You See Big Girl (Hardy Fighter Far Save)

Build by StanTheWoz

Recommended

	Slaying Lance+ (+Res) Alternate: Courtly Candle+ (+Res)	A	Distant Countering A Slot Alternate: Distant Def 4
	Positional Assist	B	Hardy Fighter 3
	Aegis Alternate: Sacred Cowl	C	A/R Far Save 3 Alternate: D/R Far Save 3
IVs	+Atk or +Res / -Spd	S	Deflect Magic 3 Alternate: Atk/Res Bond 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Slaying Lance+ (+Res) / Courtly Candle+ (+Res) / Flexible

Assist: Positional Assist / Flexible

Special: Aegis / Sacred Cowl

IVs: +Atk or +Res / -Spd

Passive A: Distant Countering A Slot

Passive B: Hardy Fighter

Passive C: A/R Far Save / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Deflect Magic / Flexible

Effie can also use a build with Hardy Fighter and a defensive Special to heavily reduce damage from ranged attacks while protecting her allies. This allows her to take heavily reduced damage from ranged foes and KO many of them with a counterattack due to her high Atk.
The choice of Special depends on the choice of weapon; Slaying Lance is best used with Aegis, as it reduces the cooldown to 2, allowing Hardy Fighter to charge it fully at the start of turn 1. This provides 75% damage reduction plus an additional 5 flat damage reduction against the first ranged attack made against Effie. Alternatively, she can use Courtly Candle with Sacred Cowl for approximately the same damage reduction, but only if the foe can follow-up attack. This also boosts her Atk and Def by 5, slightly improving damage and bulk. Skills like Deadeye and Lethality negate the damage reduction from Courtly Candle but not from Aegis or Escutcheon, so the Aegis build is safer against those foes.
The A slot is flexible, with Distant Counter or some variant of it being the optimal choice, with Distant Stance and Distant Storm providing useful stat boosts to Res and Atk, respectively.
The C slot is flexible so long as it is some variety of Far Save.
The seal is also flexible, but Deflect Magic is a great option that provides 80% damage reduction against any consecutive hit taken after the first from any enemy wielding a tome. This is a great check to foes like Ninja Corrin and Ascended Ishtar that could otherwise hit Effie for full damage on their second Brave hit and potentially KO her before she can counter. Deflect Missile provides the same effect against bows and daggers, but brave effects on those are somewhat less common, they often use skills like Deadeye or Lethality which ignore Deflect Missile, and Effie’s Def is much higher than her Res.

Strengths

Effie’s Lance

While Effie’s unique weapon is rather whelming, it does still have some effects that can be useful in the right mode. It boosts her Atk by 6 during combat so long as she starts with over 50% HP, and also debuffs her foe’s Atk and Def by 5 during her first combat in player phase or enemy phase, as well as neutralizing any bonuses they have to those stats. This is a decent effect in modes such as Arena where you can afford to engage a single enemy unit per turn. It is outclassed by inheritable lances in some other modes.

Lance Armor

Effie’s status as a lance armor allows her to use great skills like A/D Near Save and Wily Fighter.

Great Atk

Effie’s base 40 Atk was incredibly high when she was first released, and is still quite high at the time of writing in 2022. This allows her to deal solid damage.

Great HP, Solid Def

Effie’s base 50 HP and 33 Def allow her to take physical hits well. Her base 23 Res is lower, but still often enough to take a single magical hit and KO on the counterattack.

Weaknesses

Low Spd and Res

Effie’s base 22 Spd and 23 Res are low. Her HP is high enough to allow her to survive one normal hit from most magical units, and potentially KO on the counterattack. Her Spd makes it very difficult for her to follow-up attack or avoid follow-up attacks without the use of skills like Wary Fighter or Vengeful Fighter. Additionally, these skills are all disabled by Null Follow-Up and similar effects, rendering her more vulnerable to units that use it.

Armor-Effective Damage

Effie’s status as an armored unit means that units wielding certain weapons gain an extra 50% Atk against her, rendering her vulnerable to being KO’d in a single hit.

Mobility

Under normal circumstances, Effie can only move 1 space per turn and attack foes adjacent to her. While the movement can be somewhat remedied by effects like Armor March or Ground Orders, her mobility is still not great.

Arena BST Creep

Earlier in the life of Heroes, Effie was a popular unit to use in Arena, since her high Base Stat Total meant that she boosted team score more than other units. However, this is no longer the case; her merged Base Stat Total of 170 is easily beaten by many more modern units and units using skills like C Duel Inf 4. To make matters worse, armors are the only movement type with no access to Duel Skills whatsoever, so Effie’s scoring potential is actually worse than most other units.

Competition

There are many other armored units with much better unique weapons than Effie and similarly good or better statlines, such as Brave Hector, Ascended Idunn, Valentine’s Gustav, and many more. While Effie can perform well with the right skills, she lacks powerful unique effects that set these units apart and may struggle in matchups they do not.

Weapon Skills

Weapons	SP	Rng.	Mt.
Iron Lance Learns by default at 1 ★ Unlocks at 1 ★ Lance Users Only	50	1	6
Steel Lance Learns by default at 3 ★ Lance Users Only	100	1	8
Silver Lance Learns by default at 4 ★ Unlocks at 3 ★ Lance Users Only	200	1	11
Silver Lance+ Learns by default at 5 ★ Unlocks at 5 ★ Lance Users Only	300	1	15
Effie's Lance At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 50%, grants Atk+6 during combat. Learns by default at 5 ★ Unlocks at 5 ★ Non-Inheritable skill.	400	1	16

Available Rearmed Weapons
Arcane Qiang (+Def)
Arcane Qiang (+Res)
Arcane Qiang (+Atk)
Arcane Qiang (+Spd)
Arcane Qiang

Weapon Evolution

Weapon Upgrades

Weapons	HP	SP	Rng.	Mt.
Silver Lance+ (+Atk)	+5	350	1	18
Silver Lance+ (+Res) +4	+5	350	1	16
Silver Lance+ (+Def) +4	+5	350	1	16
Silver Lance+ (+Spd) +3	+5	350	1	16
Effie's Lance (+Eff) At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 50%, grants Atk+6 during combat. During unit's first combat in player phase or enemy phase, inflicts Atk/Def-5 on foe and neutralizes foe's bonuses to Atk/Def (from skills like Fortify, Rally, etc.) during combat.	+3	400	1	16
Effie's Lance (+Atk) At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 50%, grants Atk+6 during combat.	+5	400	1	18
Effie's Lance (+Spd) +3At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 50%, grants Atk+6 during combat.	+5	400	1	16
Effie's Lance (+Def) +4 At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 50%, grants Atk+6 during combat.	+5	400	1	16
Effie's Lance (+Res) +4 At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 50%, grants Atk+6 during combat.	+5	400	1	16

Support Skills

Support Skills	Rng.	SP
Smite Push adjacent ally 2 spaces farther away. Learns by default at 4 ★	1	150

Passive Skills

Passive Skills	SP	Slot
Death Blow 1 If unit initiates combat, grants Atk+2 during combat. Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units. Unlocks at 3 ★	50	A
Death Blow 2 If unit initiates combat, grants Atk+4 during combat. Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units. Unlocks at 4 ★	100	A
Death Blow 3 If unit initiates combat, grants Atk+6 during combat. Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units. Unlocks at 5 ★	200	A
Wary Fighter 1 Prevents follow up attack in combat from unit and foes if unit's HP ≥ 90% Only inheritable by armor units.	60	B
Wary Fighter 2 Prevents follow up attack in combat from unit and foes if unit's HP ≥ 70% Only inheritable by armor units. Unlocks at 3 ★	120	B
Wary Fighter 3 Prevents follow up attack in combat from unit and foes if unit's HP ≥ 50% Only inheritable by armor units. Unlocks at 4 ★	240	B