When Fire Emblem Engage's Wave 2 DLC arrived, I stood in the Divine Paralogues menu like a tourist staring at three locked doors, each one hiding a legend. Soren, Hector, and Camilla are the trio you can recruit after clearing Tiki's paralogue (which unlocks after Chapter Six), and I'll be honest: the game tells you almost nothing about the chaos waiting behind those doors. After watching my Alear get flattened by a meteor, a poison vent, and a wyvern-shaped traffic jam across multiple runs, I'm here to hand you the map to the minefield.

A quick heads-up before we start: the Divine Paralogues scale enemy levels and promoted classes to match your story progress. So if you wait until after Chapter 11, you'll get better skills, special dialogue, and significantly angrier enemies. If you go early, you get Emblems like Lyn and Ike missing from your toolbox. It's a trade-off, like choosing between a shield and a head start in a marathon.

Soren: The Emblem of Acumen

Soren's paralogue sits directly north of Tiki's temple, on the side of a volcano. And yes, the volcano is basically the third enemy army.

This map has two mechanics that will absolutely ruin a complacent run: falling lava meteors and spreading smoke tiles. If one of your units ends a turn on a magma crater space (the glowing spots where the meteors fire from), the enemy's next phase opens with a fireball slamming into them. Smoke tiles lower Avoidance, Defense, and Resistance, and they spread every round. The whole map is a pressure cooker wearing a volcano's hat, and the only way out is forward momentum.

You get a generous 12 deployment slots, so split your force into eastern and western groups. Each group should carry:

• ❄️ One mage (armored enemies are everywhere)

• ⚔️ A sword-user with Armorslayer or Levin Sword

• 🏹 A long-range archer to snipe fliers and mages

• 🩹 A staff-user for healing and Rescue

My standout picks for this fight are Edelgard + Etie, because Etie can delete Soren in one round with Failnaught, and Lyn + Alcryst, whose Astra Storm ignores counters and can melt the mage cluster in the center. Ike + Panette remains the delete button for every map, and Tiki giving anyone a second health bar is like strapping an extra engine onto a rocket.

The first move is to join your two groups in the center and kill the High Priests with Fracture and Physic before they turn your frontline into a pincushion. The thieves will make a run for the treasure chests, so kill them fast—the 2,000 GP and Rescue staff are worth not sharing. If you have Ike, walk him into the middle of the enemy staff cluster and pop Great Aether. With Tiki's extra health bar, that single Engage Attack can leave the entire center smoking.

Reinforcements begin at the eastern and southwestern exits once you push forward. Expect mobile Wolf Knights and Paladins, occasionally Sages. When you enter Soren's Bolting range, he'll abandon his southern perch and sprint east to link up with those reinforcements. That's the real fight.

Soren is a Mystical unit, so terrain effects from Corrin's Dragon Vein won't slow him. His Cataclysm Engage Attack is a three-hit elemental carpet bomb (fire, thunder, wind), and Reflect will bounce magic damage back at your mages. Keep your casters away and let physical units close the distance. His defense is tissue paper, so the strategy is simple: sprint in, hit him with archers or Great Knights, and end the map in one round. Lyn's Astra Storm takes a full health bar with the right user, and Byleth's Dance plus Seadall can give Etie multiple rounds. Kill Soren, and the map ends regardless of the crowd.

Hector: The Emblem of Strength

Hector's paralogue is directly east of Tiki's temple, and I need to say this clearly: it is the easiest map in the wave. It's also my favorite, because luring Hector down a poison-filled hallway feels like convincing a charging bull to chase a red flag made of caution tape.

The cave temple has winding passages, no initial flying enemies, and vents that spray poison gas on anyone standing in a direct line in front of them. Buy a fat stack of antitoxins—or better, loot them off the thieves and enemies that drop them. You only get 8 deployment slots, so I recommend three mages, one staff-user, a sword unit, and an axe tank.

The standout here is Corrin + Yunaka, because Yunaka's Covert class and personal skill pair with Corrin's Dragon Vein fog to create a hilarious dodge-tank that can bait six physical attackers and slowly crit them to pieces. Pandreo is also fantastic for healing and deleting low-res enemies with magic. Clanne as a Mage Knight with the Dire-Thunder Bond Ring can double-hit Thunder, which is brutal in these tight corridors.

Here's the trick most players miss: do not charge Hector directly. Bait his surrounding units down the hallway with Astra Storm or Bolting, but avoid hitting Hector himself until he starts moving. Let him step into a poison vent to stack poison, and let him burn his Storm's Eye Engage Attack early. Then back away and stall out that stance. Once Storm's Eye expires, he can't use it again, and you can close in.

Hector's Adaptability skill adds +2 Defense or Resistance depending on the last damage type you used against him, and it persists until you swap damage types. So you hit him with magic to keep his Resistance low, then swap to physical to break his stance, then swap back. The longer this fight drags, the more dangerous he becomes—like a pot of water you keep telling yourself will boil faster if you stare at it. Aim to kill him in one turn, and ignore the surrounding enemies because the map ends the moment Hector falls.

Camilla: The Emblem of Revelations

If Soren is a pressure cooker and Hector is a game of chicken in a sauna, Camilla's map is the entire kitchen on fire.

Camilla waits past Hector's paralogue on the southeastern aisle, and you only need Tiki plus Chapter Six to unlock her. Do not attempt this before you've recruited Lyn. I cannot stress this enough. Trying Camilla without Lyn is like trying to tie your shoelaces without hands—technically possible, but why would you do that to yourself?

The map looks linear, winding upward toward Camilla through halls, but the moment you break the boxes blocking paths, flying reinforcements pour in from the north like mold sprouting in a forgotten lunchbox. Then cavalry packs of three hit from the west and south, then Sages and Priests from the southeast. The farther you progress, the more reinforcements spawn every round. On Maddening, it is a nightmare parade.

Your deployment allowance is 10, and you absolutely want:

• 🏹 Two archers with Longbows (seriously)

• ❄️ Two mages, one of them a staff-user

• 🩹 One Qi-Adept staff-user

• 🌫️ Corrin + Yunaka (again)

• 🛡️ Two tank units

• 🪽 One flier

Ike + Panette is the star. Panette's Blood Fury personal skill stacks with Ike's Resolve and Wrath for absurd critical bonuses, and Great Aether remains the delete button. Lyn + Alcryst should be your sniper-in-chief, using Astra Storm every time it recharges and drinking from the energy wells to reset the cooldown.

Keep a tank up front with Corrin and Yunaka directly behind. Yunaka's Dragon Vein fog plus the tank's high Defense turns your frontline into a porcupine that melee enemies keep trying to hug. Keep two bulkier units in the rear, because reinforcements will absolutely slam into your backline. Use Astra Storm turn one to delete a nearby flier, then push methodically. Once the eastern, central, and southern areas are clear, you can ignore the west entirely.

Camilla's Stalwart skill reduces effective damage from archers, so don't stress about being clever. Set your Ike user in the center of the bridge with Great Aether, either by making room for Camilla to approach or by using Soren's Decoy to mark your Ike user as her target. That should delete one of her health bars. Then close in with whatever you have. She cannot counter Engage Attacks, so Corrin's Engage Attack is free damage plus some special dialogue. Watch her high Speed stat, but once she falls, the map ends.

Final Blast

Wave 2's Emblems are worth every reset. Soren teaches positioning discipline, Hector teaches damage-type patience, and Camilla teaches you to appreciate Lyn like a fire extinguisher in a grease fire. Clear Tiki after Chapter Six, grab Hector first for his inheritable skills, then use Lyn to make Camilla reasonable. You've got this.