Should You Pull Legendary - Xander: Gallant Knight Edition

Prince Xander has waited patiently for his Legendary, long outlasting his rival Ryoma. Now, he is here to begin his assault. But is he worth your orbs? Read on to find out.

Legendary Xander is an Axe Cavalry with two unique skills: the axe Ebon Bölverk and the B skill Chivalry. Ebon Bolverk provides a variety of useful effects including accelerating Special trigger, granting Xander a status effect that confers Null Follow-Up and extra Special charge in combat, boosting all of his stats in combat, and restoring 7 HP after combat. Chivalry provides a debuff to Xander’s foe’s stats if they have at least 50% HP, and grants him damage reduction equal to half their current percentage HP at the start of combat, so 50% damage reduction if they’re at 100% HP. In addition to this, Chivalry grants Canto (Rem. +1), allowing Xander to move a number of spaces after combat equal to 1 plus however much of his movement he didn’t use before initiating combat. He has a statline with great Atk and Spd, good Def and HP, and bad Res. All these effects combined give him generally strong melee combat against most units. 

Xander is a Fire Legendary Hero with the Pair-Up Effect, giving him 190 effective Base Stat Total when used in modes like Arena. In addition, he provides a boost of 3 HP and 2 Atk to Fire-blessed units in Fire season. Xander’s unique B skill Chivalry also slightly increases his maximum scoring potential relative to his BST, making him score equivalent to a 195 BST unit if both units are using maximum scoring skills. 

Xander has solid combat matchups against other Fire Legendaries, though not exceptional. There are currently eight other Fire Legendary Heroes: Hector, Ephraim, Marth, Roy, Celica, Edelgard, Lilina, and Eitri. Xander’s Null Follow-Up and strong melee combat give him a good matchup against Hector, Ephraim, and Edelgard in both phases. Xander can generally KO Celica, Lilina, and Eitri if he can initiate combat against them, but opportunities to safely engage in Arena are not consistent. Lilina can generally KO him from full with Gifted Magic due to Xander’s terrible Res, even through 50% damage reduction. Eitri generally cannot KO Xander in one combat as long as his Null Follow-Up effect is active and she is at 100% HP. Celica relies on having enough Spd to double Xander to have a chance at KOing. While his base Spd is higher and his skills give more Spd than hers do, many effects such as Rally buffs or Chill Spd can swing the relative Spd values one way or the other. 

Xander’s matchups against Marth and Roy depend significantly on how his Spd compares to theirs; if Xander can beat Marth’s Spd then his Null Follow-Up will activate and disable the effects of Binding Shield II, allowing him to tank a hit with 50% damage reduction and potentially KO. Roy is currently in the process of being Remixed with an unknown weapon refine coming soon, but the matchup is similarly reliant on Spd and likely to stay that way. Both Roy and Marth have access to Bonus Doubler effects, making the possible Spd values quite variable. 

Xander’s status as a cavalry unit with Canto also makes him a solid choice for Arena that is at a disadvantage in some particular maps. In general, high movement with Canto is highly useful to allow him to KO a unit and then retreat out of enemy range. However, there are a number of arena maps with terrain like trenches, forests, and mountains which disadvantage cavalry units and provide significant advantage to flying units. The rate these maps appear changes heavily based on the current season. So Xander’s Arena performance is somewhat more map dependent compared to other Legendary Heroes like Eitri or Claude. However, he is a strong choice overall. 

Xander’s status as a cavalry unit with good Atk and Spd, a Slaying weapon, Null Follow-Up, damage reduction, and Canto gives him great combat for use in some other modes like Aether Raids, where he can be used on player phase-focused strategies like Hit and Run or Galeforce. He’s a flexible unit that can find use in many modes.

With all Legendary and Mythic banners, there are three units in focus on each color. As players have no control over which units they get of each color, beyond choosing what color of unit to pull, except for the single guaranteed summon after 40 summons available to FEH Pass subscribers, it is important to consider the value of all units within a color when deciding whether to pull.

The red units available this time are Reginn, Legendary Sigurd, and Lif. Reginn is a Sword Cavalry Astra Mythic Hero that unlocks the 6th slot when used on Astra season Raiding Parties. She has high Atk, Spd, and mobility with Canto 3 and damage with her unique Special Seiðr Shell which charges at the start of turn 1. Sigurd is a Sword Cavalry Wind Legendary Hero with the Pair-Up Effect. His unique Special Holy-Knight Aura boosts his Mov by 1 at the start of each turn, and if it activates in combat, boosts his damage by 25% of his Atk and boosts the Mov of all allies by 1, making him a great choice on teams with high mobility. Lif is a Sword Infantry Anima Mythic Hero. His unique B skill Deadly Balance debuffs his foe and charges his Special more quickly when his foe attacks, allowing him to activate his unique Special Open the Future to boost damage by 50% of his Def and heal himself by 25% of damage dealt. 

The blue units available this time are Ullr, Nott, and Ascended Ishtar. Ullr is a Blue Bow Infantry Light Mythic Hero that unlocks the use of the 6th slot on Light season Raiding Parties. She has strong player phase combat with Holy Yewfelle and Yngvi Ascendant that allows her to activate powerful Specials like Deadeye before her foe can counterattack. Nott is a Lance Infantry Dark Mythic Hero that unlocks the use of the 7th slot when used on a defense team during Dark Season. She has decent combat with high Atk, Spd, and damage reduction and most importantly, has the Pathfinder effect, allowing allies to move through her space on the map without spending a tile of movement, effectively allowing them to move an extra space. Ascended Ishtar is a Blue Tome Infantry with strong combat; Thunder's Mjölnir accelerates her Special trigger and provides the Tempo effect, disabling any effects that slow her Special charge or accelerate her foe’s, while also striking twice if she initiates combat with at least 10 Spd more than her foe. 

The green units available this time are Xander, Freyja, and Eitri. Freyja is a Green Beast Cavalry Light Mythic Hero. She has decent combat with the ability to counterattack at range and up to 40% damage reduction based on Spd, as well as the ability to essentially steal any buffs her foe has for herself during combat with Binding Necklace. Eitri is a Green Tome Flying Fire Legendary Hero with the Pair-Up Effect. She has strong combat and solid bulk with a guaranteed follow-up, damage reduction, and Canto 2 on turns 1 through 4. 

The colorless units available are Legendary Leif, August, and Niime. Legendary Leif is a Colorless Bow Cavalry Water Legendary Hero with the Pair-Up Effect. He has solid combat with Meisterbogen, allowing him to strike twice in both phases, and can act again after combat if he activates his Special Njörun's Zeal. August is a Staff Infantry. His Diplomacy Staff buffs his Support partner at the start of his turn, granting a stat boost and a guaranteed follow-up attack when initiating combat, in addition to charging their Special if at least one ally on the team has been defeated. Niime is a Colorless Tome Infantry. With Hvítrvulture+ and Atk/Res Menace, she can debuff nearby foes and buff her own stats to deal high damage. 

Each player will have different wants and needs, so it is impossible to make a recommendation that will suit everyone. However, we can broadly assess the value on each color, keeping in mind that statistically, players who summon on a color should expect to receive roughly the same number of each focus Hero on that color, though individual results may vary wildly from the average.

Red offers one of the best Legendary Heroes currently available in Sigurd, a good Astra Mythic Hero in Reginn, and a mediocre Anima Mythic Hero in Lif. If players are looking for copies of Sigurd or Reginn to improve their scoring, this is a solid choice, as while Lif’s combat as a Mythic is mediocre, he has generally valuable skills to inherit in Distant Counter and Time's Pulse 3. A single copy of Sigurd may also have significant value due to Holy-Knight Aura, in any mode in which the player wants to improve their team’s mobility, particularly competitive modes like Aether Raids and Summoner Duels. Overall, Red is solid, but not incredible. 

Blue includes good Mythic Heroes in Nott and Ullr and a Normal Hero with solid combat in Ishtar. Ullr is useful for any Light season Raiding Party that needs help KOing some enemies, as Ullr’s combat makes her a strong choice against most foes. Nott is a solid choice for many Dark defenses, due to her Pathfinder effect allowing for increased threat range, and her unlocking the 7th unit slot, which the only other unit capable of doing currently is Medeus. Ishtar does not have any direct scoring relevance, but her combat is solid, and the first time players summon her they will receive one Ascendant Floret they can use to Ascend an extra stat on any Hero they choose. As Ullr is an Offense Mythic Hero (Light or Astra), merges on her can significantly improve players’ scoring in Light Season. Merges on Nott are comparatively less valuable, as well as any Defense Mythic Hero, since the gains from decreasing lift loss are much less compared to increasing offense lift gain. Overall, blue is solid, but not incredible. 

Green includes two good Fire Legendary Heroes in Eitri and Xander, and one mediocre Light Mythic Hero in Freyja. For players merging those Heroes, especially Freyja, it offers good value, since both Eitri and Xander are strong and have solid skill inheritance. Freyja’s combat is somewhat weaker, but she also has solid skills to inherit with Atk/Spd Solo 4 and Pulse Smoke. This is a great choice for anyone willing to spend hundreds of orbs to highly merge both Eitri and Xander for a Fire Arena team; for other players, it is decent. 

Colorless offers one decent Legendary Hero in Leif and two decent but not incredible Normal Heroes in August and Niime. Leif is somewhat older and does not score as well as modern Legendaries due to lower effective Base Stat Total, but he is certainly still usable and his combat is still solid. August has a unique and interest support effect that could be relevant for some units in some modes, but that depends highly on specific player goals. Niime lacks any true unique skills and while she has solid combat with some interesting skills, she is a weaker option compared to most of the other units on this focus. Overall, colorless is probably the weakest choice this time around, and players merging Leif may be better off waiting for his next appearance. 

Of course, like with any time you’re considering spending orbs in Fire Emblem Heroes, it’s also worth considering what else you might spend them on. There’s currently a Summer focus with extremely strong and unique units like Summer Edelgard and Summer Dimitri, and will no doubt be another Summer banner soon with new tantalizing options. In addition, the banner featuring Choose Your Legends winners Chrom, Seliph, Byleth, and Tiki is only around a month away, so any players saving up orbs for that may be better off waiting. Only you can choose what’s most important, but Xander is a solid choice nonetheless.