Chapter 4 — Frederick

Hi everyone! Today’s guide will be on the drift king of Ylisse, Frederick.

Basic info

Stats at Level 150 Promoted

Stat Value
HP 999
Str 135
Mag 8
Skl 125
Spe 92
Lck 57
Def 164
Res 52

Frederick is bulky as hell- at least on the physical side. 999 HP and 147 Defense is nothing to sneeze at. His offense is equally powerful, with high Strength and Skill. The rest of his stats are mediocre to bad. His resistance is practically nonexistent, his Luck is pitiful, and his speed is rather mediocre. The two big takeaways from this are: Frederick cannot be trusted to fight mages without getting shredded and Luck-based skill procs (most notably, Luna) are less effective.

Staff

Never

Unique Weapon

None

Unique Skill

Pavise: Reduces damage from axes, lances, and swords. Increases with Luck.

Weaknesseses

Plateslayer, Mountslayer

Pair Up Bonuses as Support

Str/Def/Skill (+5 if A/A+, otherwise +3)

Moveset

Y1 (Dashing): Frederick’s horse spins a great distance forward before he uppercuts with his axe. This is a pretty nice option for when you want to close a gap and start a combo.

C1 (Standard): Frederick touches his axe to the ground, grinding it as he charges forward. This attack grabs the first non-mounted officer hit and drags them along with Frederick, doing a small amount of damage. This attack is fun to use but kinda ineffective, given that the damage is so low and his C5 and C6 do the same sort of thing.

C1 (Dashing): Frederick charges forward and swings his axe three times, grabbing an enemy and dealing a small amount of damage. I think this is better than his standard C1, but still not as good as his other grapples.

C2: Frederick swipes his axe upward, launching enemies hit. Launcher. Use it to start juggles, like every other launcher. I find that Frederick excels in breaking gauges in other ways though, so this combo will probably not see much use.

C3: Frederick touches his axe on the ground and pivots around it. After completing the circle, he charges a short distance forward, damaging all enemies hit. This is a great short range crowd clearer. It’s very spammable and clears a decently sized area.

C4: Frederick shoots a fast moving tornado a short distance forward, doing damage and revealing the stun gauge of any unit that doesn’t have WTA over him. This is also a decent crowd clearer and Frederick’s best ranged option.

C5: Frederick charges forward grinds his axe along the ground 3 times, grabbing the first non-mounted officer hit. This is probably the most brutal attack in the entire game aside from maybe Camilla’s C6. Suiting its brutality, it is absolutely fantastic at breaking stun gauges, even devastating white ones.

C6: Frederick’s horse drifts forward as he swings his axe wildly, grabbing the first officer hit and damaging all enemies he passes by. People talk about Xander’s horse being crazy, but I feel like Frederick’s deserves recognition for this insane drifting. This move is like C3 and C5 combined. It’s slightly less effective at both crowd control and stun gauge breaking, but it does both things very well.

Weapon Build

  • Strong III
  • Strong V
  • Strong VI
  • Rainstorm
  • Choose one: Warrior+, Critical+, Pair Up+
  • Choose one: Strong IV, Antitriangle, Awaken Gift

C3, C5, and C6 are your main combos, and Rainstorm is Rainstorm. Frederick makes great use of all three of these 5k skills, with Pair Up+ perhaps having the best synergy with his role as a mounted unit. For your final slot, Frederick is the best pre-DLC axe candidate for Antitriangle. He doesn’t have a legendary weapon, so he doesn’t need slayers, and his max Magic is literally 5 so no Topsy-Turvy either. If Antitriangle isn’t your cup of tea, you can run Strong IV or Awaken Gift instead- though please be aware that Frederick’s relatively low speed means that his Awakening will not last as long as other characters.

Boost Skills

Skill Hero PC AI
Astra Ryoma M M
Luna Chrom M M
Trample Camilla M M
Armored Blow Tiki O –
Pass Lyn O –
Str +10 Lissa O O
Potent Potion Rowan O O
Awakening Lucina O –
Luck +20 Celica O –
Solidarity Robin O O
Dracoshield Corrin O O
Resistance +10 Elise O O

Mandatory Skills

Astra (Ryoma), Trample (Camilla), Luna (Chrom)

  • While Frederick’s low Luck does hamper his ability to use Luna, offering only roughly 31% Def/Res reduction at maximum Luck, it’s still strong enough to run all the time, though perhaps at a lower priority as you gather the materials to build him. Astra and Trample are as powerful as usual.

Vanguard Skills

Armored Blow (Tiki), Pass (Lyn), Str +10 (Lissa), Potent Potion (Rowan), Awakening (Lucina), Luck +20 (Celica), Solidarity (Robin), Dracoshield (Corrin), Resistance +10 (Elise)

  • Frederick is our first unit that has a larger than average hitbox. As a general rule, the larger the hitbox, the more benefit the character gets from running Armored Blow, and to a lesser degree, Pass. Frederick’s most powerful combos have somewhat long animations and you really don’t want to get knocked over mid-combo (or ever, his recovery is super slow).
  • Str +10 boosts your damage.
  • Potent Potion allows Frederick to support his allies. His high movement, being a mounted unit, is all the more reason to use this.
  • Awakening can be nice, but as noted above, his speed is low-ish.
  • Luck +20 boosts his Luna Def/Res reduction to a roughly 36%.
  • Normally, I keep Solidarity and Dracoshield to AI controlled units. However, as a mounted unit, Frederick will often be ferrying lower mov units around the map, so he can get some mileage out of these skills even as a blue-square unit.
  • While Resistance +10 will not outright fix Frederick’s issues with mages, it will soften the blow quite a bit. His Luck is too low to run Aegis and Pavise effectively.

Support Skills

Str+ 10 (Lissa), Potent Potion (Rowan), Solidarity (Robin), Dracoshield (Corrin), Resistance +10 (Elise)

  • These skills were covered in sufficient detail in the above section.

Final Notes

There was no better place to include this, but when using Frederick, be aware that his attacks have a lot of forward momentum. Positioning is key. With that said, Frederick annihilates officers and crowds alike, and as long as you keep him away from those nasty mages, he will shred pretty much every opponent he comes across.