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








Niles - Cruel to be Kind |
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Related Heroes
Hero Stats
Stat Variations
HP | ATK | SPD | DEF | RES | |
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Low | 17 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 7 |
Middle | 18 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 8 |
High | 19 | 7 | 9 | 5 | 9 |
HP | ATK | SPD | DEF | RES | |
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Low | 34 | 22 | 31 | 13 | 31 |
Middle | 37 | 25 | 34 | 17 | 34 |
High | 41 | 29 | 37 | 20 | 37 |
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 |
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Skill Sets
Sadistic Streak (Aether Raids Offense)
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Spendthrift Bow+ (+Res) Alternate: Niles's Bow (+Eff) |
A | Mirror Stance 3 Alternate: Atk/Spd Solo (3 or 4) |
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Positional Assist | B | Null C-Disrupt 3 Alternate: Mystic Boost 3 |
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Noontime Alternate: Sol |
C | Pulse Smoke 3 Alternate: Atk Smoke 3 |
IVs | +ATK or +RES or +SPD / -DEF | S | Atk/Spd Solo 3 |
Weapon: Spendthrift Bow+ (+RES/SPD) / Niles’s Bow (+Eff)
Assist: Positional Assist / Flexible
Special: Noontime / Sol
Passive A: Mirror Stance / Kestrel Stance / Atk/Spd Solo / Atk/Res Solo
Passive B: Null C-Disrupt / Null Follow-Up / Mystic Boost / Quick Riposte
Passive C: Pulse Smoke / Smoke Skills / Flexible
Sacred Seal: Atk/Spd Solo / Spd/Res Solo / Mystic Boost / Swift Stance / Mirror Stance / Quick Riposte
- Niles’s innate strengths—namely, his combination of decent Speed and Resistance—lend themselves well to an Enemy Phase anti-ranged set, even in an AR-O setting given the sufficient support and investment. He greatly appreciates receiving a +ATK IV to supplement his damage, but +RES and +SPD also works nicely to pad his survivability.
- The inheritable Spendthrift Bow makes for a stellar weapon choice to simultaneously enhance his damage and raw durability, with its detriment being well worth the benefits it brings—and if Brave Lucina’s refined Geirskögul is available, it can easily be offset as well. This is a rather significant investment, though, so his exclusive Niles’s Bow can also work for its built-in Special acceleration effects.
- Relying on Niles’s stats alone generally won’t be enough to maintain high health (especially in Aether Raids), so equipping him with a healing Special is highly recommended. If using Spendthrift Bow, Noontime will always be preferred and pairs especially well with Brave Lucina support, though it may also be used with Niles’s Bow. Sol is another option when combining both Brave Lucina and his PRF’s built-in Slaying effect for immediate Special activations.
- Mirror Stance and Kestrel Stance are excellent defensive A slot options to augment his key stats during the Enemy Phase and delay enemy Specials. If pure stat boosts are preferred, Atk/Spd Solo and Atk/Res Solo both work excellently and come with the benefit of having dual phase functionality.
- Niles generally needs all the stat boosts he can get, so Close Foil or Close Counter don’t work particularly well with him—especially due to his innately low physical bulk—but they may be worth considering if one feels confident enough in his tanking ability.
- For his B slot, Null C-Disrupt and Null Follow-Up are both heavily meta-relevant skills that help him work around otherwise troublesome enemy mechanics, such as counterattack negation and built-in follow-ups respectively. Mystic Boost is another candidate that helps Niles’ more confidently combat Wrathful Staff healers and dragons while granting some appreciable healing, or Quick Riposte if nothing else to ensure his follow-up.
- For those willing to pull out all the stops for the Nohrian archer, Pulse Smoke is highly recommended for the purposes of Aether Raids Offense to shut down the ever-punishing and ubiquitous Infantry Pulse setups. Otherwise, simple stat-debuffing skills like Atk Smoke work perfectly well to enhance his Enemy Phase prowess.
- Niles’s Sacred Seal slot can be filled by any available option that enhances his key stats (such as Atk/Spd Solo and Spd/Res Solo), or Quick Riposte if aiming to ensure his follow-up without relying purely on his Speed. Mystic Boost may also be considered for improved performance against certain magical threats and/or its attached healing.
Does My Face Look Like I'm Thinking Dirty Thoughts? (Player Phase Offensive)
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Niles's Bow (+Eff) | A | Sturdy Impact Alternate: Swift Sparrow (2 or 3) |
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Positional Assist | B | Lull Atk/Spd 3 Alternate: Desperation 3 |
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Glacies Alternate: Iceberg |
C | Spd Smoke 3 Alternate: Time's Pulse 3 |
IVs | +ATK or +SPD / -DEF | S | Atk/Spd Solo 3 |
Weapon: Niles’ Bow (+Eff)
Assist: Positional Assist / Flexible
Special: Glacies / Iceberg / Luna
Passive A: Sturdy Impact / Atk/Spd Solo / Mirror Impact / Swift Sparrow / Fury
Passive B: Lull Atk/Spd / Null Follow-Up / Desperation / Special Spiral
Passive C: Smoke Skills / Joint Drive Skills / Wave Skills / Time’s Pulse / Flexible
Sacred Seal: Atk/Spd Solo / Atk/Def Solo / Death Blow / Swift Sparrow / Sturdy Blow
- He can also opt for a more aggressive approach and utilize a Player Phase oriented setup, centered around maximizing his damage and the use of his PRF. Accordingly, a boost to either one of his offensive stats with the appropriate Asset is ideal.
- His Special choice will be primarily dependent on his choice of B slot skill. Thanks to the properties of his PRF, Niles benefits from both a flat cooldown reduction (akin to Slaying weapons) and built-in Flashing Blade, thus making Glacies a rather strong and consistent choice for general usage. If using Desperation (or Special Spiral for Special activation chains), Iceberg and Luna are preferred.
- Sturdy Impact is a phenomenal A slot skill to supplement Niles’s damage and survivability, doing a great deal to circumvent his otherwise poor physical durability; its Resistance-based alternative, Mirror Impact, should only be used in combination with Special Spiral and Iceberg for maximum damage sets.
- However, these do come with the downside of doing nothing to enhance his Speed—which he relies on for both doubles and his PRF—so more generally useful and available alternatives include Atk/Spd Solo, Swift Sparrow, and Fury.
- Lull Atk/Spd works wonderfully to boost the archer’s survivability and consistency at doubling, especially through its ability to break through enemy bonuses. Niles’s B slot is rather diverse, though, and can also be filled by other offensive skills such as Null Follow-Up (to break through forms of follow-up denial), Desperation (for successive doubles), and Special Spiral (for Special chains).
- Niles has a flexible C slot that can be occupied by pretty much anything; however, there are some standouts. Smoke skills are always solid when provided with refresher support, Joint Drives work nicely for mutual buffing to himself and nearby allies, and Time’s Pulse assists his damage by allowing him to access his Special sooner. Any Sacred Seal that supplements his Attack or Speed will work here.
Strengths
Niles’ Bow
His aptly named Niles’s Bow provides a solid boost to his combat performance, combining the effects of two weapons—Shining Bow and Slaying Bow—at base and attaching built-in Flashing Blade as well through its unique refinement. This provides Niles a means of offsetting his poor damage output, particularly against certain high Defense foes, and overall grants a good deal of overall flexibility.
Decent Speed and Resistance
Although Niles’ overall statline is rather unimpressive, his Speed and Resistance are some of his better qualities; with base values of 34 in each stat, this gives Niles a decent foundation for performing and denying follow-up attacks as well as soaking magical damage. This can be elevated further through investment.
Good Availability
Currently available in the 3-4* colorless pool, Niles has the benefit of being quite common, making gathering merges and optimal IVs for him a relatively simple task—both of which he desperately needs to actually shine.
Infantry Strengths
By merit of being an infantry unit, Niles benefits from incredible skill availability and can access several useful assets, such as Null C-Disrupt, Special Spiral, and Time’s Pulse. This enables him to further develop his potential and also makes him quite moldable, as his build options as more varied compared to his mounted counterparts.
Resplendent
Okay, yeah, he gets extra stats to help remedy his otherwise unimpressive statline, but the real important part here is the art. Wew. Definitely an upgrade.
Weaknesses
Low Attack
Although his personal weapon does much to aid his otherwise poor damage output, Niles’s low base Attack stat of 25 remains his most glaring weakness—there is only so much one can do to alleviate it, even at maximum investment. This can leave him struggling to deal meaningful damage against bulkier foes.
Low Physical Bulk
Additionally, his mix of mediocre HP and low Defense together render him incredibly susceptible to any form of physical damage; opposing dragonstone users will also prove to be an issue as they will always target his low Defense stat thanks to their adaptive damage property against ranged units.
Outclassed
Ultimately, although he can certainly perform admirably to his own right, the Nohrian archer remains thoroughly kept back by his unfortunately outdated statline combined with his lack of an outstanding or redeeming quality. Thus, he still faces an incredible amount of competition from other archers who can fulfill a similar role while requiring much less team support and/or investment to function properly—especially those that have been more recently released.
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Niles's Bow (+Eff) | A | Brazen Atk/Def 3 |
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Draw Back | B | Desperation 3 |
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Iceberg | C | Def Ploy 3 |
S | Atk/Def Bond 3 |
Nile's new bow is fantastic but requires heavy merges to make the best use of the weapon since +atk is a must to help with his low attack stat. Sorcery Blade 3 is his best A slot so that he targets the res stat of his opponent rather than their possibly high defense stat. -Res is his preferred bane since he has quite enough res and keeping his defense stat neutral is important as every bit helps him have the chance to survive a hit from a distant counter attacker.
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Niles's Bow (+Eff) | A | Fury 3 |
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Draw Back | B | Mystic Boost 3 |
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Glacies | C | Spd Ploy 3 |
S | Brazen Atk/Res 3 |
Recommended assets :
+Atk
+Spd (Inferior to Atk asset)
Stats at 1 merge/10 merge with fury (+atk):
HP : 38 | 41
Atk : 46 | 50
Spd : 38 | 41
Def : 20 | 24
Res : 37 | 41
Niles has greatly improved with his refined weapon: his new weapon give him slaying, shining bow and flashing blade effects. Slaying and flashing blade effects are the cornerstone of the build, allowing Niles to trigger glacies every round with the right condition. The shining bow effect, even if it feels not very impressive at first glance, can give him 14 damage if he can double and a good amount of characters has 5 more def than res.
This build is aimed to OHKO all ranged foes and DC users: it works well if they don't have guard or anti-follow-up. Obviously, against physical DC units, he will take a lot of damage.
You can use Niles either on enemy phase or player phase; he needs to double his foe and take one hit to trigger Glacies (29 damages with no merge and neutral res with fury).
Fury and Mystic boost synergies well, he likes all the stats given by fury: attack/speed for offence, defence for his bulk and resistance for his bulk and Glacies; Mystic Boost gives him easier time if he fights dragons or staff users.
Speed Ploy helps him to double and easy to trigger with his 37 res. Speed Smoke can be a decent alternative too.
Be careful of def ploy, because it's anti synergetic with the shining bow effect.
For the S slot, Brazen Atk/Res 3 is one of the best skill available for him now. It increases his attack by 7 and his glacies bombs by 5 or 6. Darting blow is a good option too since his speed can fall a bit short. Other good options are Distant def, atk/spd +2 or atk/spd bond (a bit tricky to use in PP).
Niles can be a pretty good unit with the right skills. I have myself a +9 Niles +spd (doesn't have a +atk) and he can handle all mages. And he can really shine with some buffs or some dragonflowers.
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Guard Bow+ (+Def) | A | Steady Stance 3 |
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Reposition | B | Dull Ranged 3 |
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Iceberg | C | Atk Smoke 3 |
S | Distant Def 3 |
No more is Niles some trash tier unit! With this build he can easily wipe out any ranged enemy unit and with proper support be fairly deadly to most melee units too!
During combat against a ranged unit on enemy phase a regular level 40 Niles will have 38 def / 46 res (46 def / 52 res if your team has def / res tactic equipped)
During combat against a melee unit on enemy phase a regular level 40 niles will have 26 def / 34 res ( 32 def / 40 res if your team has def / res tactic equipped)
And that is more than enough to at least survive most attacks, especially with def / res tactic equipped. If you wanted you could give him close counter instead of Distant Def / Steady Stance to let him survive even more melee attacks.
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Brave Bow+ | A | Fury 3 |
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Reciprocal Aid | B | Desperation 3 |
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Glacies | C | Savage Blow 3 |
S | Savage Blow 3 |
Niles has the disadvantage of being underestimated for his general low HP and DEF stats but, being my favourite unit, I could not let that happen. This build makes use of enemy formations that abuse of keeping their units together to weaken them and open the way to finish them off later with other units.
Fury gives him a decent quantity of stats, powering up his ATK, SPD and RES, which play the main roles on his attack power. RES is important to give him nuke power on Glacies (my Niles can deal 30+ damage on almost every unit) and if his stats are powered up by merging and supports, it gives him even more power.
Desperation is one of the most useful abilities, since it is mixed with a Brave Bow+ and Fury, he soon enters the Desperation threshold and, having a more than decent SPD, he can quad without any kind of retaliation from the enemy, even more if he triggers Glacies, which most of the times ends up in a OHKO.
Last but not least, after his turn is over, Double Savage Blow makes the enemies that are within 2 spaces of the target lose up to 14 HP.
However, it's safe to keep in mind that he needs to be put out of danger after his attack since he has little to none defense and can die on one hit. This is useful by having a bulky unit that can use Reposition on him or having a Dancer in the team. And whenever he's almost dead, he can always use Reciprocal Aid to swap HP with another unit that can give him a second chance to survive or get healed by a dedicated healer in the team.
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Slaying Bow+ (+Res) | A | Fury 3 |
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Draw Back | B | Quick Riposte 2 |
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Iceberg | C | Def Ploy 3 |
S | Resistance +3 |
Mage baiter, thanks to his 46 Res. 5-starred him because I love his character and not regretting it at all. Didn't go for distant defense+guardbow shenanigans simply for budget purposes but honestly you don't need to: his base kit lets him instant proc Iceberg with QR so why not just keep it? Iceberg is where most his damage comes from due to his horrible attack, even more resistance would just be overkill, and his defense is hardly salvageable.
Weapon Skills
Weapons | SP | Rng. | Mt. |
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![]() Only Inheritable by Bow users.
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50 | 2 | 4 |
![]() Learns by default at 3 ★ Only Inheritable by Bow users.
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100 | 2 | 6 |
![]() Learns by default at 4 ★ Unlocks at 3 ★ Only Inheritable by Bow users.
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200 | 2 | 5 |
![]() Unlocks at 5 ★ Only Inheritable by Bow users.
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300 | 2 | 9 |
![]() Non-Inheritable skill.
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400 | 2 | 14 |
Special Skills
Special Skills | SP | Turns |
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![]() Learns by default at 4 ★ Unlocks at 3 ★ Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
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100 | 4 |
![]() Unlocks at 4 ★ Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
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200 | 3 |
Passive Skills
Passive Skills | SP | Slot |
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![]() Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
Unlocks at 3 ★ |
50 | A |
![]() Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
Unlocks at 3 ★ |
100 | A |
![]() Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
Unlocks at 4 ★ |
200 | A |
![]() Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 3 ★ |
50 | C |
![]() Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 4 ★ |
100 | C |
![]() Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 5 ★ |
200 | C |
Other Info
Origin |
Fire Emblem Fates
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