Chrom

• Preferred IV: +ATK or +DEF / -SPD

• Weapon: Falchion (+Eff)

• Assist: Reposition / Flexible

• Special: Aether / Blue Flame / Sol

• Passive A: Steady Breath / Atk/Def Bond / Steady Stance

• Passive B: Quick Riposte / Guard / Renewal 

• Passive C: Panic Ploy / Even Def Wave / Player Preference

• Sacred Seal: Close Def / Quick Riposte

This build focuses on utilizing Chrom’s defensive capabilities for melee tanking.

An Attack or Defense boon with a Speed bane works best for this setup. The Attack boon is for if you want more damage from Chrom’s Attack and the Defense boon is for if you want Chrom to have better physical bulk. The Refined Falchion gives Chrom Renewal 3 as well as +4 to all stats except HP when adjacent to an ally, helping him with his all-round combat capabilities. The assist is mostly up to player preference. A movement assist such as Reposition or Swap works very well. You also have a variety of Special options. If Chrom is running Steady Breath, Aether is hands down the way to go, granting Chrom both increased offensive power and self-healing all in one. If Chrom is not using Steady Breath, one can alternatively capitalize on the fact Chrom will likely be adjacent to allies for his refined Falchion and use Blue Flame, or you could use Sol for self-healing. Both Blue Flame and Sol also work well with Steady Breath, but given Aether's power and the fact Chrom comes with Aether naturally, there's little reason to not run Aether with Steady Breath.

Speaking of, Steady Breath is Chrom's optimal A slot. Not only does it grant Chrom with a Defense boost on enemy phase, but it also grants two charge cooldown instead of one per action. This allows Chrom to charge high cooldown specials such as Aether incredibly quickly, potentially even every single round of combat depending on if Chrom gets double attacked. Atk/Def Bond is a strong alternative that offers great synergy with his refined Falchion which’ll result in him getting a huge nine point boost to Attack and Defense and four points of Speed and Resistance when adjacent to an ally. Steady Stance is another option and great for boosting Chrom's tankiness. While Steady Stance does not provide the increased cooldown of Steady Breath, it still provides a solid boost to Defense when attacked.

For B slot, there is a good variety of options. The recommendation is Quick Riposte, allowing Chrom to perform a guaranteed follow-up whenever he is attacked and begins combat above the HP requirement, allowing him to tank hits then deal two hard-hitting attacks in return. Other options include Guard which will help Chrom to resist users of skills such as Bold Fighter and Special Fighter and Renewal which’ll help Chrom with his sustainability and help to keep him healthy.

Thanks to his high HP, Chrom can make great use of Panic Ploy, allowing him to reverse the buffs of this opponents. Even Def Wave also makes for a solid option, allowing Chrom to boost himself and adjacent allies for a large amount of Defense at the start of every even turn. Other than that, the C slot can be exchanged for almost any other C slot if one desires.

Close Def makes for a excellent Sacred Seal, increasing Chrom's already high Defense when attacked at close range and also granting a Resistance boost for whenever he's against Dragons. Quick Riposte also makes for a great choice of Seal as it opens up Chrom's B slot for another skill such as Renewal which when combined with Falchion can potentially be enough to sustain Chrom enough to utilize Quick Riposte multiple times in one match.

• Preferred IV: +Atk / -Spd

• Weapon: Falchion (+Eff)

• Assist: Reposition

• Special: Sol / Blue Flame

• Passive A: Distant Counter

• Passive B: Quick Riposte / Guard / Renewal

• Passive C: Panic Ploy / Infantry Pulse / Player Preference

• Sacred Seal: Distant Def / Quick Riposte

Even with his low Resistance, Chrom can work very well with Distant Counter, especially with his Resistance being able to be pushed up to decent levels with skills.

An Attack boon with Speed bane is recommended here. Attack helps him to secure KOs against mages while the lost Speed won’t be missed too much. The refined Falchion is a powerful weapon, granting Chrom a large boost to stats when adjacent to an ally and consistent healing through Renewal. For Assist, anything can work fine with Reposition being a safe general choice. For Special, Sol helps to keep Chrom healthy while his naturally high attack power should help him to deal decent damage. For an offensive alternative, Blue Flame works fantastically since he wants to be adjacent to allies regardless for the Falchion buff.

Of course, as the name implies, Distant Counter is the only A slot option for this set. This allows Chrom to retaliate against ranged foes such as archers and mages. While he possesses poor Resistance naturally, his high HP allows him to survive one attack from a non-blue mage with relative ease while his high Attack gives him good OHKO potential. For the B slot, Quick Riposte is the recommended choice as it allows Chrom to perform guaranteed follow-up attacks when he’s above 70% HP and is attacked. Guard is another strong choice that helps Chrom to counter units with skills that boost Special Cooldown such as Bold Fighter. Renewal is also a good option that synergises with Chrom’s refined Falchion to provide a lot of healing. For the C slot, Panic Ploy is a strong contender that Chrom can work very well with thanks to his high HP. Infantry Pulse is also a strong option for the same reason. Outside of this, a variety of C slots can work, so feel free to mix and match.

Finally, Distant Def as the Sacred Seal helps Chrom even further against enemy mages and other ranged units. If he is not running Quick Riposte in the B slot, the Quick Riposte Sacred Seal is also a solid option.

• Preferred IV: +ATK / -SPD or -RES

• Weapon: Brave Sword+

• Assist: Reposition / Flexible

• Special: Bonfire / Luna

• Passive A: Death Blow 

• Passive B: Chill Def / Hit and Run / Swordbreaker 

• Passive C: Even Atk Wave / Flexible

• Sacred Seal: Attack +3 / Heavy Blade 

With his immense Attack, Chrom is one of the best wielders of the Brave Sword.

With an Attack boon, Brave Sword+ and Attack Sacred Seal, Chrom reaches 51 Attack. Combine that with Death Blow and Chrom reaches an extremely devastating 59 Attack. While Death Blow 4 is optimal, Death Blow 3 is absolutely fine give how expensive Death Blow 4 is. This 59 damage attack is done twice thanks to the Brave Sword granting an immediate follow up attack before the opponent even has a chance to respond. This also allows him to completely bypass the Speed check for doubling, hence why Speed is the ideal bane.

Chill Def is a strong contender for the B slot, helping Chrom and any physical allies to deal more damage to whichever enemy has the highest Defense. Hit and Run is another option, allowing Chrom to automatically move back one space after combat, allowing him to potentially remove himself from danger without any extra effort required. Swordbreaker also serves as a potential B slot skill as tankier sword units such as Black Knight, Sigurd, and Xander are able to survive his initial onslaught.

The C slot remains a flexible slot. A Wave skill such as Even Atk Wave allows Chrom to boost himself at the start of even numbered turns without any external support. However, this is far from required, so feel free to experiment with different C slot options until you find something that works for you. Drive skills are safe general choices that work in almost any team composition. For Special, both Bonfire and Luna serve as great options, with Bonfire playing off of Chrom’s good Defense and Luna cutting the defenses of opponents. The assist skill is open to player preference. Reposition makes for a good standard choice on almost any build, but any assist can work.

If you don’t want to use the Attack Seal, Heavy Blade is also a good option for the Sacred Seal given Chrom's huge Attack stat which will let him activate it fairly consistently, thus allowing him to activate his Special faster and also allows for longer cooldown Specials like Ignis and Aether to be potentially considered.

• Preferred IV: +HP / -SPD or -RES

• Weapon: Falchion (+Eff)

• Assist: Reciprocal Aid / Ardent Sacrifice

• Special: Sol / Blue Flame / Luna

• Passive A: Atk/Def Bond / Fury

• Passive B: Renewal

• Passive C: Panic Ploy / Infantry Pulse / Flexible

• Sacred Seal: HP +5 / Panic Ploy

A build every Falchion unit can run, but thanks to having the HP pool, Chrom is the best option for it.

With a HP boon and the HP +5 Seal, Chrom has 55 HP, meaning that as long as Chrom is at full HP, Chrom can make use of Reciprocal aid to trade his HP over to an ally and top off any unit at base in the game except Arden. In addition to this, Chrom can easily heal himself so he can perform another heal thanks to Falchion’s Renewal passive and the Renewal skill. This makes Chrom very powerful at playing a healing support role. With a refined Falchion, Chrom gains Renewal 3 for even better health recovery. You can forge the Falchion for its unique effect to give Chrom a substantial combat boost with it’s +4 to all stats while adjacent to an ally, but you could also go for one of the other forges which will grant Chrom with +5 HP, taking him to 60 HP and allowing him to fully heal Arden. Unless you want him to specifically heal Arden, using the unique Falchion refinery option is recommended.

For the A slot, Atk/Def Bond works fantastically as it synergises perfectly with the refined Falchion and boosts his two most important stats, making him effective in combat if necessary. As a budget alternative, the Fury skill gives Chrom a boost to his all-round combat effectiveness. Not only that, but the health reduction effect of Fury is effectively negated thanks to all the passive healing that Chrom is receiving. With Sol in his Special slot, Chrom will receive even more healing and thanks to his massive Attack, he should receive a substantial chunk of HP from it. For a more offensive Special, Blue Flame can grant a massive boost to damage when Chrom is adjacent to an ally. As a cheaper offensive alternative, Luna is also very effective. Thanks to his massive HP pool, Chrom makes amazing use of Panic Ploy, allowing him to provide support that way in addition to his healing capabilities. He can also provide support through Infantry Pulse which will be beneficial on a team with other infantry units. If you do not want Panic Ploy or Infantry Pulse in the C slot, pretty much any C slot can work.

You could alternatively run Ardent Sacrifice over Reciprocal Aid. Ardent Sacrifice is not as good as Reciprocal Aid for healing high HP targets such as Hector, but Ardent Sacrifice is a fine choice if you wish to heal units who only usually need a bit of HP.