How to unlock the new classes in the Fire Emblem: Three Houses Cindered Shadows DLC

Fire Emblem: Three Houses has had quite the run with characters like the popular Edelgard and the dashing Claude. Byleth, the game's protagonist, also recently debuted in Smash Bros. Capping off Three Houses’ domination of our lives, Nintendo is releasing Cindered Shadows, the game's final DLC pack featuring new units, stories, character classes, and more. But are these new classes right for your team of elite student soldiers? How are the Trickster, War Monk, Dark Flier, and Valkyrie classes even unlocked?

Don’t fret, we’ve got you covered!

Nintendo's official Japanese Fire Emblem Twitter account shared information about the new classes in a series of early morning tweets Friday, confirming that the four character classes new to Three Houses would be Trickster, War Monk, Dark Flier, and Valkyrie. Between the information Nintendo just shared and some leaks from late last year, we already know everything you might need to know about these four new classes.

How do I unlock the new Fire Emblem: Three Houses — Cindered Shadow classes?

To unlock the four new classes for your various Fire Emblem: Three Houses escapades, you need to complete Episode 1 of the Cindered Shadows DLC. Once that’s finished, each of the new classes will be available in every game mode, including any save files that you’re already halfway through.

As with other classes, you have to pony up a seal to change your units into one of the new classes. However, unlike previous classes, there’s a new item called an “Underground Seal,” which will be used to transform into the DLC classes.

Units will unlock access to the DLC classes at level 20. They also don’t adhere to the standard Fire Emblem tiers of Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Master. The DLC classes will all be placed under a “Special Class” tier.

If you’d like to test the new classes before applying them to your main game, each Cindered Shadows DLC unit will arrive with a new class equipped.

What abilities and stats do these new classes have?

While the DLC has yet to officially release, we know quite a bit about the new classes from some leaks published by frequent data-miner Serenes Forest in November 2019. Here's a preview of the abilities of each class along with stat blocks for them.

Trickster

Abilities: Locktouch, Stealth, Desperation, and Trick.

Trick is a new ability allowing the unit to switch with any friendly unit within five squares.

Anna, a unite added in a previous DLC, will unlock a new outfit after equipping the Trickster for the first time. Like with other outfits, it can be equipped through the journal located within your personal quarters. The outfit also provides a brand new character portrait for Anna.

War Monk/Cleric

If this class is called War Monk or Cleric depends on if the unit is male or female, respectively.

Abilities: Fistfaire, Unarmed Combat, Heal, and Terrain Resistance. They have an exclusive combat art called "Far-Strike," which allows them to attack from 1-2 range using their magic stat.

Dark Flier

Abilities: Canto, Dark Tomefaire, Defiant Mag, and a new ability called "Magic Conversion." The ability addition will kick in when a unit is attacked by magic during an enemy turn. In response, the attacked unit will have all of their stats boosted by three until the end of the following turn.

Valkyrie

Abilities: Canto, Black Magic Range +1, Dark Magic Range +1, and Fiendish Blow.

We’ll learn more about the various classes set to be introduced as we inch closer to release, updating this article as we go along.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses — Cindered Shadows will launch for Nintendo Switch on February 12, 2020.