Table of Contents
- Default
- Attack
- Special
- Injured
| Athena - Borderland Sword |
|---|
|
Hero Stats
Stat Variations
| HP | ATK | SPD | DEF | RES | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 16 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 4 |
| Middle | 17 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 5 |
| High | 18 | 8 | 11 | 9 | 6 |
| HP | ATK | SPD | DEF | RES | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 33 | 28 | 35 | 24 | 21 |
| Middle | 36 | 31 | 38 | 27 | 24 |
| High | 40 | 34 | 41 | 31 | 28 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Boons
-
+ATK: An Attack boon will boost Athena up to 34 Attack, putting her Attack on par with Ryoma while having more Speed and similar defensive stats (though no natural DC).
-
+SPD: A Speed boon will boost Athena up to a very strong 41 Speed. This helps greatly with her doubling potential and allowing her to potentially avoid double attacks from extremely fast units such as Ayra and Legendary Marth.
Neutral
-
DEF: While Athena does not have the greatest Defense, 27 Defense is still fairly decent. Keeping her Defense intact is recommended so she can better duel with other physical units.
-
HP: Athena doesn’t have great HP, but keeping it neutral will still be a benefit in most situations due to HP affecting both her physical and magical bulk. There is a reason one might want to use a HP one, being if one wants Athena to use Ardent Sacrifice to reach skill thresholds. Outside of this though, keeping HP neutral is recommended.
Banes
-
-RES: A Resistance bane with allow Athena to keep her HP and Defense for dueling with physical units. Even with the Resistance bane, green and red mages can still sometimes struggle to KO her due to her Speed helping her to avoid double attacks.
Skill Sets
Vun Voman! (Full Offense)
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Wo Dao+ (+Spd) Alternate: Slaying Edge+ (+Spd) |
A | Atk/Spd Solo 3 Alternate: Fury 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
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Reposition | B | Wrath 3 Alternate: Desperation 3 |
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Moonbow Alternate: Glimmer |
C | Even Atk Wave 3 |
| SP | 1,505 | S | Speed +3 |
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Preferred IV: +ATK or +SPD / -RES
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Weapon: Wo Dao+ (+Spd) / Slaying Edge (+Spd)
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Assist: Reposition / Player Preference
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Special: Moonbow / Glimmer
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Passive A: Atk/Spd Solo / Swift Sparrow / Fury
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Passive B: Wrath / Desperation
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Passive C: Even Atk Wave / Player Preference
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Sacred Seal: Atk/Spd 2 / Speed +3 / Attack +3
This set focuses on maximizing Athena’s offensive capabilities.
Athena will want either a Attack or Speed boon with Resistance bane. Both Attack and Speed will help Athena greatly with her offensive capabilities while Resistance is her least important stat overall. Her default weapon, Wo Dao, is perfect for this set, helping her to deal even more damage with her Special. The Slaying Edge is also a fantastic choice, helping her to activate her Special more often. Whichever one you choose, refining for either Attack or Speed is recommended. For Assist, anything can really work. Reposition is a safe choice for most units. For Special, one of the two cooldown offensive Specials, these being Moonbow and Glimmer, will work fantastically. While these two skills are low in raw power, this is made up for with a low cooldown and the fact that Wo Dao and Wrath will make up for the lower power.
In the A slot, Atk/Spd Solo is an excellent choice, granting Athena with a huge offensive boost whenever she has no nearby allies. Swift Sparrow is another great choice, granting a lesser but still strong offensive boost whenever she initiates combat. As a budget obtain, Fury grants a overall boost in stats and can help her to more easily reach the threshold of Wrath or Desperation. Speaking of, Wrath is the perfect B slot for Athena, increasing her Special’s damage and granting her free Special charge when active. Desperation is an effective budget alternative, allowing Athena to make any follow-up attack immediately after her first when active.
A Wave skill such as Even Atk Wave works great for the C slot, helping Athena to boost her own offensive capabilities every other turn. However, this is not necessary for this set to be effective, so one should see what would benefit their team the most. Finally, using the Sacred Seal slot to give her one last offensive boost is recommended. Using Atk/Spd 2 will give her a nice boost to both of her offensive stats, or you can boost one or the other with either an Attack or Speed Seal instead.
Sweeping in the Vind! (Firesweep)
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Firesweep Sword+ | A | Atk/Spd Solo 3 Alternate: Life and Death 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
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Reposition | B | Chill Spd 3 Alternate: Hit and Run |
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Moonbow Alternate: Glimmer |
C | Even Spd Wave 3 |
| SP | 2,055 | S | Flashing Blade 3 |
-
Preferred IV: +SPD or +ATK / -HP or -DEF or -RES
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Weapon: Firesweep Sword+
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Assist: Reposition / Player Preference
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Special: Moonbow / Glimmer
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Passive A: Atk/Spd Solo / Life and Death
-
Passive B: Chill Spd / Chill Def / Hit and Run
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Passive C: Even Spd Wave / Player Preference
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Sacred Seal: Flashing Blade / Atk/Spd 2
Athena’s good offensive stats makes her a natural fit for the Firesweep Sword.
Either an Attack or Speed boon will be desired for this set to increase Athena’s offensive potential. What bane is used matters less here since Firesweep weapon prevent enemy counterattacks. As long as the bane is not Attack or Speed, Athena will do fine. The titular Firesweep Sword is a powerful offensive weapon, preventing enemy counterattacks at the cost of being able to counterattack herself, making Athena practically useless on Enemy Phase. Assist is open to player preference, with Reposition remaining a staple general choice. Either Moonbow or Glimmer will be a great Special choice, particularly when used with the Flashing Blade Sacred Seal to get consistent activations.
In the A slot, Atk/Spd Solo is a perfect fit, granting a huge offensive boost to Athena whenever she has no adjacent allies. Life and Death is also incredibly strong. While a bit weaker in terms of the bonus provide compared to Atk/Spd Solo, it is a much cheaper skill and the main drawback is rendered mostly obsolete thanks to the Firesweep Sword preventing enemy counterattacks. Chill skills are great B slot choice for Firesweep weapons, giving a huge stat debuff to the enemy with the highest value of the stat that gets affected by the Chill. Both Chill Spd and Chill Def will help Athena and the rest of her team greatly. Hit and Run is an effective budget option for Firesweep users, allowing Athena to move back one space after combat which helps to keep her safe.
A Wave skill such as Even Spd Wave will make for an effective C slot, allowing Athena to boost her own combat capabilities without any external support. This is absolutely not needed for the build to function though, so feel free to experiment and see which C slot skill works best for Athena and her team. Flashing Blade is a great Sacred Seal slot choice, granting Athena will extra Special cooldown on her attacks when she outspeeds the enemy. When combined with Moonbow or Glimmer, she can consistent activate either Special with each round of combat so long as she doubles her opponent. Outside of this, the Atk/Spd Seal will give her one last handy boost to her offensive stats.
Ve Vish to Fight (Budget Brawler)
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Wo Dao+ (+Atk) Alternate: Wo Dao+ (+Spd) |
A | Sturdy Blow 2 Alternate: Fury 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
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Reposition | B | Swordbreaker 3 Alternate: Desperation 3 |
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Moonbow | C | Threaten Def 3 |
| SP | 1,265 | S | Attack/Def +2 |
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Preferred IV: +SPD or +ATK / -RES
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Weapon: Wo Dao+ (+Atk) / Wo Dao+ (+Spd)
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Assist: Reposition / Player Preference
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Special: Moonbow
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Passive A: Sturdy Blow / Fury
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Passive B: Swordbreaker / Desperation
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Passive C: Threaten Def / Player Preference
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Sacred Seal: Atk/Spd 2 / Attack/Def +2
This is a minimal investment set, making the most use of Athena’s default kit and making her into a decent brawler.
For her IVs, Athena will want either an Attack or Speed boon to help her offensive capabilities with a Resistance bane. Her default weapon, Wo Dao, is a strong weapon that boosts the power of Athena’s Special. Refining this sword for either Attack or Speed will help out her offensive capabilities even further. The Assist slot is open to player preference. Reposition is a general safe choice for most characters. Moonbow is a perfect Special for Athena, with the low cooldown allowing for consistent activations.
Her default A slot, Sturdy Blow, is a decent choice for brawling which gives Athena a good boost to Attack and Speed when she initiates combat. For a little bit of investment, Athena also makes good use of Fury for an all-around boost to her combat capabilities. Swordbreaker in the B slot allows her to ensure follow-up attacks against other fast sword units such as Karla, Legendary Marth, and Legendary Eirika. She can also use Desperation effectively, allowing her to perform any follow-up attack immediately after her first. Threaten Def is a good C slot choice for her, reducing the Defense of any enemy within two spaces of her. A lot of different C slots can work though, so one should choose whatever works best for them and their Athena. Finally, Atk/Spd 2 is a natural fit for the Sacred Seal, boosting Athena’s two most important stats. She can also use Attack/Def +2 effectively as well.
Introduction
Athena storms her way onto the battlefield with blistering speed and ready to fight. Sporting very high Speed, good Attack and a great weapon, Athena has the tools she needs in order to serve as a strong offensive sword unit.
Sporting a very impressive base 38 Speed, Athena is able to secure doubles against middling Speed units while also being able to avoid doubles from every unboosted character in the game. Athena also sports 31 Attack which, while not amazing, is still good, especially when combined with her Wo Dao, giving her +10 damage upon special activation.
She does suffer in some areas, most notably her defenses. Her HP of 36 is quite low, making her not the bulkiest sword unit available, particular when combined with her mediocre defensive stats of 27 Defense and 24 Resistance. This means that Athena cannot sustain herself under heavy fire, so she can often struggle with facing multiple opponents at once.
All in all, Athena is simply a strong offensive sword unit. Like many sword units, she faces heavy competition from other popular sword units such as Karla, Legendary Marth, and Ayra, making it sometimes tricky to justify using her over some of her competitors. Still though, train her right and this vun voman will serve you well.
Strengths
Excellent Speed
At 38 Speed, Athena is one of the fastest unit in the entire game, tying in Speed to units like Leif and Summer Cordelia. This makes her competent at securing double attacks against other fast units, especially with considerable Speed boosts through skills and buffs. it also means that opponents can struggle to easily perform a double attack against her without considerable Speed boosts.
Good Attack
At 31 Attack, Athena is by no means the hardest hitter but she can still deal a lot of damage with her attacks. This good Attack stat pairs well with her high Speed which allows her to put her Attack to good use thanks to her high doubling potential.
Weaknesses
Mediocre Defenses
27 Defense and 24 Resistance is far from the worst bulk in the game, but combined with her HP, these defensive stats can make her quite susceptible to enemy attacks. While she can deal with a single opponent on Enemy Phase, it is not recommended to leave her in the open where she may be attacked by multiple opponents at once.
Low HP
At 36 HP, Athena has one of the lowest HP stats among Sword units. While her defenses are mediocre, her low HP means that she will go down quite quickly when under attack. However, her low HP can somewhat benefit her if you plan to use Ardent Sacrifice. Even with a HP boon, a single use of Ardent Sacrifice will put her to 75% HP, allowing her to make use of skills such as Desperation or Wrath. Do remember though that forged weapons grant five HP, meaning you’ll need a HP bane to do this with a forged weapon.
Team Options
Counters
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Defensive Blues: Units such as Legendary Tiki, Brave Hector, Winter Ephraim, and Hardin boast strong defensive potential and are able to shrug off Athena’s attacks with relative ease and deal a lot of damage in return.
- Blue Mages: Blue mages will be able to deal a lot of damage to Athena. Reinhardt, thanks to his Dire Thunder, is easily capable of a ORKO against Athena. Other blue mages such as Ishtar and Ophelia will also be very capable of dealing with Athena easily, often capable of a OHKO against her.
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Safeguard+ (+Res) | A | Distant Counter |
|---|---|---|---|
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Rally Def/Res | B | Guard 3 |
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Aether | C | Atk Smoke 3 |
| S | Flashing Blade 3 | ||
Safeguard brings her to 40/38 on defense. It’s also refined for Res for obvious reasons. Guard is to stop the usual Quickened Pulse + Moonbow Reinhardt but is going to help with stopping any other specials. Aether for keeping her health within Guard’s HP threshold while also helping her deal extra damage. Atk Smoke for lowering the attacking power of enemies. Rally skill is mostly for arena scoring, it can be changed to whatever suits your needs.
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Slaying Edge+ (+Def) | A | Brazen Atk/Def 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
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Rally Attack | B | Vantage 3 |
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Ignis | C | Threaten Atk 3 |
| S | Quickened Pulse | ||
I have found that a character that a character that can double enemies has great potential with the correct special. Ignis is a very powerful skill for units with good or high defense, but it lacks in trigger rate (which is 4). So to combat this, Athena can use Vantage to attack the enemy before they do, allowing for a possible special, the Slaying Edge + (+ def) helps to trigger the special faster while raising her defense. While Brazen Atk/Def will help with defense and attack.
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Brave Sword+ | A | Brazen Atk/Spd 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
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Reposition | B | Windsweep 3 |
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Luna | C | Odd Atk Wave 3 |
| S | Phantom Spd 3 | ||
Athena is the best user of this build due to an even offense stat spread. Brazen Atk/Spd 3 helps both Phantom Spd 3 and Windsweep 3 together to prevent even the fastest of heroes from countering Athena, letting her attack for free twice.
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Firesweep Sword+ | A | Brazen Atk/Spd 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
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Ardent Sacrifice | B | Drag Back |
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Moonbow | C | Threaten Def 3 |
| S | Attack +3 | ||
Firesweep build for Athena. Even she can double most her foes, she still lacks in her attack. So, we can put seal +atk 3 and threaten def to help KO the foe. Life and Death can be alternative if we do not have C!Robin as Brazen atk/spd fodder. Special skill can be Moonbow or Glimmer.
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Wo Dao+ (+Def) | A | Sturdy Blow 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
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Swap | B | Drag Back |
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Moonbow | C | Threaten Atk 3 |
| S | Close Def 3 | ||
This is primarily a fun and low cost build to capitalize on Athena's serviceable Defense and Sturdy Blow. A Defense Boon gives +4 to her Defense stat, making it a respectable 31, along with a Def Wo Dao+ and Def+3 seal, or Close Defense, you can essentially have a 2 Movement version of Draug at the cost of a ton of HP. Reaching around 39-42 Defense on Player Phase with sturdy blow, she can combat higher defense enemies, chip them with Moonbow and drag them back for the rest of your team to whale on. Threaten Attack also works with this by further increasing her longevity if Athena is near her opponents at the start of the turn. Athena also appreciates allies with defense or speed buffing skills, such as Oscar, in order to further increase her 2 strong points.
Athena has the speed, and with this build, the defense, to go toe-to-toe with popular green units such as Hector and the Winter Ylissean Royals with relative ease, as well as a fair amount of other red threats.
This build however discards all previous notions of a Res stat in favor for Defense, so Athena has even worse match ups against mages than she did before. Even with Athena's large speed stat and relatively good HP after refinery buffs, it is still unwise to keep her anywhere near a powerful mage such as Nino or Linde/Delthea, as you would expect.
Weapon Skills
| Weapons | SP | Rng. | Mt. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
|
50 | 1 | 6 |
| Learns by default at 3 ★ Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
|
100 | 1 | 8 |
| Learns by default at 4 ★ Unlocks at 3 ★ Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
|
200 | 1 | 9 |
| Learns by default at 5 ★ Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
|
300 | 1 | 13 |
Special Skills
Passive Skills
| Passive Skills | SP | Slot |
|---|---|---|
| Unlocks at 3 ★ Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
|
50 | A |
| Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
|
120 | A |
| Unlocks at 5 ★ Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
|
240 | A |
| Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
|
30 | C |
| Unlocks at 3 ★ Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
|
60 | C |
| Unlocks at 4 ★ Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
|
120 | C |
Other Info
| Origin |
Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
|
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Fate Grand Order
Dragonball Legends

IV Calc
Heroes